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Budapest’s Largest Int’l Film Festival Offers Fully Restored Classics  

Hungary’s National Film Institute is organizing, for the fourth time, Budapest’s largest international film event, Budapest Classics Film Marathon beginning on 21st September. The six-day celebration offers more than 70 recently restored classics in themed sections at various venues around the capital. To the delight of Budapesters, the popular square in front of St. Stephen’s Basilica is once again being transformed into a giant, free open-air cinema.

Csaba Káel, government commissioner for the development of the Hungarian film industry, chairman of the National Film Institute, noted: “The 120th jubilee of the birth of Hungarian cinema distinguishes 2021. Thanks to Budapest Classics Film Marathon, in this special year we can once again sit together in cinemas and at open-air screenings to re-discover and enjoy the finest treasures of Hungarian and international cinema.”

National Film Institute celebrates 120 years of Hungarian film with several large-scale events this year. The Hungarian Motion Picture Festival was brought to life this summer, the exhibition Wide Angle in Ludwig Museum is a broad-ranging overview of Hungarian film history (open until mid-November 2021), and the opening gala of the 4th Budapest Classics Film Marathon at Uránia National Film Theatre on the evening of 21 September is similarly a celebration of the anniversary. At the opening there will be a screening – in a selection made up of Lumière films from 1896 – of the first film footage shot in Hungary; an animation documentary made about the birth of the first Hungarian film, The Dance, and the digitally restored version of Alexander Korda’s cult silent film from 1918, Man of Gold with musical accompaniment composed by young talent Bence Farkas and performed by Győr Philharmonic Orchestra.

The goal of the Marathon is to spotlight the values of Hungarian film heritage and present the treasures preserved in European archives to a Hungarian audience. The 2021 Marathon showcases newly restored classics and film rarities in five sections: Hommage, In Focus, Hungarians in Hollywood, Hungarian Eye, Open Archives.

“Last year’s Marathon had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. This difficult period has had a heavy impact on cinemas as well as the tradition of cinema-going. Due to these factors and the love for immortal film classics, let’s meet again in front of the big screen!” said György Ráduly, director of the National Film Institute - Film Archive.

Marathon’s Hommage pays tribute to iconic actress Mari Törőcsik, worldwide acclaimed animation artist Marcell Jankovics, cinematographer János Tóth and French film director Bertrand Tavernier.

Legendary actress Mari Törőcsik (1935-2021) appeared in countless films and her acting talent remains eternally memorable. She is the only Hungarian actress to have won Best Actress Prize at the Cannes Film Festival (Mrs. Déry, Where Are You? by Gyula Maár, 1976). During the Marathon, audiences can marvel at her film roles as a teenager (Our Kid by Mihály Szemes – Miklós Markos, 1959), a young servant girl hungry for love (Anna by Zoltán Fábri, 1958), as diva (Mrs. Déry, Where Are You?) and as tragic heroine of Antiquity (Electra, My Love by Miklós Jancsó, 1974).

Short animation Cannes Palme d’Or winner and Oscar nominee Marcell Jankovics was one of the most significant artists of Hungarian animation. His enchanting animations have given pleasure to succeeding generations since the 70s, Johnny Corncob (1973) and Song of the Miraculous Hind (2002) can be experienced in fully restored audio and visual format.

Marathon focuses on legendary artists celebrating milestone anniversaries in 2021, Miklós Jancsó (100), Zoltán Huszárik (90) and Márta Mészáros (90); two masters of animation, Sándor Reisenbüchler and János Halász (John Halas), and avant-garde artist László Moholy-Nagy.

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Miklós Jancsó, called ‘The Master’ by Martin Scorsese, the National Film Institute – Film Archive is completing the digital restoration of all Jancsó’s works made before 1990 in Hungary. The In Focus programme presents those restored films that have already been completed, thereby allowing audiences to experience iconic masterpieces – Cantata, Silence and Cry, Winter Wind among others – in superb quality.

Filmmakers of the long-established Hungarian cinematography tradition have made their mark at home and abroad over the last 120 years. The Hungarian Eye section focuses on their achievements, where audiences can see the world through the eyes of Vilmos Zsigmond, István Hildebrand, Lajos Koltai and Maté Rudolph.

The Hungarians in Hollywood selection draws on the rich Hungarian heritage of Hollywood: The Apartment with stage design by Sándor Trauner (Alexandre Trauner) who won an Oscar for his work, The Shop Around the Corner based on Miklós László’s work, To Be or Not to Be filmed from a Menyhért Lengyel story, the comedy It Started with Eve by Joe Pasternak, Béla Lugosi’s role in Dracula and, naturally, Mihály Kertész’ all-time classic Casablanca.

The Open Archives programme is a chance to glimpse the work of film collections. It showcases restored, rarely seen and important works from European film archives. It offers a ride along with bikers from the 1920s in the Alps (A Motorcycle Trip Among the Clouds), counterfeiting from Orson Welles (F for Fake) and animation commercials by George Pal.

All are invited to free evening screenings on Szent István Square in front of the Basilica. The four classics projected on the giant, outdoor screen are Miklós Jancsó’s fully restored masterpiece The Round-Up, Marcell Jankovics’s grandiose animation feature Johnny Corncob, the rarely seen audience favourite, Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Legend of 1900 cinematographed by European Film Award-winner Lajos Koltai, and Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind cinematographed by Oscar-winner Vilmos Zsigmond.

Film screenings at Budapest Classics Film Marathon are complemented by professional programmes, book presentations, lectures, audience meetings, exhibitions, music and children’s programmes. Venues include Uránia National Film Theatre, Toldi cinema, the French Institute, Budapest and Ludwig Museum in Müpa.

More: https://filmarchiv.hu/en/filmmarathon/2021