Just the names inspire awe and admiration, a newsreel of famous images flickering through your head. A Chinese dragon hurtling through the hills of San Francisco, for example.
Matt Zoller Seitz reviews an upcoming PBS documentary about their friendship, the legendary way it was formed (1956, in Budapest in the middle of the Soviet crackdown – the stories abound), and the lifetime of collaboration. Two immigrants, essentially, who ended up shaping, in uncountable ways, how Americans saw themselves, adding to our collective memory of the 20th century.
After seeing this film, I can’t believe I didn’t already know who Kovacs and Zsigmond were. As a huge fan of a number of the films they worked on, I think it’s a tragedy that more people don’t know who they are and I hope this documentary changes things.
Even for people who aren’t cinemaphiles, there’s lots of good stuff in this documentary – just the story of their friendship and escape from Hungary was interesting enough. PBS definitely has a real winner here.
I also loved the musical selections. JJ Johnson’s “Seven Days in Tahiti” was a perfect mood setter to conjure up 1960s Hollywood, and I’ve always been a big fan of Jolie Holland was happpy to hear “Sascha” in the end credits. Great job all around.