Gloomy Sunday (1999)

Follows three men who are in love with a most beautiful waitress: An intellectual restaurant owner, a mysterious musician and an erratic businessman; taking place during the WWII.

Director:

Rolf Schübel

Writers:

Ruth Toma (screenplay), Rolf Schübel (screenplay)

Stars:

Joachim Król, Erika Marozsán, Stefano Dionisi

7 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Erika Marozsán	...	Ilona
Joachim Król	...	László
Ben Becker	...	Hans Wieck
Stefano Dionisi	...	András
András Bálint	...	Ilonas Sohn
Géza Boros	...	Geigenspieler
Rolf Becker	...	Herr Wieck
Ilse Zielstorff	...	Frau Wieck
Ferenc Bács	...	Botschafter
Júlia Zsolnai	...	Frau des Botschafters
Áron Sipos	...	Arzt (as Aron Sipos)
Ernst Kahl	...	Zeichner Torresz
Jörg Gillner	...	Chefkoch István
Denis Moschitto	...	Lehrling Inas
István Mikó	...	Kartoffelhändler

Storyline

Budapest in the thirties. The restaurant owner Laszlo hires the pianist András to play in his restaurant. Both men fall in love with the beautiful waitress Ilona who inspires András to his only composition. His song of Gloomy Sunday is, at first, loved and then feared, for its melancholic melody triggers off a chain of suicides. The fragile balance of the erotic ménage à trois is sent off kilter when the German Hans goes and falls in love with Ilona as well.

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Plot Keywords:

suicide | world war two | menage a trois | sex | jumping off a bridge | 

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Genres:

Romance | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Germany Hungary

Language:

German English Hungarian

Release Date:

21 October 1999 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Gloomy Sunday

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,102, 22 June 2003, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$223,827, 23 November 2003

Company Credits

Production Co:

Studio Hamburg Filmproduktion,Dom Film GmbH,PolyGram Filmproduktion

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min 113 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film has been running daily at the Academy Arts Centre Theatre in Christchurch, New Zealand since 2001 - and you still have book in advance because it is sold out (it's shown in a small 11-seat theatre).

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Goofs

When the trio goes to a movie theater, they watch a newsreel that declares that the song "Gloomy Sunday" "drove 157 people in Hungary to suicide in the past eight weeks." We don't know whether that statement ever actually appeared in a German newsreel during the war. In any event, there is no evidence that the song ever actually drove more than a handful of people--if any--to suicide.

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Quotes

László: Everyone would like it all: something for the body, something for the soul. Something that fills you up, something that makes you hungry.

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Connections

Referenced in Filmbarátok Podcast: Episode #1.19 (2012)

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Soundtracks

Polonaise in A Major, Op. 40 No. 1
Composed by Frédéric Chopin
[Played at her birthday]

User Reviews

Anatomy of wishfulness

The charm of this film consist in the way to tell old things, in the description art of a well - known world.

"Gloomy Sunday" is a kind of Frankenstein's creature: pieces of "Lili Marleen", "Casablanca" or "The story of 1900", slices of Hungarian's atmosphere, Nazi ghost and menage en trois.

For all that, it is a good movie, his virtue is, in fact, just absence of originality. Like many other movies, the spell is result of a mysterious flavor who persist in your memory months, years and in special moment it saves the image of a sweet trip.

Undoubtedly, it is the story of a song, in same measure that the song is the only character. But, at second sight, it is a warm homage to Mitteleuropa, the gorgeous Kakania's spirit. The lost of youth and the last recollection's skin. The shadow of Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther" is powerful and insidious.

A subtle wishfulness anatomy. And a song like his backbone.