email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

PRODUCTION Hungary / France

Gábor Reisz shooting Bad Poems

by 

- After For Some Inexplicable Reason, the director is back to the grindstone with his second feature, staged by Proton Cinema and co-produced by France

Gábor Reisz shooting Bad Poems
Gábor Reisz (centre) during the shoot for Bad Poems (© Bence Szemerey)

Having risen to fame with For Some Inexplicable Reason [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 (revealed at Karlovy Vary in the East of the West section in 2014, Special Jury Prize and Audience Award at Turin, Best Director Award at Sofia and a box-office hit in Hungary), Gábor Reisz is currently shooting his second feature, Bad Poems. The cast includes Zsolt KovácsKatalin Takács, the director himself, Donát SeresKatica NagyMátyás and Barnabás Prukner.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Written by Gábor Reisz, the story (which was developed at the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinéfondation residency) revolves around Tamás Merthner, who has just had his heart shattered by his girlfriend, Anna – in Paris, of all places, the city of love. So Tamás returns to Budapest, devastated and confused. He tries to process his sorrow by recalling his childhood memories and trying to understand what has happened to him. The memories erupting inside Tamás follow a loose string of associations, and it seems that his present suffering is a consequence of events from the past. His relationship with women was never simple. In high school, he only got as far as a kiss with Mónika in the girls' bathroom. And he wrote at least a hundred poems for another girl he loved, but completely in vain. Tamás' feelings always surfaced through artistic expression, whether it was through painting, music or filmmaking. As he recalls his past, characters of various ages from Tamás' life appear before him and reflect with humorous self-irony upon his past and present behaviour. Finally, he comes to realise that love is not just about artistic self-expression, but also about those people who tried to love him in the meantime. Anna was the only woman in his life who loved him unconditionally, who could remain a child with him among all the adults. In order to recover his lost love, for the first time in his life, he must surrender his own ego.

Produced by Julia Berkes for Proton Cinema (who is continuing her professional partnership with the filmmaker), Bad Poems is being co-produced by Estelle Robin-You for French outfit Les Films du Balibari. Having been pre-purchased by Rtl Klub, the feature is also receiving support from the Hungarian Film Incentive and the French region of Pays de la Loire. The shoot will continue until September. The Hungarian theatrical distribution will be managed by Cirko Film in June 2018, while the international sales are still under negotiation.

As previously reported, Proton Cinema will present Kornel Mundruczo’s Jupiter's Moon [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kornél Mundruczó
film profile
]
 in competition at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from French)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy