Helyet az öregeknek: A dusty relic that hits differently

If you're into old-school, slightly dusty European dramas, Helyet az öregeknek might be your thing for a rainy Tuesday. It’s definitely not for the action-hungry crowd—if you go in expecting Two-Fisted Law, you’re going to be staring at your phone within five minutes. But if you have a soft spot for these weird, side-by-side film productions where everyone is trying to make two movies at once, there’s a peculiar rhythm here that I kind of liked.

The story is basically about a shopkeeper who realizes his kids have completely lost the plot in the city. Watching him navigate their financial disaster feels surprisingly grounded, even if the acting styles feel like they belong to a different planet sometimes. There's one scene in the shop where the lighting is just awful, like they forgot to turn on half the lamps, but somehow that makes the old man's frustration feel more real. It's messy.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Helyet az öregeknek (1934) through its definitive frames.

It doesn't have the polish of, say, Grandma's Boy, and it definitely doesn't try to be profound. It just exists. Sometimes that's enough.

Bits and bobs:

• The pacing is all over the place. One minute we're in a high-stakes emotional confrontation, the next we're watching someone walk down a street for way too long.
• The dialogue is snappy, almost too snappy for a guy just trying to run a grocery store.
• Notice the hats. Everyone is wearing a hat, all the time. Even indoors. It’s funny once you start tracking it.

Is it a masterpiece? No. Is it better than watching Africa on repeat? Probably. It’s just one of those things where you feel like you’re watching a piece of history that wasn't really meant to be scrutinized this closely. The ensemble cast is huge, and sometimes you can tell they are just trying to remember where to stand so they don't block the camera for the German version being filmed next door. It’s weirdly charming.

I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but if you want to see a dad trying to fix things while everything around him feels like it's falling apart—and you don't mind some fuzzy sound mixing—give it a shot. Just don't expect it to explain itself.