Tamas and Juli

Rating:
Summary: Love tries to triumph at the end of the millennium
Review: "Tamas and Juli" was made as part of the "2000 Seen by..." series, where French television commissioned several filmmakers from around the world to make films using the coming of the millennium as the subject or the background. This film from director Ildikr Enyedi, in Hungarian with English subtitles, tells of a young, socially awkward coal miner who meets a shy kindergarten teacher. Despite their introverted natures they begin to fall in love and Juli sends Tamas a letter setting up a rendezvous on the last night of the millennium. However, Tamas is assigned the late shift at the mind and there is no way he can reach Juli or even let her know what is happening. "Tamas and Juli" is a sobering little parable about how human beings are still being reduced to cogs in the machine even as we move into the 21st Century. This 1997 film, which runs about an hour, may be difficult to track down but if you stumble across it, check it out.

Rating:
Summary: Love tries to triumph at the end of the millennium
Review: "Tamas and Juli" was made as part of the "2000 Seen by..." series, where French television commissioned several filmmakers from around the world to make films using the coming of the millennium as the subject or the background. This film from director Ildikr Enyedi, in Hungarian with English subtitles, tells of a young, socially awkward coal miner who meets a shy kindergarten teacher. Despite their introverted natures they begin to fall in love and Juli sends Tamas a letter setting up a rendezvous on the last night of the millennium. However, Tamas is assigned the late shift at the mind and there is no way he can reach Juli or even let her know what is happening. "Tamas and Juli" is a sobering little parable about how human beings are still being reduced to cogs in the machine even as we move into the 21st Century. This 1997 film, which runs about an hour, may be difficult to track down but if you stumble across it, check it out.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Love Story of New Years Reminiscence
Review: Tamás, a young coal miner, enters the mine remembering how he discovered his first true love. The lucky girl was Juli, whom Tamás approached with innocent clumsiness to eventually find his efforts to charm Juli paying off. In reminisce Tamás recalls the summer they spent together and how they grew closer and closer, but eventually had misunderstandings and frustrations that separated them. Tamás was further reminded of his relationship with Juli when he received a letter declaring that she wanted to spend New Years Eve of 2000 with him, but Tamás was forced to stay in the mines. Overall, the film is a playful love story that is depicted with superb cinematography with the score playing a strong part in the cinematic experience.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Love Story of New Years Reminiscence
Review: Tamás, a young coal miner, enters the mine remembering how he discovered his first true love. The lucky girl was Juli, whom Tamás approached with innocent clumsiness to eventually find his efforts to charm Juli paying off. In reminisce Tamás recalls the summer they spent together and how they grew closer and closer, but eventually had misunderstandings and frustrations that separated them. Tamás was further reminded of his relationship with Juli when he received a letter declaring that she wanted to spend New Years Eve of 2000 with him, but Tamás was forced to stay in the mines. Overall, the film is a playful love story that is depicted with superb cinematography with the score playing a strong part in the cinematic experience.

Rating:
Summary: Love can be methane, too
Review: This is a short and uncomplicated story about a frustrated (and frustrating!) love affair between Juli, shy school teacher, and Tamás, a young mine worker. Set in a small Hungarian mining town on December 31, 1999, the story jumps back and forth between summer, when the couple falls in love, and winter, by which time everything has obviously gone awry. This movie ought to be shown in every Flirting 101 class. Juli, impossibly gorgeous but proud, won't give in to Tamás's awkward and pushy cravings. After a few picturesque summer smooches punctuated with the sight of dogs copulating in the distance, the young man's libido sends the relationship decidedly downhill. Tamás is so inept and laconic and unauthentically romantic as to be virtually anti-romantic. Seriously, this dude must have suffered from some kind of protein deficiency when he was a kid. He eventually sows his wild oats with an obliging hooker at a bus stop while Juli is writing him a love letter trying to arrange a New Year's Eve tryst. Alas, woe unto you, ignoble Romeo, he's called to work at the mine. . . and you'll just have to watch the rest of this movie yourself to find out what happens.

Tamás was pretty annoying to watch, but I enjoyed the movie a lot. What's interesting is that the director takes what on the surface is a pretty predictable plot and turns it inside out by showing us the scene where Tamás is called to the mine at the beginning of the movie, getting us to think this is going to be up there with "Romeo & Juliet", then pulling the rug out from under our feet as we slowly find out that Tamás and Juli weren't actually such an idyllic item after all.

Visually, it's also an impressive flick, switching back and forth between summer and winter, where winter is kind of a leitmotif for tragedy. Cool soundtrack, too! Check it out if you get a chance! Five stars.

Rating:
Summary: Love can be methane, too
Review: This is a short and uncomplicated story about a frustrated (and frustrating!) love affair between Juli, shy school teacher, and Tamás, a young mine worker. Set in a small Hungarian mining town on December 31, 1999, the story jumps back and forth between summer, when the couple falls in love, and winter, by which time everything has obviously gone awry. This movie ought to be shown in every Flirting 101 class. Juli, impossibly gorgeous but proud, won't give in to Tamás's awkward and pushy cravings. After a few picturesque summer smooches punctuated with the sight of dogs copulating in the distance, the young man's libido sends the relationship decidedly downhill. Tamás is so inept and laconic and unauthentically romantic as to be virtually anti-romantic. Seriously, this dude must have suffered from some kind of protein deficiency when he was a kid. He eventually sows his wild oats with an obliging hooker at a bus stop while Juli is writing him a love letter trying to arrange a New Year's Eve tryst. Alas, woe unto you, ignoble Romeo, he's called to work at the mine. . . and you'll just have to watch the rest of this movie yourself to find out what happens.

Tamás was pretty annoying to watch, but I enjoyed the movie a lot. What's interesting is that the director takes what on the surface is a pretty predictable plot and turns it inside out by showing us the scene where Tamás is called to the mine at the beginning of the movie, getting us to think this is going to be up there with "Romeo & Juliet", then pulling the rug out from under our feet as we slowly find out that Tamás and Juli weren't actually such an idyllic item after all.

Visually, it's also an impressive flick, switching back and forth between summer and winter, where winter is kind of a leitmotif for tragedy. Cool soundtrack, too! Check it out if you get a chance! Five stars.