Szerelmesfilm

The sound of the Budapest-Paris express marks the rythm of Jancsi's wait. He is finally about to join Kata, with whom he had lived trough his boyhood and adolescence. His memories rush by in his mind. His first memory goes back to the war, during which Jancsi was hidden by Kata's family. They were the people who had the task of telling him that his father had died. Then there were school, the first romances, the jealousies, and the first kiss. At last we are in 1956 there was the telephone call where Kata informed Jancsi that she had decided to flee abroad and then in a few instants Jancsi had to risk his most intimate emotions. The train arrives at the station, but Kata is not there waiting for Jancsi. One of her friends is there instead. Kata is working and could not come. Al last, there was the magic of the meeting, the drunkenness of the reunion that seems to cancel out time for an instant. However, ten years cannot be cancelled. Then Jancsi spends an evening with Kata's friends, he sees people who have no hope, who are lost, and who deny their own desires. This makes Jancsi understand that, by now, what is separating him from Kata is not only a geographical distance.

"What strikes me most about Szabo's film is especially the extraordinarily supple way he uses his material in the first part of the film. This way of thinking is something that does not conform to conventions and does not worry about the rules of drama. It is a sketch in pencil and celluloid that is particularly sensitive and fine (that is to say, it lives out of smooth catachresis). […] I envy Szabo for his talents as a filmmaker, which are scelf-evident. It is an emotional talent sensitive to humor. He is able to immerse himself and be swept away in his material. It's too bad that despite all of this he lacks an important quality the strict capacity to be laconic and simple. I think that this has something to do with his age, too." (Karoly Makk, "Filmkultura", 5/1970)

Regia, soggetto e sceneggiatura: Istvan Szabo.
Dialogues: Janos Hersko.
Director of photography: Jozsef Urincz.
Editor: Gyorgy Sivo.
Music: Janos Gonda.
Cast and characters: Judit Halasz (Kata), Andras Balint (Jancsi), Luczina Winniczka (Agnes), Rita Békés, Maria Boga.
Production company: MaFilm (Studio 3), Budapest.