Bizalom (Confidence) is a 1980 film from Hungary directed by Istvan Szabo.
The setting is late 1944; the Red Army approaches but for the moment, Nazi boots are still on the ground in Hungary. One day a 30-year-old woman named Kata is walking home through the eerily deserted streets of Budapest when a man grabs her and yanks her into an alley. It turns out that 1) her husband is a member of the anti-Nazi resistance, 2) he has gone underground as the Gestapo is looking for him, and 3) Kata can't go home as the Gestapo is staking out her house and she'll get arrested. Kata, who had no idea her husband was in La Résistance, is shocked.
She is whisked to a hospital where the doctor is also a member of the underground. He reassures her that her husband and daughter are safe but that she won't be seeing either of them any time soon.After the doctor gives her false papers and a cover story, Kata is taken to a house in the suburbs. There she meets one "Janos Biro", a Resistance member who is also hiding out under a fake name, renting a spare room in the house of an elderly couple. For the duration of her stay, Kata will be pretending to be Janos's wife.
Naturally, Kata and Janos fall in love.
Tropes:
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Kata tearfully admits her feelings for Janos.Kata: I love you. Maybe I shouldn't have told you... I'm a fool; I shouldn't have told you.
- Bathtub Scene: Not for Fanservice though. At first it's more like Fan Disservice as Kata, stressed out over everything, sits in the bathtub in a fetal position. Then when Janos enters the bath she stands up and embraces him, demonstrating their emotional closeness.
- Bittersweet Ending: Both Kata and Janos survive the war. So does Kata's husband (and presumably their daughter) and husband and wife are reunited at the end. But the single tear rolling down Kata's face shows her mixed feelings after being parted from Janos forever. The last shot of the movie shows Janos futilely calling out Kata's name at the line of people looking to get new identity papers.
- Call-Back: At the end Bozi pops up at the same documentation center Kata was at, showing that she survived the war as well.
- Contrived Coincidence: Janos is utterly terrified to run into an old friend... from Germany, that he knew 14 years ago. His old friend is now an officer in the German army.
- Face Framed in Shadow: Kata and Janos have a lot of intense conversations in their dimly-lit room in the evenings, first when he's trying to impress on her the need to be careful about what she says and does, and later when they're talking about their feelings.
- Inner Monologue: Used periodically. One time Kata and Janos are walking down the street when Janos sees a man standing idly at a corner. Janos's inner monologue furiously speculates whether or not the man is a Gestapo agent come to arrest them, until they pass and he thinks to himself that the man must just be a random man standing at the corner.
- La Résistance: Kata is extremely surprised to find out that her husband is part of "the movement". Just what he was doing is never explained.
- Marriage Before Romance: Kata and Janos, total strangers, have to pretend to be a married couple. They fall in love.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Kata runs into an old friend named Bozi who asks for help. Kata, afraid to risk her own safety, pretends not to recognize Bozi. Afterwards she is ashamed, crying at the realization that she let her friend down.
- New Year Has Come: Janos marks midnight and New Years' 1945 on his watch. They celebrate by each eating a single cube of sugar by the light of a candle.
- No Name Given: Kata's husband is never named.
- Single Tear: The single tear that trickles down Kata's face betrays her mixed emotions as she embraces her husband.
- Stock Footage: The film opens with a creepy propaganda newsreel telling Hungarians not to get too worried about bombs dropping, before switching to German soldiers and Hungarians playing a friendly game of soccer. Then towards the end there's a brief stock clip of Soviet rocket launchers, to show the Red Army at the gates of Budapest.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: There isn't anything wrong with Kata's husband, who seems attentive and affectionate. Ditto Janos's wife who writes about how much she misses him. But the two of them, confined together in trying and desperate circumstances, are certainly sympathetic as they embark on a love affair.
- Trust Password: Kata is instructed to verify her identity when she reaches the safehouse by reciting the phrase "Thank God, the child's all right", word for word.
- Voiceover Letter: A rather unusual use of this trope when Janos gets a letter from his wife. The letter is accompanied by the wife's voiceover, as usual, but it's also accompanied by her face staring directly at the camera.
