Toasting the Apocalypse

Comments (0) By Joshuah Bearman Thursday, Sep 16 2004

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The film’s box-office history is strange too. Hero notwithstanding, Los Angeles audiences usually aren’t on speaking terms with foreign-language films. If it’s saddled with subtitles, chances are a movie will do bigger box office in New York or San Francisco. An L.A. release may never materialize at all. A call to the Laemmle Theaters offices yielded an enthusiastic yet still mostly bottom-line response from Greg Laemmle, vice president of the family-owned chain of art houses. “The film never did sellout business,” he said, “but it was consistent, and it’s never really dropped off. Word of mouth keeps it going and going.”

In the theater lobby, Marozsan tries to sort it out for me. “It’s not fast,” she tells me. “Everything about it is slow. It’s a slow, beautiful movie about food and love and music, and it’s been given time and love from audiences.”

From the demeanor of the assembled, though, it’s clear that the whys aren’t that important. Where nationalism and nostalgia are involved, warm feelings tend to trump film analysis. To try to dissect this anomaly of a thoroughly old-fashioned movie about young, handsome people in love during the most traumatic moment of the 20th century is pointless. To feel is all that matters. That, and making sure to get a good photo for the Hungarian matriarch, who, before I snap the fourth picture, enthusiastically announces, “I take my children twice to see it!”

—Dave White