User Reviews

This cold-blooded, claustrophobic satire of social and sexual tensions behind the erstwhile Iron Curtain might have stood as a model of the Hungarian New Wave (had such a movement ever existed), showing all the uninhibited, spontaneous energy of a film restricted only by its lean budget and tight production schedule. The American title ('Tight Quarters') offers a more explicit description of its lover's triangle, with one corner represented by an unlucky worker returning home after 28 months in prison to find his wife living with another man. Because housing is in such short supply the trio is forced to share their one small apartment, much to the dismay of all three, who soon engage in a three-way antagonistic battle of wills, overshadowed by the omnipotent specter of the State. Sexual provocation, displays of East Bloc machismo, and documentary-like interviews with various 'witnesses' help fill in the details.

There was a "genre" of Hungarian films in the 1980s sarcastically referred to as "movies for everyone, without anyone watching them" (in Hungarian: "közönségfilm, közönség nélkül"). These were dull, "artistic", boring movies which attempted to grasp big questions of life, but utterly failing. Snobs always cheered these movies as being "avantgarde", but a matter of fact they are just as novel as coffee with salt. Miklós Jancsó, Béla Tarr and most hyped Hungarian directors all fall in this category. Seriously nobody in Hungary can wrap their minds around the hype around these people. There were many such movies produced in those years, resulting in most people avoiding Hungarian movies in general. As a counterbalance, they started adding as many nudity as possible. (Porn was banned in those times, this was the only way to see pictures of naked women.) The term "art film" still counts somewhat a slur in Hungary today. This one is exactly that kind of movie.

For today's viewers, even young Hungarians, it might hold a touch of retro, an insight to Communist Hungary and miserable life in those times. That's in fact cattle manure. Hungary was never like this. Why is it that every movie about life in Budapest just has to be shot in the run-down slums of the 8th district? Why the characters should always be desperate, broken existences with acute alcoholism and smelly armpits? But that wouldn't be a problem if the movie would actually tell some STORY. But there is absolutely NOTHING. You just wait and wait, for one and a half hour, for something to happen. Nothing does though. Yup, the film starts OK, the main characters are introduced, and there is a conflict. That's about the first three minutes. And then? Nothing then. No tension, no excitement, no nothing. Just a bunch of authentically depicted, but meaningless characters, no development, no plot twists, only an inevitable ending. Plus some sad nostalgic songs and a lot of alcohol.

As someone who grew up in Communist Hungary I can assure you, not everybody lived like this. Yes, there were such people, but why on earth would we look at their lives? They are still around, the 8th district is still the same heap of ruins, and we don't go there to look at them. Except police officers.

If you want to see a worthy movie about the very same milieu and credible acting, watch "Wreck Movie", which was made about decade later. In fact it features some of the same actors and actually the same location - no kidding, the very same house, and the pub frequently mentioned in this movie, named 'Stork' (Gólya), which is just two doors down the street. Nowadays it's a famed hipster pub, with the same name.

This movie is only for true art snobs who despise entertaining value and are willing to consume pictures that actually carry no meaning at all, just to have something to discuss in the cafe the next day. I'd have given it one star only if Károly Eperjes' acting talent hadn't saved the day.