JUST SEX AND NOTHING ELSE
Directed by Krisztina Goda.
Screenplay, Krisztina Goda, Gabor Heller, Reka Divinyi.
A Megafilm, RTL Klub production.
Produced by Gabor Kalomista.
With: Judit Schell, Sandor Csanyi, Kata Dobo, Zoltan Seress, Karoly Gesztesi
Antal Czapko, Adel Jordan.
An attractive thirty-something woman is fed up with dating but desperate to have a child in this farcical
Hungarian hit and international festival favorite. Dóra, a dramaturge for a Budapest theatre, gives up
on men after she learns her fiancé is married. With her biological clock tick-tick-ticking, Dóra decides
to get pregnant through a no-strings-attached affair.
WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
90 minutes * unrated * 35 mm * 2005
REVIEWS
Variety
By EDDIE COCKRELL
A bright, snappy relationship comedy repping a still-new strain of commercial Hungarian cinema
concocted primarily for local consumption, "Just Sex and Nothing Else" was a huge local hit that will
travel to a clutch of fests and play well regionally before finding a pot of gold on homevid.
Thirty-three-year-old theater dramaturg Dora (Judit Schell) meets cute with swaggering actor Tamas
(ubiquitous "Kontroll" star Sandor Csanyi) when she's forced to a window ledge by the sudden arrival
of her current lover's wife. As exasperated Dora tells actress chum Zsofi (Kata Dobo), she wants a kid
but as for the guy, it's just sex and nothing else. As she sorts things out with Tamas by way of
composer Peter (Zoltan Seress) and Turkish counterman Ali (Antal Czapko), laughs are plentiful as
the troupe grapples with her translation of "Dangerous Liaisons." Unsurprisingly, relationship issues
are generally treated with more frankness than in similar U.S. or Brit prods. Witty dialogue is delivered
briskly by easy-on-the-eyes cast, with Karoly Gesztesi a hoot as play's blustery helmer. Glossy tech
package presents a sophisticated, picturesque Budapest. Pic won the screenplay prize at the recently
concluded Hungarian Film Week.
LA Times
By Kevin Thomas
"Just Sex and Nothing Else," the film that opens the series, has a far more universal appeal. The title
comes from an ad that an attractive theater dramaturge (Judit Schell) specifies on an Internet dating
service. Unlucky in love, she now wants simply to become pregnant. She's so self-absorbed, though,
that she is blind to the fact that the hunky actor ("Kontroll's" Sandor Csanyi) cast as Valmont in a
production of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" has fallen in love with her.
Krisztina Goda's film could just as easily have been made in Hollywood and set in Manhattan -- and
with luck, it will connect with moviegoers in the same way as quality films made here at home.
LA WEEKLY
By Adam Nayman
GO JUST SEX AND NOTHING ELSE
After breaking through in Nimród Antal's fest-circuit hit Kontroll, Sándor Csányi has become one of
Hungary's biggest movie stars. With his dark eyes and striking features, the 32-year-old actor seems
built for brooding poses, but he doesn't coast on his looks; in Krisztina Goda's comedy Just Sex and
Nothing Else, he almost seems to be satirizing his own hunk-of-the-moment status. The film's title
refers to the newly minted imperative of its heroine, Dóra (Judit Schell), a 30-something Budapest
dramaturge smarting from a series of failed relationships and hypersensitive to the ticking of her
biological clock. She's in the midst of translating and restaging Dangerous Liaisons when she
comes to her unromantic epiphany and places a newspaper ad basically inviting strangers to
impregnate her, no strings attached. Second thoughts arrive, on cue, in the form of the play's leading
man (Csányi), who comes on like he's thinking of just sex and nothing else (fittingly, since he's been
cast as Valmont) but also drops hints that his is not a one-track mind. This scenario doesn't exactly
break new rom-com ground, and Dóra's life-improves-on-art revelation that Valmonts might also be
virtuous is a fait accompli from the time Schell and Csányi first lock eyes. But well-done piffle beats
the other kind, and Goda's precise camera setups, smarter-than-usual dialogue and fine,
spontaneous-seeming ensemble work in the scenes introducing Dóra's fractious theater troupe go a
long way toward ameliorating the predictability of the proceedings.
(Grande 4-Plex)
Directed by Krisztina Goda.
