The Witman Boys (1997) User Reviews

Disturbing, and strangely charming.

[jz-10 · 6/10 · 6 March 2010]

Yes, it is slow, and could stand to be a bit faster, but the pace serves to convey the gloom of the boys' milieu quite well. Scenes in the Witman house are almost as painful for us as for the boys living in it. After the boys' father dies, they find themselves quite alone in a house where their mother has no concern other than who will replace her recently-deceased husband. Their home is devoid of love, laughter and even conversation. There's a gramophone that is never used.

The brothers Witman begin to relieve their boredom and anger by mistreating animals. Fortunately, what they do is talked about, but not shown.

A possibly humanizing turn of events begins as they became enamored of a local prostitute--or does it? It's worth watching.

See this when you're in the mood for an unhurried, not-quite-horror, not-quite coming-of-age foreign film.

Impressive art film from Hungary

[Andy-296 · 8/10 · 6 January 2014]

Like one of the previous reviewers, I also saw this Hungarian art movie at a film festival many years ago – I think it was the Mar del Plata film festival in 1997. I was very impressed by the film but since the movie was never released commercially in my country, nor I ever heard or read about it again, I sort of forgot about it (the fate of many good movies, unfortunately, especially those shown at film festivals, is that they are soon forgotten about). A few days ago, for some reason I remembered this film, and was lucky to find out that it was available for viewing on you tube in a very fine copy.

So now about the movie, this is set in Hungary in 1914, just before World War I. The protagonists of the film are two teenage brothers, Janos and Erno Witman. Just after the film begins, their father dies, and they resent their mother taking very soon a new husband, whom they hate. As the movie progresses, we realize more and more that the emotionally distant brothers are pretty disturbed individuals, as they torture animals, become friends with a prostitute, and feel increasingly estranged from their mother.

The slow, leisurely paced film is helped a lot by the very beautiful color photography, that contrasts the cozy interiors with the wintry streets outside. Also, by the fine reconstruction of its era. Director Janos Szasz hand is so assured I'm surprised this film is not better known (Szasz has only made a few films after this, none of them widely seen).

A depressing movie

[junkymisanthrope · 6/10 · 15 March 2014]

This slow, leisurely paced film tells us the story of two reclusive brothers, whose father has passed away at the very beginning of the film, and their search for human warmth in, from time to time, rather wrong places, including the brothel close by. Even the opening scene is fairly enough for the audience to understand which direction the film will lead us to, as it is set in the local graveyard, showing a bunch of guys carrying an obsolete hearse with a coffin on it. The entire story takes place in a distant Hungarian village shortly before the outbreak of the WW1. Metaphorically, the film is about the lack of political authority that arises from the death of Franz Ferdinand, as 14-year-old is becoming less and less home-keeping by the neglect of their mother, who soon loses the count of the days after her husband died of a heart attack and yet starts a new, morally unacceptable affair with another guy, whose sole positive features, according to the mother, are "an insatiable appetite" and "glorious virility". Regardless of the inconvenient fact that this new comer takes advantage of her concupiscence, she keeps on having him in her bed, without paying attention what a terrible effect this affair might possibly have on her boys. Shortly afterwards, we find out that the new comer is ready for another relationship, as he gets bored with her and wants to go back to his routine, promiscuous love life. Incidentally, the elder brother explores female body at a local brothel, with some "help" from a lady working there.

I saw this film at a special screening (as a part of Cine-Memory screenings) and it was unequivocally haunting and masterfully showed us how disturbing it might be to see two adolescents sinking deeply into a terrible kind of psychosis: paying visits to their father's grave at night, murdering owls and dogs, dwelling at a brothel, peeping naked women etc. As a matter of fact, I am almost sure that the director aimed at showing the audience the jeopardies posed by the lack of authority and political instability -since the WW1's approaching- through two psychotic brothers, seeking for the true meaning of life and conversely becoming a couple of absolute good-for-nothings instead, as a result of the emotional vacuum in their lives caused by the loss of their father. I wouldn't recommend this film to any one, except for those who desperately try to find a two-hour-long drudgery.

Bad boys

[boschig · 10/10 · 23 June 2001]

I saw Witman fiuk five years ago at an Internacional Film Festival in my country. I went to this event with some friends. And after seeing almost 30 features, we were all sure that this hungarian film was the most incredible expierence. First of all, we should congratulate the cinematographer; the treatment of the light in this film is unique. Since "Barry Lyndon", nobody has worked with light candles in this way. And the story is amazing. It`s the kind of film you find funny and laugh a lot while you see it, but at the same time you know you wouldn`t be laughing at all. You might find that the time is slow, but it makes you entry at that bizarre enviroment.

The kind of movie that is a waste of time puting on a reel

[just-4 · 1/10 · 26 February 1999]

Witman fiuk is the most anoyingly depressing and slow movie I have ever seen. I am an operator at a local art-movie-house, and I wonder why I put time in these kind of moviess. The five visitors we had for this movie is still too large a crowd. My co-operator actually left the show because 'he was too much alive for this kind of movie'. I totally agree, was it not for the fact that someone has to stay next to the projector I would have left as well. The movie totally depends on the gloomy 'hungary by candlelight' look and has a story wich does not stimulate to keep on watching. Not only is the film depressing, it is frustrated aswell. Anyone under 70: avoid this movie!