Thank you, newborn!
From the site linked above:
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http://www.honeymood.com/ ONE HUMAN MINUTE
hungarian feature film
writer: Stanislav Lem, Zoltán Verebes
director : Zoltán Verebes
co-producers: T.B.A.
producer: Zoltán Kamondi
production company: Honeymood Films
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SYNOPSIS
Stanislav Lem's short story, "One Human Minute" is the review of a fictitious book of the same title. The author, posing as a critic, reviews an almanac type of book, which tries to summarize and present all that happens to mankind in one minute by condensing it all into numbers.
Lem picks random chapters from the fictive book to illustrate this, and also adds his associative pictures to them in his commentaries, examining their social consequences and reactions, both on a material and an intellectual level. Thus the short story does not tell a story, but philosophizes, staying within the limits of science fiction.
The story is visually abstracted, but the voice of the personified narrator guides the audience in a special way within its world, mixed with the reality of our times. In the beginning he is incognito, as a storyteller who is outside the story, but as the plot develops we realize that he is the author himself.
With the help of the adapted text and with the story I created, the fictitious book comes to life, appearing as a film, in a visual form, thus the author of the book by turn becomes the director of the film.
The story starts in a bookstore somewhere, in the 21st century. The three-member staff (MANAGER, OWNER, CLEANER) is just about to close, when at the request of a last, mysterious customer (READER) they go back to the storage room for a book, leaving the CLEANER behind. Once in the storage room, they are bumbfound at seeing that the whole stock has been replaced by copies of an insignificant looking book. They cannot find anything else, even in the untouched packages on the pallets.
When they return to the shop they are shocked to see that the books that were there a minute ago, have disapperaed without a trace, and the shelves are packed with the same book. The situation is absurd: a miracle had happened.
Although the CLEANER is the only witness, he is still under the influence of having experienced a miracle; and does not speak. Thus the only starting point in understanding the unusual "criminal offence" is the book with a puritan cover, where neither the author, nor the publisher is indicated, only the title: "One Human Minute".
The almanac-style book introduces us to what happens to the whole of mankind in the time 1 minute goes by.
The book store is secured by the state police and an investigation is started in the middle of the night. While they are still questioning the four people concerned and looking for possible clues, the surprisingly well informed media arrive and demand more information. The source of the book is untraceable, and nobody can trace its origins down.
As a result of this event, the book becomes world-famous in a second, and although it is a piece of evidence, it is reprinted and translated. It becomes a bestseller.
The more extensive the investigation, the more mysteries it faces; the four people also become suspicious. The investigation continuously takes different directions, so the book becomes the subject of extreme controversies in all segments of society.
Politics, science, religion and art gets involved in the "hysteria" around the book, demanding the liable person: the author. But the author only exists outside the story as a narrator, he is present only for the audience. From the centre of this "quadruple polarity", he maps the self-contradictions of the four interests by his book and its story.
The four characters (MANAGER, OWNER, CLEANER and READER) all have different approaches to the situation, while in the spotlights of the media all four turn into mythical figures.
The book and its consequences both insult and legitimise politics, science, religion and art, thus the interested groups try to get the four characters, as they are expecting them to make the public opinion favourable for them in the limelight of pressing publicity. Either accepting or rejecting the book, they are "thrown" from one group to the other, all the time following the aspects of the author's book.
Religion tries to corrupt the READER (mystic hermit), but since his demand for reality is much too superior, he does not give in; so they kidnap him and manipulate his statements towards the public. When he escapes, he is forced to stay hidden.
The CLEANER (a young boy), the eyewitness, becomes a key person for Arts, as other interest groups cannot make use of his mysterious character. The Arts, however, interpret him arbitrarily, making a clown of him.
The only unachievable dream of the OWNER (rich male) is the MANAGER (female), who, although in love, is unable to give herself to him. Each of their steps in the story is about the other, their agony is the endless fight of the two sexes. The OWNER sells himself out to Science, the MANAGER to Power; but because both become defenceless, they collapse.
Their personal tribulations change them one by one: they all understand the miracle. They realise that they are only imaginary characters, the world where their destiny takes place only exists in the imagination of the author.
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