The Restless Hungarian

This is a deeply moving film, and while it's a family story, specific to its own time and circumstance, it touches a universal nerve. In addition, the filmmaking is masterly. There is remarkable archival footage that never hammers the viewer with trite or clichéd meanings. Also remarkable are the sites (or remnants) on three continents of the Weidlinger family's landmarks. And most remarkable for me are the eloquent reenactments of family scenes: like rooms in a dollhouse with a minimum of decor, they convey the maximum of psychic distress. They're mysterious, in some cases almost mystical. In fact, the entire film has an aura of mystery and beauty.

Fathers-and-sons is a deep theme in literature and film, and Tom Weidlinger makes it new--exploring the ambiguity of his own relationship with his accomplished father, a man who neglected the home as most of that generation's fathers did, but whose impact on the next generation was perhaps greater as a result--the focus of fantasy and frustration--and even of political dismay at some of his and his generation's choices on issues of art and technology--especially the Bomb. Dorothy Dinnerstein writes about how fathers get off the hook as distant figures of fantasy while mothers bear the burden of a child's need for separation. But in this case, Tom doesn't let his father get away with it so easy. Love and accountability are a tough negotiation, and here Director/Son Weidlinger gives the Father uneasy justice. A complex and beautiful film.

In this riveting hybrid documentary, filmmaker Tom Weidlinger pursues his quest to truly know and understand his father, Paul, a successful, Hungarian-born structural engineer who helped build many of the great architectural works of the 20th century. At the heart of the enigma the film attempts to resolve is the issue of Paul Weidlinger's hidden Jewish identity, which Columbia University film professor Annette Insdorf references as a "growing sub-genre of Holocaust cinema." Employing a wealth of archival material and interviews with his father as well as those who knew him in Hungary, France, Bolivia and the U. S., Tom Weidlinger documents his father's perception of himself as a self-invented, creative intellectual, radically distanced from traditions - Jewish and otherwise -- despite the wartime suffering of his Hungarian Jewish family. Was this a flight or a rejection, a disguise or mere disinterest in his origins? Did his metamorphosis contribute to his constructing an edifice around his emotional self? And what, finally, was his grown son supposed to do with this discovery?

Dramatic reenactments of childhood memories, enhanced by the filmmaker's thoughtful, introspective narration, help to explore the space between Paul Weidlinger's public persona, his factual accomplishments and his emotional impact on his family. Ultimately, the film ponders how one integrates the infinite complexity of a parent's life -- including their impact on our own.

Building on the research for his 2019 book, "The Restless Hungarian: Modernism, Madness and the American Dream", the film is just as informative but far more emotive, yielding a deep personal payoff at its exquisitely narrated end.

The film begins by providing both a historical and personal view of the Jewish diaspora at the outset of WWII. It explores the complex relationships the Restless Hungarian, Paul Weidlinger, had with his family and some of the most influential artists, architects and engineers in the latter half of the 20th century including Moholy-Nagy, Le Corbusier, Dubuffet and many others who greatly influenced modern day art and architecture. The film also details the engineering relationship Weidlinger had with the Rand Corporation and their efforts to design and build structures that would protect U. S. nuclear missiles. I highly recommend this historical and deeply personal film.

Occasionally a film comes along which covers a multitude of topics and yet weaves them into a coherent and compelling story. What starts as a reflection on a personal crisis quickly explodes into a layered exploration of the history of a century, seen through the eyes of fascinating people form three continents and many walks of life. While it stays firmly on the tracks of an engrossing family history, its many sidings visit such topics as war, avant-garde art, the holocaust, architecture, bohemian life, immigration, adventure and travel, mental health and identity. And while all of this sounds like too much to fit in one story, each of these gets its due attention through rounded and skillful direction, so that the film seems to end only too quickly, in spite of its feature length.