Hungarian films don’t get much attention, and this needs rectifying with a whip and assorted medieval contraptions of compulsion forthwith.

Today i saw the 1955 classic by Zoltan Fabri, Merry Go Round (Korhinta). And a very fine thing it was too. A young woman is enjoying the exhilarating freedom of flying through the air on rides at the fair with her impish jolly friends and a young man she’s taken a liking to. But her stern father does not approve of such cavortings at all. His mind is set on financial betterment, and her engagement to a more appropriate business-minded fellow; “land marries land”. Never mind that the not so likeable fiancé has already tried it on with our heroine, taking physical rights for granted and been rebuffed. So the course of true love is far from smooth, things are looking bleak indeed, the heroine is sliding into the slough of despond, but her true sweetheart is made of stern stuff. He knows what he wants, and he will not be put off by social conventions and some oppressive patriarch….He will make his own destiny, and there’s a slight physical resemblance to Peter O’Toole as Lawrence of Arabia, even his eyebrows are tough and dynamic as he stands before us in close-up. There’s some social comment over the preferability of collectives to greedy individualism but this is a film that doesn’t bog down in politics. It swirls joyfully, it can be intense and grim, and it has its quiet lyrical patches too; a ladybird flies into the air and the heroine has her dreams.

And so onto the joys of Bela Tarr, Jancso, Szabo, Karoly Makk, Marta Meszaros… i’ll say more, but over to you..!