Movie: The Notebook (Le Grand Cahier)

The Notebook:  Hungarian WW II film.  The story revolves around 12 year old twin boys.  The twins are played by actual brothers, Laszlo and Andras Gyemant.  The time period is 1944/1945.   The opening scene shows the father returning home on military leave to a loving wife and two sons.  When the father returns to the front, the wife takes the boys to her mother’s farm.  We quickly learn that the grandmother has neither seen her grandchildren nor met her son-in-law.  The boys’ mother left home upon the death of her father.  There are hints as to how the father died and why a schism exists between mother and daughter.  If you understand Hungarian, the background story may be clearer.  The film’s focus is on what happens to the boys when they are left at their grandmother’s house, not on the mother-daughter relationship.  The title originates from the father giving the twins a notebook and telling them to write down everything that happens to them while he is gone.  The boys are diligent in their task.  The fact there is a war is very present throughout the film, and the village’s anti-Semitism is part of the story.  The twins are not Jewish and the anti-Semitism we witness is viewed through their eyes.  We never learn the names of the twins; they are either “One” or the “Other” or, per the grandmother, “the Bastards”.   Until the twins’ father arrives at the farm, the grandmother believes there is no husband.  This 112 minute film, directed by Janos Szasz, is based on a French novel by a Hungarian author named Agota Kristof, who also co-wrote the script.  The story deals with unpleasant times.  The grandmother initially appears to be an angry and evil woman.  She is undoubtedly angry, however, as to the story develops, not evil.   The twins learn to survive and in the process, are changed; they are not the same individuals they were when the films opens.  Some of the characters are stereotypes, but the film’s focus remains on the twins and what happens when young males are forced to grow up without the presence of a sane adult male to interpret the barbaric events of wartime.  The Gyemant brothers give an excellent performance.  The film will linger in your thoughts for a long while.