Kontroll (2004)

The Subway as the Nether World

Scary, funny, charming, exotic, quirky . . . and literally perfect in many ways.

Check it out at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373981/ August 15, 2008

A Definite Watch

When I read the cable description of the movie "A hooded figure pushes people in front of oncoming trains," I wasn't sure I'd be able to watch it. I thought it was a horror movie. I'm glad I took the time to see it. It's become one of my favorite movies, and one of the few foreign movies where the sub-titles not only don't bother you, you really don't even need them to know what's going on. It's extremely well acted, and you get such a strong sense of who the characters really are. If you just watch it as a movie, it's a really interesting picture, but if you really take the time to think about what you're seeing, you'll see the existentialism, the metaphors and understand it's really about the classic struggle not only of good and evil, but how deep that is within every person.

There are no pat answers, the end is basically yours to decide. It's whatever you want to believe. For a first time director, it's a triumph. Upon researching the making of the movie, I found that it was entirely filmed in the Budapest subway. They could only film very late at night after the trains had stopped running. When you see the main character in one scene running uphill in the subway, he's actually him navigating the wires and tracks and breathing in all the soot and hot air. Despite the fact they are all speaking Hungarian, you get a better bead on everyone's character better than in a lot of movies where you can actually understand what people are saying, which speaks to how well acted it is. It's not a murder mystery really, although people do die (you never actually see it), but as the movie unfolds, it's less about the dying than it is about the living. For the most part, the movie is not comedic, but there are some very, very funny parts in it. Even now when the movie comes on and I see certain scenes, I still laugh just as hard. The comedy isn't used so much to break the tension, as it is a window into each person's issues and how they deal or don't deal with their situation of working in this grimy underworld. The music is reminiscent of 80's techno, which I'm not a fan of, but I actually liked it. It's haunting and creates the mood. This movie will appeal to a lot of people just as it is, but if you're a thinker and can abstract think a bit, I think you'll really find this interesting and worth seeing more than once. The more you see it, the more you see and pick up, and the more you understand the ending and all the symbolism throughout the whole movie. June 13, 2008

Spectacular!

Amazing casting complemented by astounding photography & superb direction contribute to one of the finest films I've seen in at least ten years. The last ones to have this impact on me were Kusturica's *Underground* & *Black Cat White Cat*.

Recommended with a vengeance! June 1, 2008

Remember what you felt the first time you saw "Fight Club"?

I'm writing this over a year after i saw the DVD. I can't remember with detail the plot, or technical details, but i know i will never forget this movie.

In a way it's like fight club. The first time i saw it, it created intense internal feelings, that up until today i have issues classifying.

If you believe that movies ought to be able to move you, to make you feel something, than you need to watch this movie. It is a must see. January 30, 2008

Excellent movie

For me this is a no. 1 movie. It has speed and profundity. The story is actually about someone who went underground because of things in the past. He makes his way through subwaylife from an underdog position. He meets Alice's rabbit who finally takes him aboveground. A very hopeful, but not cheap, end.
Gerard Knol December 11, 2007

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