Screenplay, Krisztina Goda, Gabor Heller, Reka Divinyi.
A Megafilm, RTL Klub production.
Produced by Gabor Kalomista.
With: Judit Schell, Sandor Csanyi, Kata Dobo, Zoltan Seress, Karoly Gesztesi
Antal Czapko, Adel Jordan.
An attractive thirty-something woman is fed up with dating but desperate to have a child in this farcical
Hungarian hit and international festival favorite. Dóra, a dramaturge for a Budapest theatre, gives up
on men after she learns her fiancé is married. With her biological clock tick-tick-ticking, Dóra decides
to get pregnant through a no-strings-attached affair.
WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
90 minutes * unrated * 35 mm * 2005
REVIEWS
Variety
By EDDIE COCKRELL
A bright, snappy relationship comedy repping a still-new strain of commercial Hungarian cinema
concocted primarily for local consumption, "Just Sex and Nothing Else" was a huge local hit that will
travel to a clutch of fests and play well regionally before finding a pot of gold on homevid.
Thirty-three-year-old theater dramaturg Dora (Judit Schell) meets cute with swaggering actor Tamas
(ubiquitous "Kontroll" star Sandor Csanyi) when she's forced to a window ledge by the sudden arrival
of her current lover's wife. As exasperated Dora tells actress chum Zsofi (Kata Dobo), she wants a kid
but as for the guy, it's just sex and nothing else. As she sorts things out with Tamas by way of
composer Peter (Zoltan Seress) and Turkish counterman Ali (Antal Czapko), laughs are plentiful as
the troupe grapples with her translation of "Dangerous Liaisons." Unsurprisingly, relationship issues
are generally treated with more frankness than in similar U.S. or Brit prods. Witty dialogue is delivered
briskly by easy-on-the-eyes cast, with Karoly Gesztesi a hoot as play's blustery helmer. Glossy tech
package presents a sophisticated, picturesque Budapest. Pic won the screenplay prize at the recently
concluded Hungarian Film Week.
LA Times
By Kevin Thomas
"Just Sex and Nothing Else," the film that opens the series, has a far more universal appeal. The title
comes from an ad that an attractive theater dramaturge (Judit Schell) specifies on an Internet dating
service. Unlucky in love, she now wants simply to become pregnant. She's so self-absorbed, though,
that she is blind to the fact that the hunky actor ("Kontroll's" Sandor Csanyi) cast as Valmont in a
production of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" has fallen in love with her.
Krisztina Goda's film could just as easily have been made in Hollywood and set in Manhattan -- and
with luck, it will connect with moviegoers in the same way as quality films made here at home.
LA WEEKLY
By Adam Nayman
GO JUST SEX AND NOTHING ELSE
After breaking through in Nimród Antal's fest-circuit hit Kontroll, Sándor Csányi has become one of
Hungary's biggest movie stars. With his dark eyes and striking features, the 32-year-old actor seems
built for brooding poses, but he doesn't coast on his looks; in Krisztina Goda's comedy Just Sex and
Nothing Else, he almost seems to be satirizing his own hunk-of-the-moment status. The film's title
refers to the newly minted imperative of its heroine, Dóra (Judit Schell), a 30-something Budapest
dramaturge smarting from a series of failed relationships and hypersensitive to the ticking of her
biological clock. She's in the midst of translating and restaging Dangerous Liaisons when she
comes to her unromantic epiphany and places a newspaper ad basically inviting strangers to
impregnate her, no strings attached. Second thoughts arrive, on cue, in the form of the play's leading
man (Csányi), who comes on like he's thinking of just sex and nothing else (fittingly, since he's been
cast as Valmont) but also drops hints that his is not a one-track mind. This scenario doesn't exactly
break new rom-com ground, and Dóra's life-improves-on-art revelation that Valmonts might also be
virtuous is a fait accompli from the time Schell and Csányi first lock eyes. But well-done piffle beats
the other kind, and Goda's precise camera setups, smarter-than-usual dialogue and fine,
spontaneous-seeming ensemble work in the scenes introducing Dóra's fractious theater troupe go a
long way toward ameliorating the predictability of the proceedings.
(Grande 4-Plex)
| DVD $19.95 |
| Hungarian DVD Store Duna Film |