Ember a híd alatt Review: A dusty, charming 1930s Hungarian drama

If you have a soft spot for dusty 1930s European dramas where everyone looks like they just came from a very intense theater rehearsal, Ember a híd alatt is absolutely worth an hour and a half of your evening. But if you can't stand old movies with popping audio and characters who explain their entire backstory to a lamppost, you should probably skip this one. 🌉

The story is simple enough. We have a young doctor who is completely broke, lose his job, and decides the only way out is to jump off a bridge. But just as he is about to do it, a strange twist of fate drags him into the lives of some wealthy folks who have their own messy secrets.

Honestly, the bridge itself is the best part of the movie. In some shots, you can clearly tell it is just a painted backdrop in a studio, but the lighting is so moody that it somehow works. It actually reminds me a bit of the dark, crowded streets in Menschen untereinander, where the city feels like a trap.

Zoltán Szakáts plays the main guy, and he has this incredibly intense stare. Seriously, his eyes are so wide in some scenes that I thought he forgot to blink. He does this thing where he clutches his coat collar like he's trying to hide from the camera itself.

Then there is Gyula Csortos, who plays a grumpy older gentleman. He is easily the best actor in the whole thing, mostly because he looks like he really didn't want to be there that day, which fits his character perfectly. He sighs so loudly in one scene I could practically feel the dust blowing off the screen.

Small details that caught my eye:

• There is a scene in an office where a typewriter is clacking in the background, but nobody is actually typing. It is just a sound effect playing over a shot of a guy staring at some papers. 😅
• The main actress, Ilona Erdös, has a hat that looks like a small, sleeping cat. I spent ten minutes trying to figure out if it had ears.
• The music gets incredibly loud whenever someone looks sad. It is like the orchestra is screaming, "Look! He is crying now!"

The movie does get a bit slow in the middle. They spend a lot of time sitting in fancy living rooms, drinking tiny cups of coffee and talking about honor. I sort of zoned out during a long speech about medical ethics, to be honest.

But the ending has this weird, frantic energy that saved it for me. It is not a masterpiece, but it has that cozy, black-and-white warmth that makes you want to wrap yourself in a blanket. If you like discovering obscure European cinema, give it a chance.