The song I expected to hear in "My Twentieth Century" was Roy Orbison's melodious, ethereal pop song "In Dreams." It would have worked even more succinctly in this confection of turn-of-the-century images of a new era, new ideas, than in Lynch's "Blue Velvet." "My Twentieth Century" is a glorious, fantastical and supremely beautiful film of dreams told with such simplicity that it should be considered a fairly definitive evocation of the historical era it portrays with great love and attention.
"My Twentieth Century" begins fleetingly with the invention of the light bulb by morose inventor Thomas Edison (Péter Andora), showcasing his revolutionary idea by having a tree lit with bulbs. A marching band carrying light bulbs on their hats celebrates the discovery. Afterwards, there is the simultaneous birth of twin Hungarian girls (Dorotha Segda plays the single mother and her daughters in their adult years) - the film already develops a comical side when the mother is unaware she has two baby girls crying in her bed. Getting back to Edison for a second - is he morose because such an invention doesn't compare to giving birth? Who can say though the stars in the night sky are wondering why he's sad as they call out to him (the talking stars are unmistakably a nod to "It's a Wonderful Life").
The twin girls, Dora and Lili, become orphans who sell matches on the snow-covered Budapest streets and are eventually separated by two strangers who steal their matches. As they enter adulthood, Dora becomes a grifter, stealing from the wealthy and living a life of luxury aboard trains, ships and expensive hotel rooms. Lili has become an anarchist, bombing buildings where the Minister of Interior frequents. The two never seem to meet again except in a funhouse of mirrors and even then, nothing is shared between them. The man they share, unbeknownst to them, is Z (Oleg Yankovsky), a mysterious figure of some intellectual heft, who lives in a small apartment and attends symposiums on transmitting electricity by human touch (a little Tesla twinkle there I gather).
Surreal, stirring debut films like "My Twentieth Century" are unusual and especially from a female director like Ildikó Enyedi. This is not a normal debut by any means - Hungarian filmmaker Enyedi (making her film during the era of Communist Hungary) shows she has a tremendous vision of a bygone era and it is illustrated by striking, densely layered imagery (a woman dances on stage with light bulbs attached to her) and subtle, expressive performances. There is a lot going on here with freely associative historical vignettes involving Pavlovian dogs, wealth inequality, the novel excitement of silent films, the treatment of women as objects despite their burgeoning presence where equal rights were in their infancy, Edison's other invention namely the telegraph, and a sense of being free with the promise of an exciting new era. Z may not know what is coming, and both Dora and Lili are just pawns in a time of self-expression. None of them comment on the new technology during the Second Industrial Revolution, the politics of the era (though Lili attends a lecture on women's rights) and barely any matters when it comes to the heart. Love itself for lustful Dora and the virginal Lili exists in a vacuum. They don't know what's coming ahead and that is the heartbreaking soul of "My Twentieth Century." They just know they are free.
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