Colossal Sensation!

The movie itself begins in monochrome, but switches to color in 1949, and by 1953 has become overwhelmed with brilliant reds, when the twins are employed by the Budapest Grand Circus. There they do a routine where they pretend to smash a watch borrowed from a member of the audience. That Naphthalene borrows the Party Leader's watch, that the results are less than appealing to the Party Leader only serve to drive the plot and story along: Dodo takes the blame for the destruction of the watch, and goes to prison. In 1956, during the Hungarian uprising, Naphthalene and Dodo's girlfriend, Pipiter (Orsolya Toth) make friends with the crew of a Russian tank, and things become quite surreal from there.

But all of this goes to make a point. A point director Robert Koltai makes important in the story, by way of a line uttered by a character: We are very small dots in all of this, comrade. Small dots, indeed. But small dots that go to leave great impacts on the Soviet occupation: Unlike some who endured the horrors of the occupation these three survived but responding, through improvisation, to the emergencies, the tragedies of life.

Which brings me back to those great winds that seem to forever blow: Instead of bending them to human will human will should learn to bend to them.

And from that will come success.

I don't know when or where "Colossal Sensation!" will find its way into the majority of theaters in the United States. I don't know if it even will. I am told it will have limited release, and decisions for wider releases will be made from there. I hope it does gain a wider release in the states, because it is a film worth seeing. A film that one won't soon forget, owing much to the performances, the scenery, and the story itself.

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