Gloomy Sunday

Excellent romantic melodrama is definitely a contrivance, (with a crassly unnecessary prologue/epilogue), but elevated by the strength of Krol's understated portrait of middle-aged melancholy, counterbalanced by Marozsan's luminous fragility; Becker's lovelorn sad-sack joins the ranks of the most sinister of Nazi screen incarnations. Sumptuous, gold infused cinematography is a treat in of itself; perhaps the only misstep is the casting of the comparatively dull Dionisi as the tragic song-writer.

How on earth did this become such a big hit?

This film is way less important than it thinks it is. First, it has no idea what it wants to be--historical drama, musical farce, love story, or showpiece for the gorgeous Erika Marozsan. The latter is the only reason I give it reasonably high scores--the film is worth seeing for her alone. BUT do not expect reasonable character development or a deep plot. It pretends to be deep but emotion is remarkably lacking and the plot disturbingly predictable. Enjoy for the eye candy alone.

Schmaltzy Sunday, even more. In an image the consistency of overcooked goulash, a Budapest waitress juggles three suitors and inspires a lethally melancholy melody (lethally, literally) by the house pianist, reprised ad nauseam. The much-recorded title tune (Billie Holiday, most famously) indeed dates from pre-WWII Hungary: that much is true.

Erika Marozan is really gorgeous, a reason why I bumped the score. The story isnt really great, but the cinematography is really great. I really liked the musical score. Its a movie that you can watch once.