An American Rhapsody (2001)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Éva Gárdos

Writer:

Éva Gárdos (written by)

Release Date:

16 November 2001 (Greece)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

One family struggles for survival, for justice, for freedom.

Plot:

A young Hungarian girl struggles to find her place in the world when she's reunited with her parents in the USA years after she was left behind during their plight from the communist country in the 1950s.

Plot Keywords:

USA | 1950s | Budapest Hungary | Budapest | Hungary

Awards:

5 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Scarlett Johansson	...	Suzanne - at 15
Nastassja Kinski	...	Margit
Raffaella Bánsági	...	Suzanne - Infant
Tony Goldwyn	...	Peter
Ágnes Bánfalvy	...	Helen (as Ági Bánfalvy)
Zoltán Seress	...	George
Klaudia Szabó	...	Maria - at 4
Zsolt Zágoni	...	Russian Soldier
András Szöke	...	Istvan
Erzsi Pásztor	...	Ilus
Carlos Laszlo Weiner	...	Boy on Train
Bori Kereszturi	...	Suzanne - at 3 (as Boru Keresztúri)
Péter Kálloy Molnár	...	AVO Officer (as Péter Kállóy Molnár)
Zsuzsa Czinkóczi	...	Teri
Balázs Galkó	...	Jeno

Also Known As:

Amerikai rapszódia (Hungary)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some violent content and thematic material.

Runtime:

106 min | Argentina:122 min

Country:

USA | Hungary

Language:

English | Hungarian

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:13 | USA:TV-14 (TV rating) | Australia:PG | France:U | Iceland:L | Italy:T | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #38019) | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Company:

Fireworks Pictures

Trivia:

Éva Gárdos met actress Colleen Camp on the set of Apocalypse Now (1979), when she was a casting director for the film. During shooting breaks, Éva told Colleen her true story of her childhood as a Hungarian émigré and Colleen encouraged her to turn it into a film. Colleen Camp would ultimately help produce the film, and played a small role in it as a neighborhood housewife.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Suzanne first arrives in Los Angeles in 1955, one house has an eighteen-inch television satellite dish strapped to the chimney.

Soundtrack:

The End of the World

A comparison of life in 1950's - 1960's communist Hungary and the United States i.e. California.

Having had friends who made the escape from Hungary in what similar fashion during the 1956 uprising I could fully relate to the events that took place during the inspiring American Rhapsody. The stories were similar...in the real life one I knew it involved a married couple and the husbands brother. They had escaped as far as a canal that needed to be crossed to reach Austria. At the last moment the man who was to transport them demanded more money. He only complied when my friends brother put a gun on him and told him to row.

American Rhapsody covers the escape from Hungary and the eventual uniting of the family members, but it involves much more. In it you are seen that the importance of family can be over shadowed by the care and love provided by a surrogate family. The performances of the actresses playing Suzanne are all excellent, but the girl who portrayed her as a five year old child in Hungary and her arrival in California,n Kelly Endelez-Banaki was particularly outstanding. Her performance will be remembered. I found Nastassja Kinshi and Tony Goldwin to also be very real. It is a very rewarding film.

Another commentator compared the film to "Sunshine," another film developing a somewhat similar story but isolated on the Jewish community of Hungary. It is a longer more powerful story, and one that I have had Jewish friends tell me in someways is to horrific in its treatment of Hungarian Jews. Whatever both films, though carrying a somewhat similar theme are excellent examples of the cruelty in man and also in human humanity.