My Twentieth Century

Ildiko Enyedi’s 1989 film, My Twentieth Century, is an extremely complex movie whose narrative functions to explore the embodiment of modernity at the turn of the century. The film simply peruses and catalogues the visual and social changes in history. The film does not really adhere to a formal plot structure. Instead, we are enigmatically tossed around a time-scape that lends itself to the life of Dora and Lili. The film explores various themes that replicate and journey through turn of the century events and sentiment.

Enyedi, through a mixture of episodic events, melds together different factions of the past in order to synthesize a complete picture of the changes at hand. These juxtapositions allow us to learn more about the main characters, who seem to stand for social issues, history and technology. Take for instance the great exhibition of lights that are displayed at the film’s opening sequence. This particular image (this sequence) provides us with particular ideas which we are forced to juxtapose with every scene that follows. A technological advancement, such as the light bulb, represents for instance, progress.

In the beginning of the film we witness the birth of both Dora and Lili. The scenes following then explore the separation between the twins. The young girls grow up in two different environments. This dichotomy explores the different social and economical condition in which they find themselves representative. Dora grows up to become materialistic. For instance on the train she’s wearing a very elegant black dress, drinking wine, etc. Lili, on the other hand, finds solace in life that is committed to political activism.

Accordingly, Enyedi provides us with the presence of notions purported Weininger, which the film explicitly presents claiming women as either whores or virgins. I think what Enyedi is trying to explore is this fork in the road where women decided what factors will dominate their perception. Dora finds her autonomy represented in the material goods that she consumes, and despite the fact that men try to appeal to her with their power, which is defined in status (wealth, etc), she pay them little heed, and seems more amused by the exchange of goods for pleasure. To Lili this exchange is foreign; instead, she is more interested in a greater good, a purpose that is representative of something beyond her own amusement or pleasure. In the end, the film seems to embody a whole slew of ideas and aspects related to (temporal) progress including social, political, economic, technological and sexual issues.