Kontroll (Nimród Antal, 2003)

[JHunter]

The DVD is available in Hungary (with English subtitles on everything but the commentary). I ordered my copy of the two disc set about a week ago from Numero7.com.

It's been making the rounds at the film festivals (winning at a few) and received quite good word of mouth.

[der_Artur]

...Anyone know anything about this cat?

The IMDB-users do, and all the positive comments are right.
For me the movie was a grotesquely funny and metaphoric journey into the mind of a man who lost touch of reality and is saved by, how topical for male characters, a woman.

[Michael]

I'm not sure what to make of Kontroll. The unbearably claustophobic, grimy underground setting and the electrifying trance/techno music by Neo made my trip an utterly visceral, weird, and haunting one.

The plot if there was one went over my head because I was busy savoring the rich atmosphere, bizarre but fabulous humor, exceptional acting, beautiful shots, handsome protagonist...I'm surprised that there is not much discussed about this darkly amazing film here.

I beg all of you to watch Kontroll.. please.

[jbeall]

I just showed this to my class (a course on East-Central European lit and cinema), and it went over well.

I really liked this film. I read it as mythological, esp w/ the owl and the love interest who's always dressed like an animal, or perhaps a dream (underground = unconscious). The Budapest metro (second oldest in Europe, IIRC) was notoriously efficient under communism, and clearly it's not under anything-goes-capitalism. You'd think that the fall of the Iron Curtain would be liberating, but it's not for the protagonist Bulcsu, who's retreated down there because he can't handle the constant dog-eat-dog competition of his former occupation (architect?). So he hangs out in the subway, taking a job as a ticket-checker precisely because nothing matters down there--not his job, not whether or not people buy their tickets, not whether or not they catch "Bootsie", etc.

Didja notice that when he's looking for the "way out," that he comes across the killer?

Anyway,

[DeprongMori]

Still hoping someone somewhere rescues this thoroughly enjoyable Hungarian film from obscurity. There was a domestic (US) DVD release ages ago, which I believe is out of print, and no signs I could find of a restoration and re-issue on English-friendly Blu-ray anywhere. I see there were Hungarian and German Blu-ray releases about a decade ago, but only with native subtitles for Hard of Hearing. Both of them were in 1080i/50. Neither seems to be available in any case. Anyone have any news?

Fingers crossed someone picks it up. It would seem like a good release for Radiance or maybe Second Run.

[Lowry_Sam]

Just looked on IMDB and saw I gave it an 8, but can’t recall where I saw it. I must have had the dvd at some point, but can’t find it offhand, so I definitely would pick up an upgrade.

[jbeall]

Looks like my original post about Kontroll from 2008 was truncated. No idea what caused that.

Anyway, the US DVD, which I have, was released by a company called ThinkFilm, which hasn't released anything since 2009, and indeed, went out of business in 2010. Not sure what that means in terms of rights availability.

[domino harvey]

Several (former?) ThinkFilm titles have been released on Blu by Shout, so likely not impossible

[thirtyframesasecond]

Antal had a very patchy directorial career since, but he made the Adrien Brody 'Predators' so that's a plus in anyone's book.