Magyar Hírek, 1987 (40. évfolyam, 1-23. szám)
1987-01-10 / 1. szám
Since it was established in 1928 many Hungarians in Hollywood won an Oscar. Naturally, just to be talented is not enough one also needs a bit of luck. This point was made when talking to Vilmos Zsigmond, an Oscar winner, Zoltán Elek, the make-up man, also an Oscar winner, and László Kovács, the famous cameraman. I talked to Vilmos Zsigmond in the executive suite of his enterprise, Cinematic Directions. “About two thousand of us applied to study camera work at the motion picture college in Budapest, but only twentyfive made it. From the second year onwards János Badal and György Illés were my teachers. When I completed my studies in 1955, 1 began to work as an assistant at the motion picture studio. That same year we made the film Bakaruhában (Rookie’s gear) directed by János Badal, where I had the opportunity to shoot some of the scenes myself. Besides that I also shot a musical comedy. Those were the only pictures I worked on in Hungary.” “And then came 1956 . . .” “1 had to start from the bottom in the United States. 1 got married in Vienna, and tny wife fell pregnant and gave birth to two children within two years.” “What kind of jobs did you yet initially?” “1 took any work 1 could find, worked in laboratories, where 1 enlarged pictures of successful photographers, for instance those of John Hamilton, who worked mainly where motion pictures were made.” “Did you work in Hollywood then?” “No, I did not. First. 1 spent a few months in Chicago, then a year in New York. Affér that I went to Los Angeles and found a job in a laboratory, where 1 was close to motion pictures thanks to the enlargements I made. Enlargement in colour was still a novelty then, and when I worked on the advertising and press material of West Side Story that was Easy Rider something, for that was the first motion picture advertised by colour stills.” “ When did you bey in to shoot feature films? “ 1 nitially 1 took part in the shooting of low-budget motion pictures. There T worked together with László Kovács, he was my assistant as well as my chief light-effects man, in other words the two of us made the whole film. At that time every youngster who could afford it rode a bike. They did so in gangs too. The motion pictures set out from that basic situation, and one of Kovács’s best Easy llider, also grew out of these films.” “What was your first ‘serious’ feature film?” “The first motion picture for which I could take full responsibility was Prelude on which we spent a long time. It was a love story at a supermarket. “Was that film a-financial success?” “1 could show it to producers and studios and started to get invitations as a result. That was when l got Peter Fonda’s picture, Hired Hands, directed by Fonda himself. In fact Laci Kovács was in line to shoot this film, because Fonda grew to appreciate him very much when they made Easy Rider. But Laci was already working at that time with Altmann, and he recommended me to the Universal Studios. On another occasion, when Altmann wanted to work with Laci Kovács, but he was already shooting another picture, he recommended me to Altmann. Up to that time we frequently worked together, then our courses parted. This film, which I shot with Altmann, was nominated for a prize at the British Film Academy. That happened in 1973, when three of my films were nominated for that prize. 1 made quite a few pictures till 1977, when I shot Close Encounters of the Third Kind with Spielberg, for which I won an Oscar.” “How can you square business with art?” "It is really not possible to reconcile the two but when we started this enterprise l stipulated that whenever I have a contract for a feature film that will have first priority. If I am shooting for three or four months, and cannot work here then we either find someone also to deal with the work instead of me, or we close the business for that time.” “What kind of contacts have you with people in Hungary?” "I go home every year, if for nothing to meet György Illés, the ‘Papi’, and my friends.” The story starts again in the beautiful Beverly Hills home of László Kovács. “When you awl Vilmos Zsigmond left in 1956 how conf ident were you of success?” “Our dream was to work in Hollywood and we thought everything was going to go smoothly. We had confidence in ourselves, but when we arrived here we realised nobody was waiting just for us, nobody was interested in what we knew, what we had done before, or what would we like to do. But we did not give up our dreams all the same. We tried to make a short film with József Zsuffa, who left Hungary with us. The film was about a small boy, who wanted to find the blue in the sky. When we finished the film we thought it would help us to get a job. We miscalculated, though, it did not help at all. So I had to do something to make a crust. Together with Vilmos, we enlarged microfilms in the laboratory of an insurance company. We worked there for four years.” “Which was the first film you could show to a major studio?”
