The Fifth Seal - CLASSICS

Original title: Az Ötodik Pecsét

Directed by: Zoltán Fábri

Country: Hungary

Length: 111 min.

Premiere: Berlin Film Festival 1976

Availability: Klassiki Online, Filmio

Synopsis: During the final stages of the siege of Budapest in 1944, a group of five people of different backgrounds meets up at a pub, to answer a moral dilemma.

RATING: 4.5/5

STAGE AND SCREEN 

At a first examination, easily The Fifth Seal might appear anti-cinematic: three quarters of the film are long dialogues around a table, something that maybe fits better the form of the stageplay, or of literature - the film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ferenc Sánta, afterall.  Yet, it is hardly a prosaic or excessively verbose film. It is a film that mainly relies on dialogue, indeed, but the philosphical nature of the subject requires this, and at the same time maintains the engagement high. The film does make sure to become very cinematic as soon as there is space between the dialogues, and the epilogue of the film is nothing short of a spectacle that works best on screen.

SISYPHUS AND TYRANT

In what is definitely Fábri's most phylosophical film, the central question is of a moral and existentialist density that few films have the courage to tackle. Gyurica (Őze Lajos) asks the rest of the crowd if they would prefer being reborn as a tyrant slaver who is ruthless, cruel but has no sense of guilt, even believes to be righteous, or in one of his slaves who accepts and suffers for all the injustices he is bestowed, yet believes to be morally superior to his tyrant and finds solace in this belief. The Fifth seal of the bible connects to this idea, as it opens to a group of suffering christians who long to be free of their suffering and for a form of retribution - thus, the duality of the two characters is present. The character of the slave bears some resemblance to Sisyphus, the greek mythological character appropriated by Camus to discuss the absurdity of existence, but here the question is turned into an ethical and moral one. A central point is the relation between our perception of immoral acts and their immanent moral value - if we do not assign a moral value to an act, does it still maintain a moral value? If the tyrant does not feel guilt about torturing his slaves, is this act still immoral? On the side of the slave, if we believes that being tortured and not reacting for it grants him a moral superiority, is this a value that remains in the act if seen from an outside perspective? The answer that the film gives lays in the absurd, in the final climax of the film that leads the protagonists to finally actually test themselves.

BOSCH AND CHAOS

An art book by Hieronymus Bosch is a leitmotif of the film. This is not the first time that Bosch has been referenced in relation to the rise of totalitarianisms in the 20s, Juraj Herz in The Cremator also made use of the works of this mysterious flemish painter. His completely chaotic canvas are almost prophetic in the depiction of the atmosphere of broken certainty that has pervaded society following the two world wars, anticipating the tendencies of painters such as Francis Bacon, or of the fragmentation of the notion of truth that characterises society still now. It is no wonder to see such a reference in a film like The Fifth Seal, which deals with moral relativism, and is a cinematic equivalent of a philosophical discussion that leads only to madness.

THE LAST

The Fifth Seal is the "last" film in two important departments: it is often today the most remembered among Zoltán Fábri's last films, even if at the time, his follow-up film Hungarians did obtain an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film, and it is most definitely the final on-screen role of Zoltán Latinovits, who ended his life shortly after the film was premiered. Latinovits is a name that became legendary in the hungarian film scene, having starred in many of the films by Miklós Jancsó - as well as some other classics by Fábri himself or the surreal film Szindbád. Somehow, this sense of an impending end can be perceived in the film - be it the setting, which is right before the end of WWII, or be it the sense of impending doom suggested through the title itself, a reference to one of the seals of the book mentioned in Revelations, in the Bible.