Hungarian Heritage Review, 1991 (20. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1991-01-01 / 1. szám
feature, and full-length and short nature, films won more than 130 prestigious international awards at various film festivals — Locarno, Karlovy Vary, Venice, Moscow, San Francisco, Boston, Cannes, Edinburgh, Rome, Paris, Montevideo, Bucharest, Santiago de Chile, Oberhausen, Leipzig, Padua, Mannheim, Melbourne, Bergamo, Adelaide, Vancouver, Vienna, to mention just a few. (For details see the relevant tables showing all data about the prize-winning films between 1948 and 1965 in Cultural Life in Hungary, ed. Zoltán Halasz. Budapest; Pannónia Press, 1966, pp. 208-214). Critics ranked motion pictures that were directed by Geza Radvanyi (Somewhere in Europe, 1947), Zoltán Fabri (Merry-Go-Round, 1955; Professor Hannibul, 1956), Felix Mariassy (Budapest Spring, 1955), László Ranody (Abyss, 1956; Skylark, 1963), Karoly Makk (The House under the Rocks, 1958) and Miklós Jancso (Cantata, 1962) among the highest artistic achievements. Atthe 1964 Cannes Film Festival the prize for the best actor went to Antal Pager for his part in Skylark (Pacsirta). Director Karoly Makk's The House under the Rocks was awarded the prize for the best film at San Francisco in 1958. Love, another import directed by Makk, starring a cast of three headed by Lili Darvas was acclaimed by the New York Times as one of the ten best films of 1973. The Times acclaimed Love as a "very precise, moving, and fine-grained" film with "three superb performances". Lili Darvas, by the way, numbers 3 American films among her credits: The Affairs of Maupassant (1938), Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956) and Cimarron (1961). In the category of short films several Hungarian productions have won international awards, among them Overture (Nyitány) directed by Janos Vadasz which won the Oscar and the Grand Prix for short films at the Cannes Film Festival in 1965. The outline of cinematographic production cannot omit nature or educational films, least of all those of István Homoki-Nagy's prize winning The Kingdom of the Waters (Karlovy Vary, 1952, prize for best cinematography), From Blosson Time to Autumn Frost (Venice, 1953, 1 st prize for popular science films) and Ágoston Kollanyi's Aquarium (Cannes, 1954, film technicians' prize; Karlovy Vary, 1954, prize for the best educational film). Gyula Macskassy is an eminent master of animated films. His cartoon, Parbaj (Duel), and other works have influenced a generation of young cartoonists in recent years. Film Theoreticians In the domain of film aesthetics or the philosophy of art there are several pioneering works by Hungarian authors. Sir Alexander Korda, about whom we will elaborate under the subheading of "Producers and Directors", was among the historic first to advocate the film theory that the motion picture is, above all, art. Korda edited three motion picture journals in Budapest during the formative period of film aesthetics: Pesti Mozi (Movies in Pest, 1912), Mozi (Movie; 1913) and Mozihet (Movie Weekly; 1915-1918). Interestingly, a Benedictine monk later turned educational philosopher at the University of Pecs, Cecil Bognár, published an article in the December 15, 1915 issue of the Budapesti Hirlap which argued that the film is not only an art but a form of communication as well. Bartok's librettist, Bela Balazs (1884-1949), ranks among the first developers of modern film theory by means of his widely quoted work Der sichtbare Mensch (The Visible Man, 1924). In recent literature much credit has been given to Bela Balazs for his theoretical work. A major portion of Dudley J. Andrew's book The Major Film Theories: an introduction (London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1976) is devoted to the analysis of the lifework of Bela Balazs. Up to this point in our chapter on Theater and Cinema we have constructed a contextual framework within which to insert the subject of Hungarian artists in America. Hungarian-born talent has been a prominent and multi-faceted jewel in the crown of motion picture art. JANUARY 1991 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW 23
