Gloomy SundayGail Heriot

No, I don’t mean today.  It’s a bit chilly and overcast for Southern California, but I wouldn’t call it gloomy …. 

I’m referring to the movie “Gloomy Sunday,” which my ex-husband has been recommending to me for the last several years. I finally rented it at my local video … I mean DVD … parlor.  He was right.  It’s was quite a good movie–weirdly tragic and comic at the same time.

This morning I went on the internet to learn something about the actors and was surprised to find that the movie’s premise is true–a Hungarian composer in the 1930s did indeed write a song called “Gloomy Sunday” that drove people to suicide all over the world.  Sort of.  The suicides may have been entirely apochryphal, part of one of the music industry’s early publicity stunts. Judging from the number of people who have since recorded the song, I may be the only person in the world who was unaware of all this.

The movie (also called “The Piano Player“) itself is fiction, and it didn’t get as much attention in this country as I think it deserved.  I loved the ending, but if you haven’t seen it, perhaps I shouldn’t spoil it for you. It’s been gone from the theaters for about three years, but it’s not too late to rent.