Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Symphony No. 42" is a Hungarian 10-minute (8 without credits) short film from 2 years ago written and directed by Reka Bucsi. The film garnered awards attention all over the planet and got even fairly close to an Academy Award nomination. Do not be worried because of the Hungarian, there is no spoken language in here. Unfortunately i was not really impressed by the animation either. it certainly looks very retro, but somehow that was not my preferred choice of style.That's just personal perception though. One other thing I did not like was the completely lack of a story. Of course you can make a film that consists of many many very short sequences of like 10 seconds, but then you also have to make them relate to each other. I was missing that aspect completely here. And the soundtrack was mediocre at best, certainly not as good as you'd expect from a film with this title. All in all, this short film's success baffles me a bit. There's no denying Bucsi's talent, but it's all very raw and unrefined. Not recommended.
Film Festival ContraVision
Symphony no. 42 pictures a surreal masterpiece and is outstanding in its style of animation. Pinguins with cakes thrown into their faces, cows filled up with milk, a nightmarish appearing and disappearing hippopotamus, suicidal foxes, fishing polar bears. Every picture is a symphony of it's own. The sound-installation is extraordinary. Reka Busci is a young and aspiring filmmaker from whom we expect much more to come in the future. Our audience loved it and voted the film into the finals of our competition. The Festival director fell on his knees and started praying during this film! We strongly recommend to watch this short film!
Peter Fold
splendid and entertaining piece of art! Un chef d'oeuvre! When I first saw this short, I felt that I had to watch it over and over again, for my own good. So entertaining, beautiful, and so many wonderful details to discover in each scene. The images are crisp and colorful, with a variety of different scenes. The characters look so friendly, I would like to know them personally. They remind me of real people. I can see their thought, problems and joys through the film. The sound effects help this strong artistic impact. Simply great sound effects. The nature is so close in this film, that watching it in a dark room of a movie theater, you can totally leave the city and even your personal thoughts behind. Simply enlightening!