Glamour,
directed and written by Frigyes Gödros, portrays three generations
of a Hungarian Jewish family, so comparisons with last year’s
Sunshine are inevitable.
The film consists of episodes, often quite unpleasant and
slow-moving, but the common thread is how the family survived
the twentieth century. When the film begins, a family is at
seder dinner, and the rain brings an abundance of frogs to
the room, including the table, thus a Mosaic omen predicting
a difficult future. The family’s business is to sell excellent
reproductions of period furniture, so during the brief rein
of Communist Bela Kun in 1919, the inventory is confiscated.
As the father (played by Gyorgy Bako) watches his livelihood
carted away, presumably to be shared with the poor, he surmises
that they will be later returned. He is right, as the possessions
are returned when the regime topples, though a new dictatorship
emerges. When Hungary signs a treaty with Nazi Germany, the
oldest son Imre (played by Karoly Eperjes) converts to Christianity
and imports a German tutor (played by Eszter Onodi) as a picture
bride in order to get ahead of any possible persecution. He
cannot marry her, as the treaty does not allow a Gentile to
marry a Jew, so he arranges to have the firm’s upholsterer,
a Gentile, marry the tutor; since a loophole in the treaty
permits a divorced Gentile to marry a Jew. When he refuses
to circumcise the son, again to fool the authorities, his
father disowns him. But the ruse does not head off the inevitable,
so when World War II begins, the family retreats to an underground
home to escape capture. After the war, the Communist era is
even more horrible. The film ends with Imre’s son (played
by Milos Lang) imagining his parent dancing alone in a large
carousel. We then see that what has held the family together
during all the perilous years is immense love for one another,
cleverness, and a zest for glamour. MH
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