Nine Months Movie Review

Marta Meszaros is a fine writer and director who makes a number of important universal statements in Nine Months. Widely praised for her award-winning 1975 movie, The Adoption, Meszaros has a sharp eye for the details that determine the direction of her character's lives. Why does her strong, brave, self-reliant heroine (Lili Minori) fall for the violent tactics of the foreman who wants to marry her? She resists him up to the point when he breaks into her room and tears her clothing, then she undresses him tenderly and feeds him from a bowl filled with bread and vegetables. Meszaros shows us how a woman can break out of a trap in which she finds herself, but not why she would choose such a fascist dork to begin with. Minori is plain and pudgy, yet she seems quite lovely as she struggles to maintain her work, her studies, her child, and her dignity. Jan Nowicki plays the role of the stubborn fiance to the hilt, his piercing blue eyes expressing his feelings better than reams of dialogue. And Janos Kende's exceptional cinematography makes the drab factories, laboratories, and train stations in and around Budapest seem almost beautiful.

1977 93m/C HU Lili Monori, Jan Nowicki, Dzsoko Roszics; D: Marta Meszaros; W: Marta Meszaros, Gyula Hernadi, Ildiko Korodi; C: Janos Kende; M: Gyorgy Kovacs.