Conference bookie::movies

269.0. "Sweet Emma, Dear Bobe" by 58378::S_BURRIDGE (Stephen, dtn 640-7186, CTH-2/2) Mon Jul 26 1993 11:09

Directed by Istv�n Sz�bo, whose earlier movies include "Mephisto," "Colonel
Redl," and "Meeting Venus," and starring Johanna Ter Steege, Eniko Borcsok, and 
Peter Andorai.

Emma, the central character of the film, and her friend Bobe are schoolteachers
who share a tiny room in a hostel in Budapest.  We are shown their attempts to
live adequately happy lives as Hungary makes the transition to capitalism. 
Bobe is the somewhat unscrupulous "bad girl" of the pair, who eventually gets
in trouble with authority.  Emma is a woman of integrity, who is however in 
love with the (married) headmaster of their school, a cowardly functionary 
whose only concern is to keep his privileged position in the new order.

The movie focusses on the lives of these ordinary women as their society
changes.  The political/social upheaval has major effects on their lives, but
at the same time their position in the social pecking order remains low.  
Sz�bo handles scenes involving the women, such as a group laughingly composing 
an ad for the "companions" section of a newspaper, or of women auditioning, 
nude, for bit parts in a Turkish harem scene in a film, convincingly.  (The 
woman with whom I saw the film thought so, too.)

The relationship of public and personal seems to me to be beautifully done.
The social turmoil is neither overdramatized nor understated; we see gypsies 
begging in the street, teachers accusing each other of complicity with the old 
regime in staff room arguments, and ex-teachers of Russian, such as Emma, 
struggling to learn English, a lesson or two ahead of their students.  In one 
scene a policeman, interrogating Emma, notes that he has seen his society 
turned upside-down six times in his lifetime, and offers his view that life 
can be wonderful in spite of it all.

The movie is very well written and acted, and is rich in interesting characters
and scenes.  I recommend it highly.

-Stephen