Cinema World Tour, Film #32
Country: Hungary
Rating: 6.5/10
This film is definitely not an easy topic to discuss. Winner of the Palme d'Or in Cannes as well as of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture, this film is definitely worth checking out – even if it's just for the sake of having seen it. One can't deny the film's high quality. Son of Saul is an unique cinematic experience with a strong artistic vision. The camerawork is absolutely mindblowing, staying the whole film over so near to the fantastic main actor so that the audience often has to guess what is actually happening in the background at the moment. The choice of a strong focus – especially on technical level – is definitely the only right decision. To show the attrocities faced by Saul only blurry is only respectful and appropiate. But still, I can't get the words of my most admired film critic, W. M. Schmitt, out of my head: that Son of Saul is actually not much more than a pointless „concentration camp–rollercoaster“, using the KZ background only for the sake of sensation.
The thing is, it's good and important to educate the viewer on what exactly was happening there at that time, but you should't use it just to create suspenseful and enthralling entertainment. Son of Saul might tell you that the Nazis obviously didn't do the dirty jobs themselves, and that the people who had to do it instead all went somehow insane, but apart from that, Son of Saul doesn't really tell us anything new. Neither does it manage to create an emotional connection with the audience, the film doesn't really touch one by showing these graphic images and by portraying this man's quest.
So one question remains: was it really necessary to make this film? Yes, and No. I definitely don't share the excitement of Award Juries all around the world, but neither would I agree with the harsh criticism that Son of Saul isn't much more than an inappropriate rollercoaster-adventure-film. For me, this film walks the thin red line between real art and hoping-to-win-awards-“art“. It is extremly ambitious, has some very intelligent moments (take the scene for example in which Saul goes to meet a woman) and is so unique, not only on technical level, but also regarding the different perspective it offers, that Son of Saul is far, far away from being a bad film. This is something audiences will remember, something which will still provoke discussions in a few years. So far, this is the best hungarian film I've watched. But I have to add: I haven't watched Satantango yet.
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