György Pálfi: An American Cinematheque Retrospective

ABOUT THE SERIES:

The American Cinematheque is thrilled to celebrate Hungarian filmmaker György Pálfi’s work with an extensive retrospective showcasing a new 4k restoration of HUKKLE. Spanning 20 years behind the camera, his films are lauded for his bold and unconventional, at times surreal and experimental visions of humanity. What’s certain and consistent, is that Pálfi’s storytelling tendencies are peerless in their strange yet seemingly effortless profundity as his camera looks upon the lonely and hapless inhabitants of his desolate, cinematic world, without judgment, as they navigate the often dire circumstances they find themselves burdened with.

Littered with delicately absurd humor, Pálfi’s cinema offers its audience a rare glimpse into the darker corners of Hungarian society, a location that for Pálfi is often riddled with tragedy or despair. His oeuvre is one of curious dichotomies. The social realism of his feature debut, HUKKLE clashes with the post-apocalyptic science fiction observable in MINDÖRÖKKE; the practice of complete improvisation in I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND contradicts the precise construction of FREE FALL, that’s form even evokes that of Alfred Hitchock’s exacting REAR WINDOW; the classical narrative structure of HIS MASTER’S VOICE makes us wonder if it was in fact the same filmmaker who conjured the surreal and abstract TAXIDERMIA.

With a filmography as utterly undefinable as any filmmaker’s working today, truly anything can happen in Pálfi’s cinema and this is especially true in what is perhaps his most towering work of experimental filmmaking, FINAL CUT: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, a cinematic collage that cuts together images from 500 classic films from around the world, and pastes them together to deliver a love story that feels like a fleeting mirage, an uncompromising statement on the history of cinema, and his greatest trick yet. In addition to all the films named above, the retrospective will also include a handful of  Pálfi’s short films, including “Shaman Vs Icarus,” I WILL NOT BE YOUR FRIEND and “A Hal,” all of which only further cement György Pálfi as one of the most original filmmakers working today.