Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1985. július-december (39. évfolyam, 27-48. szám)
1985-10-24 / 40. szám
8. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ Thursday, Oct. 24. 1985. COLONEL REDL COLONEL REDL. Directed by István Szabó. Written by István Szabó and Peter DobaL Starring Klaus Mueller Brandauer. A Hunga- ry-FRG-Austria production. 1985. In German with English subtitles. At the 57th Street Playhouse. MPAA Rating: R. Klaus Maria Brandauer in a scene from Colonel Redl. The mystery and intrigue surrounding the suicide of Colonel Alfred Redl, a high ranking intelligence officer in the pre-World War I Austro-Hungarian Empire, has long been a subject of debate and creative speculation, as in British playwright John Osborne's 1956 drama A Patriot For Me. Internationally recognized Hungarian director István Szabo’s film Colonel Redl which won the Critics' Prize at the 1985 Budapest Film Festival, the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and was screened at this year’s New York Film Festival, is distinguished from prior works on this subject by its unique socialist perspective. In this engrossing and haunting film portrait. Redl himself embodies the tragedy and fate of a man who. having detached himself from his class and family ties, makes pretensions to a social class that accepts him only as long as he serves their purposes, grasping frantically at a deceptive identity that is ultimately transitory and with no stable foundation in reality. In the end, he is adrift among the chaotic power shifts prior to World War I. perhaps himself the first casualty of that conflict. Like Szabo’s prior award-winning film, Mephisto, about a pre-World War II German actor who attempts to accommodate his art to Nazism, Colonel Redl likewise sacrifices his sense of self for his political ambition and his inflexible belief in a doomed social reality. MAGYAR UROLÓGUS Or. George Klein Comeli-diplomas, a Mount Sinai kórház szakorvosa RENDELŐK: 120 East 79th St., New York, N.Y. 10021 , 110-45 Queens Blvd. Forest Hills, N.Y. 1137a Telefon: (212) 744-8700 és (718) 861-9000 RENDELÉS ELŐZETES BEJELENTÉSRE: Prosztata problémák Vasectomy Húgyúti fertőzések Impotencia VesekÓ - Vese és hólyagdaganatok 24 órás díjtalan telefon konzultáció Medicare-t és Blue Cross-Blue Shield biztosítást elfogadunk. THE BRIDGE NEEDS BROADENING WORLD FEDERATION OF HUNGARIANS' NEW GEN. SEC. Dr. Jenó Rande, who took over earlier this year as Gen Sec. of the World Federation of Hungarians, has worked for televisions and at the Foreign Ministry. "I feel I've remained both a journalist and a diplomat, although I'm doing neither at present." He is also an author, one of whose books, "New York Reporting", describes four visits to the US between 1957 and 1960. Rande considers his years at the Embassy in Vienna a "good preschooling" for his present position in the organization that links expatriates and those of Hungarian descent around the world. "I was in touch with eight Hungarian societies there, and the council of indigenous Austrian Hungarians was formed in my time in Vienna." Times have changed, Rande says: "These days far more emigres keep in touch with their mother country, although there are still some who oppose us. We (the Federation) don't close the door. Some won't join in with us even though their aims in practice are the same. Politically we may differ, yet the preservation of Hungarian culture must be a common interest. "We advocate dual ties. Hungarians living abroad should be good citizens of the countries in which they live but also bound to their native land... Preserving the language and a consciousness of being Hungarian are tasks that require a broad concentration of efforts." Randé sees preserving the language most of all as the task of parents. Schools can't do it alone. "I was once asked by a colleague here to look up an uncle of his while I was in the States. I was met by a dapper old man who spoke beautiful Hungarian 60 years after emigrating. How had he kept it up? 'I read Mikszáth, Jókai and Móra (famous novelists) every day', he said. "The World Federation of Hungarians' main task, of course, is to reinforce the link. We have the bridge but it needs broadening. "These days the question of assimilation is being approached differently. The melting-pot principle is giving way to concern that ethnic variety should be preserved. Not long ago I met the Australian Minister of Tourism. He told me they agree that Hungarians there should preserve their language and so give more variety to the country as a whole. How nice it would be if this approach became general practice," Randé remarked. Report from Budapest About Household Budgets In every second—odd—year, statistical data are collected by the Central Statistical Office on family budgets in Hungary. The latest figures are from 1983, when approximately 8,000 households—representing the smallest social unit managing its economic affairs, and the smallest consumer community —were given questionnaires on their budgets. Providing data about a family's household and its finances can be done only voluntarily and with the willing, active participation of the family members concerned, so understandably there are quite a few families which are not prepared to take part in data collecting. The reluctance of many families is due to the fact that most of them keep practically no accounts of their incomes and spendings, consequently data collecting would mean an extra effort and some headaches for them. A household generally represents one family, although there are cases when as many as three generations live within one household and there are also numerous examples of brothers and sisters living under one roof. Consequently when the Central Statistical Office investigates family budgets, it must deal with a representative cross section of various kinds of families so that the conclusions of its investigation reflect a realistic picture of the living conditions of the different strata of society. In average Hungarian families both husbands and wives are employed. The average Hungarian family has two children, although the total national average is—unfortunately—less than 2.0, so in our examples we’ll be using a family of four with two active earners and two dependents.* In 1983 the average monthly income of a family of this type was 12,142 forints. (Since 1983 incomes have increased by approximately 10% on average, but when compared to the increasing spendings the general proportions have remained roughly the same.) This income represents the net revenues after the deduction of taxes and old-age pension contributions; it includes not only wages and salaries but various other social benefits such as family allowance. scholarships, and supplementary wages which are aimed at compensating consumer-price increases. About 74% of families in this category live in their own homes and only 21.8% of them live in council flats. About 8.1% of these families have a cottage in the countryside. The average size of their homes is 74 m:, 40.8% of these homes have two rooms, 51.8% have three or more rooms. The “average family" of the above category spends 3,642 forints on food every month, and since this is the largest item in its spending it seems to indicate that Hungarians like to eat and drink well especially becauses food prices are relatively low in this country. The “special consumer items” column —including alcohol, coffee, tea and tobacco—shows an additional 937 forints on the spending side with tea representing the smallest proportion. Housing overhead costs make up a monthly average of 886 forints and this amount includes rents, housing loan payments, electricity, gas and heating bills. Building costs of new homes or purchasing prices of new flats are not included in this column. The monthly clothing bill shows a considerably high figure of 1308 forints, just as transport costs are also quite expensive especially if you have a car. Petrol, car maintenance, transport and postal services cost a total of 1,364 forints every month. There are quite a few families who buy consumer durables or furniture as shown by the monthly bill of household durables, an average sum of 989 forints. An average 288 forints are spent on toiletry products and 1,605 forints on leisure pursuits—including various cultural activities, theatre, cinema, buying books, periodicals and even excursions in the weekends. The “hobby” column takes up a monthly 359 forints and about 295 forints are spent on presents and donations. The average monthly savings in the families of the above category are about 1,000 forints. laid a wreath on Sunday in the northern Romanian town of Arad, at the memorial column to the thirteen Hungarian generals executed after the War of Independence by the Austrians, on October 6, 1849. Wreath laying in Arad Tibor Hodicska, Charge d'Affaires of the Hungarian Embassy in Bucharest, Domokos Vékás, Hungarian Consul General at Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca) and Lieutenant- Colonel Sándor Aradi, military attache,
