Love, cinema, and Final Cut - Ladies and Gentlemen

by Fabien Lemercier

26/05/2012 - The Hungarian film industry was lifeless and all projects had ground to a halt? Not quite. György Pálfi, for one, had no intention of waiting for the industry to start up again to continue making films. Creativity is not something the filmmaker lacks, as shown in Hukkle (2002) and Taxidermia [trailer] (selected for the Certain Regard in 2006), and so he decided (without permission) to use choice pickings from classic films worldwide to make an incredible collage film (read more), Final Cut - Ladies and Gentlemen, that today closed the Cannes Classics programme at the 65th Cannes Film Festival. This section of the festival usually only screens films from the past, but this year made an exception by welcoming the contemporary feature, most probably because of its copyright issues. These will have to be settled if the film is to be normally distributed in cinemas.

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With this recycled feature, Pálfi has composed an accomplished ode to the actors and actresses who have marked and continue to mark the history of cinema, through a tale of man meets woman with a thousand (famous) faces. He has created a very beautiful and funny homage to the art of filmmaking.

But this screening is also a reminder that the Hungarian film industry is still far from being entirely back on its feet, despite restructuring efforts that are well underway (read more), as the film's main producer T.T. Filmműhely (with Euro Film and Filmax) on Thursday announced that it was closing down (news).