What is the point of Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period Of Time (yes, that’s the title), the second feature from director Lili Horvát? That’s the question I kept asking myself as I was swept through the rabbit hole that is at the center of this curiously empty film. Horvát served as a casting director on Kornel Mundruczó’s White God, so she knows a thing or two about the technical aspects of filmmaking and ‘Preparations’ is indeed a technical accomplishment, filled with swirling camera movements and expertly refined editing.
The premise of ‘Preparations’, on-paper at least, is certainly intriguing: Two decades after moving to America to further her career, neurosurgeon Márta (Natasa Stork) returns to her native Budapest to start a relationship with fellow doctor, János (Viktor Bodó). But when she arrives, he’s nowhere to be found, even worse, when she confronts him at his workplace, he appears to have no idea who she is and has no memory of the plans they made two days prior.
This leads us to speculate, a lot, about who is lying. It’s not just János, but Márta as well who becomes unreliable to the viewer. However, why would she fabricate the connection (and conversations) with this man in her head? János does have the allure of potentially making it all up, maybe he had second thoughts about their affair and decided to play this mind game to get out of their relationship.
‘Preparations’ is no doubt, at times, a fascinating experiment, especially at its start where intrigue invades its every frame, but then our curiosity turns into frustration and it becomes all-too-clear that Horvát has no intention in giving us any answers and clues to her enigmatic puzzle. Even worse, Márta ends up just letting go of the dilemma altogether and moving on with her work research which, so it happens, is with János.
The pretensions at work here are maddening, playing with the viewer’s head in ways that feel downright masochistic. We get it, Horvát is refusing to adhere to conventionality and, instead, favors an endless array of metaphorical paradoxes, asking questions and then letting them go in favor of non-entities in the plot. It does culminate with a brilliant final shot, one in which Horvát mocks the audience for following her along this entire time. Of course, one may very well be snoozing at this point in the film, but those brave enough to be still be fully awake will leave this movie with a sly grin on their faces. They’ve been had.
SCORE: C
The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.