The Lord's Lantern In Budapest (1999) *

Directed by Miklos Jancso. Self-indulgent mise-en-scene and pretentious ideas ruin this otherwise ambitious film. The old Hungarian master of long-takes has suddenly discovered the joys of editing and the results are not pretty. The film seems... well, choppy, unfocused and very derivative. There is nothing sadder than a cinematic legend abandoning his signature style and desperately trying to imitate a much younger collegue, in this case Emir Kusturica.