With the Hungarian song "Gloomy Sunday" as its thematic centerpiece, this personalized story of Budapest during World War II becomes a satisfying romantic drama about four divergently different people.
Gloomy Sunday (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:64
Fresh:54
Rotten:10
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: Gloomy Sunday is beautiful, well-acted, and every bit as downcast as its title.
Theatrical Release:Nov 7, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $223,827
Synopsis: Set in pre-World War II Budapest, GLOOMY SUNDAY is a romantic melodrama that evokes the haunting melody of the same name, fabled to have caused over one hundred suicides in the 1930s. Before the... Set in pre-World War II Budapest, GLOOMY SUNDAY is a romantic melodrama that evokes the haunting melody of the same name, fabled to have caused over one hundred suicides in the 1930s. Before the dark days of the war, Laszlo (Joachim Krol), a Jewish restaurant owner, enjoys a successful business while happily living with his lover and the restaurant's sultry hostess, Ilona (Erika Marozsan). When they decide to hire a restaurant pianist they meet Andras (Stefano Dionisi), a brooding composer who quickly captures the heart of Ilona. However, her love for Andras does not diminish her feelings for Laszlo and the trio embark on an agreed-upon ménage-ŕ-trois that seems to be successful, at least on the surface. Andras's passionate love for Ilona inspires him to write "Gloomy Sunday" which becomes an overnight sensation and the restaurant's signature song. Ilona's beauty captures the heart of a third suitor, Hans Wieck (Ben Becker), a German customer who becomes a corrupt SS officer after the Nazi occupation of Hungary. Hans' friendship is a strategic necessity as the trio struggles to keep the restaurant open and Laszlo free from persecution while the threat of war looms. [More]
Starring: Joachim Krol, Stefano Dionisi, Ben Becker, Erica Marozsan
Starring: Joachim Krol, Stefano Dionisi, Ben Becker, Erica Marozsan, Andras Balint
Director: Rolf Schubel
Director: Rolf Schubel
Screenwriter: Rolf Schubel, Ruth Toma
Producer: Richard Schops
Studio: Menemsha
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Release:
Sep 12, 2006
Reviews for Gloomy Sunday
Undoubtedly deserves to be added to the ranks of the best Holocaust films ever made.
It's old-fashioned, sometimes accomplished, syrupy and, at its intermittent best, absorbing.
Like many European films, GLOOMY SUNDAY has crisp cinematography and gorgeous production design, not to mention that hauntingly melancholic titular tune. The principal actors, for the most part, are attractive and talented. The movie apes the traditi
This strange movie has a hard time balancing all these elements, but the film's enormous passion overcomes its more obvious melodrama.
It's hard to say which is more ravishing and alluring in the movie, Ms. Marozsan or the celebrated song.
A smoothly crafted, intermittently charming film . . . the dips and turns are predictable and the tense scenes surrounding unhinged or scheming Nazis have been done before.
It's a film worth seeking out, a good fit for a rainy Saturday or any other less-than-bright day of the week.
This is the kind of material you expect to find in a Lifetime cable-channel movie.
It's a cracking good yarn, well-told and impeccably acted, especially by Król.
A superior soap opera not unlike what Douglas Sirk might have churned out in the 1950s.
This film is both enchanting and sad, with the Holocaust as a background element that eventually moves to the front of the storyline with painful inevitability.
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