The Door

Synopsis: It is Budapest in the 1960s and Magda (Martina Gedeck), a well-to-do middle-class writer, employs an elderly, reclusive woman, Emerence (Helen Mirren), to be her housekeeper. This is the story of their relationship.

The Door is a quietly restrained film that nevertheless amply demonstrates the mastery of the now 75 year old Szabó over his craft. Based on a novel by Magda Szabó (no relation that I know of), it is a richly textured work that, so typically of European film, concentrates on its subjects' interior life rather than external events. These are largely confined to the unfolding relationship between the two women who live on opposite sides of the same street. No doubt there are things that will be lost on an audience not familiar with the setting, but we can clearly understand the shadow of World War II, the Holocaust and Hungary’s post-war Communist regime that hangs over them.

Although the casting is unusual, principally because the dialogue is in English and there is no attempt to disguise Mirren’s English accent or Gedeck’s German one, the performances are to be savoured. Mirren, needless to say, is wonderful as the severe, irascible home help whilst Gedeck, who most will know from Mostly Martha (2001) in which she played a similar role, is equally good as the comfortable bourgeoisie who is both threatened and fascinated by her abrasive employee. Károly Eperjes leavens the intensity of their relationship with some near-comedic moments as Magda’s husband.

Szabó, aided by Elemér Ragályi’s fine cinematography and some resonant Schumann chamber music, deftly depicts the thawing of these two women’s defences. Although at times, Emerence is given seemingly overly-wordy, theatricalized lines of dialogue, the unfolding is achieved with grace and free of the conventional simplifications of Hollywood narrative cinema.

The Door is a beautifully-composed, contemplative film that will reward anyone who appreciates fine story-telling and top drawer acting and directing.

 

 

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