THE 34th PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, DAY 8

"last report on anna," hungary, dir. márta mészáros

anna is anna kéthly, and this recent historical drama tells the story of her life and her life in exile in brussels following the failure of the hungarian revolution and the imre nagy government in 1956. most of the film's action takes place in 1973, when péter faragó, the nephew of one of anna's old flames, visits her in belgium with orders to inform on her from the hungarian secret police. "last report on anna" isn't anything groundbreaking as far as the art of movie making goes. in fact, it suffers from the same problem that many of the central european films selected for the portland festival by the northwest film center do: an almost childish melodrama that elicits a strange embarrassment in the audience -- the sets in the flashback scenes look like they might fall over, and don't the actors know that they don't have to try so hard? it does, however, present the story of what i assume to be (even, probably, in hungary) a relatively unknown historical figure of significance. anna kéthly joined the social democratic party of hungary in 1917 and was elected to parliament in 1922. (it's a shame that i can't tell you the names of any other first women in parliament, or even guess at the years when they were elected, but i suppose that that's why films like this one are important.) anna was a member of parliament until the german invasion of hungary in 1944 and resumed her duties after the war until she was dismissed from her party and lost her seat in 1948. she was a staunch opponent of both fascist and communist dictatorship, and apparently she liked to get silly with golda meir. that makes for some good infotainment. guess whether péter convinces her to go back to hungary.