Taxi Driver 🚕 Budapest

Meteo (1982)

Stranger Than Paradise (1984) and Monty Python's Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook ("My hovercraft is full of eels,") lead us to Magyar kultfilmek! Or Hungarian cult films, courtesy of the Hungarian National Film Institute. 

Meteo (1989) - A dystopian cyberpunk science fiction thriller with extraordinary atmosphere and plot, like a cross between Escape from New York and Blade Runner. Three friends living in a deserted industrial estate plot of cyber heist of a race track. "Humming with kinetic energy and stylized in punk-industrial neons, a dystopian future-noir from the Budapest outlands," says Mubi. Disapproving Swede points to influences by French  “Cinéma du Look” films such as Diva and Subway.

Marika Rökk

Kisértetek vonata / Ghost Express (1933) -  Seven people are stranded on a stormy night at a remote, unmanned railroad station past which, every midnight, steams the "ghost" of a train which wrecked there 20 years ago. Notable for performance by Marika Rökk (above), Hungary's answer to Ginger Rogers and Rita Hayworth, who toured Nazi Germany during the war and was later revealed to have been a Soviet spy. Hitler was so smitten with her that he sent her flowers and a card after one of her performances. 

Dögkeselyü / The Vulture (1982) - Hungary's answer to Taxi Driver. A man is robbed by two older women and when the police are unable/unwilling to help he takes matters into his own hands. It is the kind of gritty crime films that did not get made in socialist countries, but somehow this one did. According to Wikipedia, "The film was considered so dark at the time that it was only allowed to be shown in certain socialist countries without certain scenes (especially the ending)." Also the first Hungarian film to use steadicam.

Don't miss this week's Hungarian themed Spotify playlist, featuring Marika Rökk and Kontroll Csoport.

The Vulture (1982)