Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time * * * ½

Recently I saw the trailer for this Hungarian film  and I really liked the look of it.  A psychological mystery set in Budapest: foggy narrow streets, a beautiful woman and a mysterious man following her - or is she following him?

Regrettably, the whole experience did not quite live up to the trailer. It strives to be a mystery but lacks intrigue. 

Marta is a neurosurgeon and outstanding at her work. She has just returned from working in America. No one can understand why.  In the USA she was becoming highly regarded and being paid accordingly. Her future was assured. But suddenly she is back in Budapest.

She makes an application to work at a city hospital.  They take her of course, but warn her that she might not be warmly accepted by some colleagues who could feel a resentment of her success.

Marta then chooses to live in a run-down flat in a less salubrious part of town.  On the wrong side of the bridge.  The bridge is obviously symbolic.

Hi, I'm Marta, your new stalker.

Then Marta commences her search for Janos.  We learn that Janos is a man she met at a conference in America. He is another surgeon of  stature. But he denies ever having met her. 

Marta becomes obsessed with Janos and her behavior borders on stalking.  She follows him home, she searches the internet and even finds video's of him singing as a child, which she replays. She attends singing recitals hoping he will be there.

Meanwhile she decides to see a psychoanalyst.  He concludes that there is nothing wrong with Marta, and that she wants to be diagnosed as having a mental disorder in order to justify her behavior to herself.  

At the hospital she has to perform a complex operation.  She manipulates things to have Janos assist her. He still claims he does not know her.  The operation is a success.  The patients son, a teenage boy, confuses gratitude with love and he becomes as obsessed with Marta as she is with Janos.

It has some interesting and cleverly constructed scenes and situations of irony and symbolism. Such as the probing, invasive neuro surgery she and her peers practice, whilst having her own mind probed through psychoanalysis. 

The camera often stays close. It traces Marta's face and then a girl in choir.  Eyes never looked so beautiful. But for me, some of the concepts were silly. I still can't figure out what the stereo scene was about. (You'll see.), and if that final image is the directors (Lili Horvat) idea of leaving us "in suspense" I'm not amused! 

In the end the resolution of Marta's dilemma is quick and simple, it left me disappointed that it never quite fulfilled it's promise.  Nevertheless it has a unique atmosphere with scenes that are both memorable and beautiful.  It's worth viewing, though personally I felt it could have been stronger.