Today, for reasons I shall not bore you with, my attention is drawn to the 2005 Hungarian film Fekete kefe, directed by Roland Vranik. This synopsis could scarcely fail to entice any devoted Hooting Yardist:
Four fake chimney sweeps prowl on rooftops, in pubs & flats of Budapest and in the stomach of a goat. Love, history, friendship and religion pull each other’s weights but in the end there is absolutely no solution. Zoli, Döfi, Papi and Anti goes to the rooftops one morning to sweep the chimneys but they are meeting a strange housing-estate-goat so they are getting totally confused and everything goes chaos. After their hard day they find the key to escape in the stomach of the goat…
It’s shot in black & white, too. I may have to write about a quartet of fake chimney sweeps and a “strange housing estate goatâ€, and should probably do so before seeing what I have already convinced myself is a masterwork of cinema.
Once again Hooting Yard directs my attention to all that is worth-while in modern cinema…
I must have a copy in my collection NOW!
(I’ll put it with my copy of “The Singing Ringing Tree” and collection of award winning cartoons from Czechoslovakia & Poland)
O.S.M.
I’ll get on to it as soon as I’ve watched the ‘Dambusters’ DVD that came free with the Daily Mail…
This mention of ‘fake chimney sweeps’ puts me in mind of Dick Van Dyke’s singular portrayal of Bert the Chimney Sweep in Mary Poppins. Were Zoli, Döfi, Papi and Anti deliberately trying to be fake chimney sweeps or, like Dick, aiming for authenticity but falling woefully short? I wonder…
Pansy : What makes you think Dick Van Dyke (the original “DVD”, who gets a 25 cent commission on every DVD sold) was aiming for authenticity? I always thought his sweep in Mary Poppins was a masterclass in Brechtian alienation technique
My apologies for dragging this further off topic but I feel I must leap in to defend DVD.
His portrayal of Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is, in my view, one of the pinnacles of cinematic excellence..
If you doubt me watch his performance of “Me Old Bambo”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQgXccbxHbM
O.S.M
Here’s a link to the theme tune of The Singing Ringing Tree..
http://www.thechestnut.com/srtree/thesingingringingtree.mp3
Mr Key: I must confess this never occurred to me… But what greater political truth am I meant to glean from Mary Poppins? Is it meant to be an exposé of degenerate capitalist society, with glimmers of hope provided by the twin ideals of communism and collectivism (‘Feed the birds’ and ‘Chim-Chim-Cheree’, QED)?
Pansy : The key text is “Das Poppinsche Gesamtkunstwerk als Paradigma des Verwelkens des Zustandes und Gesangkaminschleifen” by Dobson’s German counterpart Umlautdobson (out of print).
Is there any truth in the rumour that Dobson was merely translating the publications of Umlautdobson, and passing such texts off as his own work?
R : Were this true, there would be a pamphlet by Dobson entitled “The Poppins Total Artwork As A Paradigm Of The Withering Away Of The State, Plus Singing Chimney Sweeps” (out of print). But there isn’t. Not to my knowledge, anyway.
Men Who Stare at Goats
Is it possible that Hollywood is already on the remake trail?
The plot doesnt sound exactly identical but then does it ever once Hollywood get its hands on something?
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Clooney-Finds-Men-To-Stare-At-Goats-10162.html