Confidence Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Confidence Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 12, 2020

Is it possible to develop a potent case of Stockholm Syndrome in Budapest? That’s of course asked with tongue firmly in cheek, but it’s a salient question nonetheless, since Confidence deals at least in part with a woman suddenly thrust into near captivity during World War II, albeit not the horrors of Nazi concentration camp, and how she ends up reacting to that confinement and, notably, to her ostensible "captor". Confidence opens with a supposed newsreel that, despite the film’s overall decidedly dramatic tone, may strike some as being positively Monty Python's Flying Circus -esque as it discusses a general inability by most people to properly identify sounds of planes passing overhead, and more importantly, sounds of bombs being dropped, with the upshot being a distinctly implied, “Just don’t worry about it”. When the newsreel then just jauntily moves on to a sporting match between Germany and Hungary, it’s almost deliberately comical, an aspect which morphs pretty readily into confusion and suspicion once Kata (Ildikó Bánsági) leaves the movie house and is almost instantly accosted by a man who seems to be a stranger and who alerts her to the fact that her husband has just been arrested by the authorities, and Kata herself is in danger. There’s already a good deal of ambiguity at play, since it’s not clear whether Kata actually knows this guy, or, more importantly, whether she’s completely clued in to as to her husband’s activities in the Hungarian resistance during World War II.

When the stranger informs Kata that it’s not safe for her to return to her own home and that she must find safety elsewhere, she tells him she has nowhere to go. The guy tells her to go to the local hospital in an hour and ask for a specific doctor named Czakó (László Littmann), who aside from his medical duties seems to be running a pretty well organized side show getting political prisoners (or at least their spouses) to safety. The good doctor has a sheaf of papers for Kata to memorize, since arrangements have been made for her to adopt an entirely new identity, with a new “pretend” husband named János (Péter Andorai).

What ensues is a story of forced intimacy which ultimately (and probably unsurprisingly) grows into real intimacy, but writer and director István Szabó plies a paranoiac territory where it’s not entirely clear what everyone’s motives are. There’s even the suggestion that János may not be the freedom fighter his underground status indicates, as he’s seen “checking up” on Kata to make sure she isn’t doing anything to undermine their subterfuge as a married couple. But even Kata herself is seen to be a rush of conflicting emotions, and she understandably is concerned about her real husband, leading to some tense showdowns.

While I wouldn't be prone to pushing this comparison too far, since there are obvious stylistic and narrative differences at play, but there's an almost Hitchcockian ambience to the situation that develops between Kata and János, not just necessarily regarding the interplay between those two specifically, but also between them and the elderly couple that has taken them in as "refugees", and, in other moments, the world at large as Kata in particular kind of wants to break free and see what's going on outside. The fact that both Kata and János have spouses plays into the story, and actually provides considerable narrative momentum, despite a somewhat "static" feeling due to so much of the film taking place in drab, interior spaces. The shifting loyalties and hints of duplicity that arise give the film an undeniable emotional tension, and the closing few seconds of the film are kind of chilling. There is perhaps one slight downside, since the way Szabó has written Kata requires the undeniably excellent Ildikó Bánsági to play her frequently crying or with a "deer in the headlights" look.

Confidence Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Confidence is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber's Kino Classics imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Kind of interestingly, neither this film nor Colonel Redl offer the same overt mention of a 4K restoration as Mephisto's cover does, but the closing credits for this film do mention a 2018 restoration by the Hungarian National Film Archive, and there's a 4K credit as well. Confidence doesn't quite meet the consistent levels offered by Mephisto, but it often comes close. A lot of the film has a slightly blue or slate gray undertone, something that can keep things wintry and cool looking but which doesn't materially affect detail levels. Repeated use of extreme close-ups help to support fine detail on facial features and fabrics of some of the clothes. There's quite a bit of dark material here, and many of those moments offer considerably grittier and more yellow looking grain, and there are also occasional isolated moments where clarity is not at the same level as the bulk of the presentation, as documented variously in screenshots 16 through 19.

Confidence Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Confidence features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track in the original Hungarian. I haven't been able to track down info on the theme music, but I'm thinking it might be an archival recording of some kind, since there is some noticeable distortion. Other than that anomaly, the rest of this track offers more than capable support for what is an almost entirely dialogue driven effort, and dialogue typically within the cloistered confines of small interior spaces. There are occasional ambient environmental sounds that intrude when the characters venture outside, and those are rendered with good fidelity as well. Optional English subtitles are available.

Confidence Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: All three of the István Szabó films Kino Lorber has released on Blu-ray (Mephisto, Colonel Redl and this film) offer some of the same supplementary material.

• The Central Europe of István Szabó (1080p; 3:11) is basically a collection of clips from various Szabo films.


• Remembrance of Production Designer József Romvári (1080p; 8:12) is a really sweet piece done by (as his credit for the film reads) art director József Romvári's granddaughter. This has some snippets from films, but also some nostalgic music and fun home movies.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:39) is actually promotion for all three István Szabó films released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

This is the relatively rare Kino release that I've personally reviewed that actually comes with an insert booklet, and in this case it has two interesting essays, stills and some cast, crew and technical data.

Confidence Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Confidence is a really intriguing character study, and it makes for a fascinating companion piece to István Szabó's Mephisto, since both films in their own document characters' reactions to the Nazi regime. That said, Confidence is the much more intimate of the two films, in several senses of that word, and it is bolstered by some really intense performances. Technical merits are solid, and Confidence comes Recommended.