Age of Illusions

A film about a generation, set in Budapest in the early 1960s. Jancsi and his friends have just finished university. They find jobs, move, marry and start building lives. All of them grew up after the war and believe there is an opening in front of them. The film watches that belief wear away. Jancsi takes up with a woman, separates, turns to someone else, and cannot stay with any of them. The same happens at work: what he started with enthusiasm becomes a routine. The narrative builds no plot; it proceeds in fragments and turns back in time now and then. The form is close to French cinema of the period: handheld camera, shooting in the street, jump cuts and real locations. It is counted among the first examples of that style in Hungary. András Bálint plays Jancsi; Ilona Béres and Judit Halász are in the cast. István Szabó directed; it is his first feature and the first film of the trilogy about his own generation. An important starting point for anyone who likes European cinema and portraits of a generation. For a viewer expecting incident, the film proceeds loosely and most of its characters are left unfinished.