Kaméleon (2008)

While cleaning offices at night, Zsolt Kovàcs learns a lot about his invisible employers by examining what they leave behind, carefully choosing his targets, often disillusioned women whom ... See full summary »

Director:

Krisztina Goda

Writers:

Réka Divinyi (screenplay), Krisztina Goda (screenplay)

Stars:

Ervin Nagy, Gabriella Hámori, Zsolt Trill

Cast

Credited cast:
Ervin Nagy	...	Gábor
Gabriella Hámori	...	Hanna
Zsolt Trill	...	Tibi
János Kulka	...	Dr. Marton
Sándor Csányi	...	Márk
Zsolt László	...	Szikszai
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tamás Balikó	...	Director
Andrea Balázs	...	Nurse Ica
Péter Barbinek	...	Hartay
Kata Bartsch	...	Kitty
Ottilia Borbáth	...	Old lady
Rita Braun	...	Zsuzsa
Ágnes Bánfalvy	...	Marton's wife
Virág Bárány	...	Flower seller
Antal Czapkó	...	Jocó

Storyline

While cleaning offices at night, Zsolt Kovàcs learns a lot about his invisible employers by examining what they leave behind, carefully choosing his targets, often disillusioned women whom he seduces, methodically taking their money. An artist of manipulation, with a generous dose of humor and the ability to assume different personalities, Zsolt begins to work in a psychologist's practice, where he meets Hanna, a 30 year-old dancer who is physically incapacitated and the daughter of a millionaire. The ideal victim if love doesn't get in the way.

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Plot Keywords:

psychologist | love | money | animal in title | sex | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Hungary

Language:

Hungarian

Release Date:

4 December 2008 (Hungary)

Also Known As:

Chameleon

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Box Office

Budget:

$1,800,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Megafilm, M&M Film, Magyar Mozgókép Alapítvány

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min 108 min (Director's cut) 106 min (European Film Market)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Official Entry of Hungary for Academy Awards 2010, for the Best Foreign Language Category.

User Reviews

The story of one of those psychopathic men who give the nice guys a bad name. This time we have some karma. A great educational film for those female victims of Lothario.

Chameleon by Bev Questad, Feb. 25, 2010

"We all had the same dream. Not women. Not Fame. Not a house. But cash… because that meant that you were someone."

This is another Hideous Man Show – but this bad dude meets the seemingly angelic, beautiful, seductive, duplicitous Hideous Woman.

Chameleon, the 2009 film submitted from Hungary for Oscar consideration, is worth seeing. Sure, there are contrivances and quite possibly the psychologist, played by László Áron, is a little too seedy. But this film is loaded with exceptional casting, acting, and psychological illumination.

The Greek term for chameleon means ground lion. A chameleon adapts to its environment to avoid detection by its predators, slinking close to its base, changing colors to falsely blend in.

Enter Gabor Farkas (Ervin Nagy), a seductive liar. Nagy has said about his role that his character didn't say one honest thing in the whole film. In the movie Farkas rationalizes, "Women believe what they want to. I don't trick them."

Adapting, sneaking, creeping around the garbage of people's lives to strike them at their most vulnerable, flicking that hypnotic tongue, luring in the prey, Farkas is the ultimate trickster, the consummate disgusting liar, manipulating the unsuspecting with his charm and wit.

Womanizers like Farkas struggle with low self-esteem and many, like our orphan protagonist, have had unstable or nonexistent relationships with father figures, especially in early childhood. This makes them feel unsure about their own self-worth, their basic identity and their own sense of power.

Abandoned by his parents, Farkas grew up in an orphanage. He plays a version of the powerless male who maneuvers through "pretending" to blend in, in order to be accepted by a society which essentially rejected him in his formative years. With his focus on adaptation rather than introspection, he is lost, without a sense of his own distinct self. When asked, "Who are you?" Farkas side-steps with unintentional honesty, "That's a good question."

Farkas (Nagy) has created so many identities, succeeding so well in so many roles, that he perhaps would think he deserves notice amongst the paintings of great actors at the New York City Players Club. However, unlike the best of actors, his psychopathic nature is incapable of guilt or empathizing. He is incapable of tears and, conversely, of feeling true joy. He is incapable of a true union with a woman or the society he is so busy trying to prove that he is better than.

In an interview Ervin Nagy explains, "I don't think I have ever had a more challenging or complex role before. I was playing a different personality in almost every single moment. The main character is an underprivileged country lad with a hard life behind him who moves up to the capital and the only money-making option that he sees a future in is the scheme of deception. So ultimately, he becomes a con artist. We would like to see a realistic picture of his psyche they said to me" (Hungarian Filmweek.com).

And Nagy does the job. His most brilliant scene is the first time he unwittingly falls prey to his own quarry – his affected seduction by an orthopedist (played with extraordinary depth by the singer/actor, Janos Kulka) results in a calculated closing insult beyond our chameleon's limited expectations. And the karma begins.

The central plot involves Farkas (Nagy) becoming obsessed with seducing one woman, a Madonna-like ballerina named Hanna Hartay, played by the lovely Gabi Hamori. His original intent, like with all his other conquests, was to seduce her in order to tap into her financial assets. As soon as he got a pay-off he'd leave her and prowl for a new victim. However, the tables soon turn and she becomes the one who needs the money from him – as well as the one factor in Farkas' life with the power to transform or destroy him.

The denouement of this film ironically involves a succession of remarkable karmic twists and convolutions. "Chameleon" labels the protagonist as well as a surprising group of others. Entertaining, insightful and surprising.