Written by Linda
October 18, 2008
It was indeed a gloomy Sunday when I popped in the DVD of Gloomy Sunday. The story of a doomed love triangle, taking place in the heyday of 1930s Budapest through the Nazi occupation of Hungary sounded like just the crowd-pleaser for me on a rainy day when I found myself still in my pajamas at 2pm. You'd expect it to be relentlessly bleak, but Gloomy Sunday maintains a lush movie-romanticism that keeps you from slitting your wrists, plus a satisfying (if a bit pat) twist ending to offer a little bit of justice to the sorrow.
Ilona and László are modern lovers who run a successful restaurant in late 1930s Budapest. They are not married, as she is a bit of a free spirit, but he accepts her love on her terms. László is starry-eyed when he gazes upon her, as are the vast majority of the restaurant's regulars, including a stammering smitten German named Hans. When László hires a tormented tragic pianist named András to entertain the diners, the sunken-eyed, classically brooding András falls for Ilona as well. László resigns himself to take what he can get from this alluring woman when Ilona takes the pianist as a second lover. The menage a trois arrangement seems to be going surprisingly well as the three become inseparable friends, but when political tides shift to Nazi occupation (and restaurant regular Hans returns, transformed by his new position of power as an SS officer), things predictably get ugly and tragic.
The "Gloomy Sunday" of the film's title refers to a song that András composes for Ilona. In the film, the song becomes a huge hit, drawing fans to the restaurant, but also supposedly driving people to suicide over the tune's unbearable melancholy. Apparently, this part of the story is based on true events, as a song called "Gloomy Sunday" was a huge hit in Europe and later North America, and was rumored to drive people to kill themselves in the "suicide capital of the world"—Hungary (read more about the urban legend in its variations). The song plays an important part in the film, as it is ever-present, and alters the lives of all the main characters in one way or another.
But Gloomy Sunday is really a tragic love story. The plot is admittedly a little over-the-top, but Erika Marozsán as Ilona is simply so astonishingly gorgeous and warmly magnetic that it is not hard to believe that these men would be tripping all over each other to be with her, even if they could only possess part of her. Joachim Król as László is a warm, wise and good man, and Ben Becker is frightening in his evolution from an earnest and lovelorn customer to a power-weilding Nazi who still somehow believes he has a good side. The weakest link is probably Stefano Dionisi as the pianist, but the other actors carry him along with their chemistry, and he fares just fine.
Apparently, Gloomy Sunday was a huge art-house hit in New Zealand, of all places, where it played in theaters continuously for a year. Fans of tragic romances will definitely find something to like about the story, and history buffs will find themselves running to Google the true story behind the mysteriously cursed song. But call me superstitious—I don't think I'll be playing the song over and over anytime soon.
