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Magyar
Róbert Nagy
Position struggles in the Hungarian film industry in the era of retribution after 1956
The emergence of Budapest Film Studio
In the hectic years after the revolution of 1956, a number of agents were active in the Hungarian filmmaking scene. The practices of the era can be well reconstructed from their reports. In the period of retribution after 1956, the artists in Hunnia Film Studio tried to obtain the protection of one of the several cliques, and various alliances were formed and broken one after the other. As there was a considerable shortage of experts in filmmaking, there was no significant retribution among them. From the perspective of the power, a possible solution was to establish another studio as a competitor to break the feature film production monopoly of Hunnia Studio, which was filled with “counter-revolutionary elements”. The plan was supported by György Aczél, who returned to politics in the spring of 1957, and whose main fields of activities were literature and film.
The new feature film unit was eventually formed in Budapest Film Studio, which had only produced news and documentary films previously. The team, which lacked experience in feature film making, desperately needed a leading name. As György Aczél and Zoltán Várkonyi seemed to be in good relationship, Várkonyi became the artistic director of the studio. For the other key position, the head of dramaturgs, István Nemeskürty was chosen, who had previously been unknown in filmmaking.
The system of networks that developed in this era determined Hungarian filmmaking for several decades. Várkonyi and Nemeskürty, enjoying Aczél’s support, had a considerable financial lobbying power in the 1960s. It made it possible for the two artists to create a series of high-budget historical films, the pinnacle of which was the most expensive Hungarian film ever made, The Stars of Eger (1968).
Zoltán Varga
A tribute to Newton
Hidden (and less hidden) system criticism in the short animation films in the Kádár era, especially the works of Ferenc Rófusz and István Orosz
One of the strongest branches of Hungarian filmmaking in the Kádár era was animation films. The now legendary Pannónia Film Studio was regarded as one of the top five animation film studios in the world in its heyday; generations grew up on television series created here, and their most successful full-length films attracted millions to the cinemas. The short art films, the so-called ”individual” films raised considerable attention at festivals worldwide, and some of them received the most prestigious prizes (Palme d’Or, Academy Award). Audiences at international festivals paid a special attention to the animation films from the Central and Eastern European region; they virtually hunted for films in which they hoped to find some real or imaginary system criticism, of course “enciphered” in a “coded” language. Some Hungarian short animation films can be interpreted as, intentional or unintentional, criticisms of the world of state socialism whether they recalled events of 20th century Hungarian history or the contrast between liberty and captivity, confinement or vulnerability. The article explores how this Aesopus-like manner of speech worked by examining Ferenc Rófusz’s The Fly (1980), Deadlock (1982), and Gravity (1984), and István Orosz’s Private Nightmare (1980), Ah, America! (1984), and Mind the Steps! (1989).
Orsolya Ring
The world of films in the Kádár era
Based on decisive life experiences in András Szirtes’s artistic career
The aim of the article is to present András Szirtes’s film making career, mainly discussed from the perspective of his personal life experience. András Szirtes’s film career sprouted in the Kádár era, but his neo-avantgarde works could at most be included in the “tolerated” category as they incorporated artistic approaches and artworks which did not a have a simple and unambiguous visual language and were therefore incomprehensible for the system. The article focuses on an oral history interview conducted in July 2022. Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of field and capital, I aim to analyse the world of filmmaking in the Kádár era relying on the life experience story unfolding from the interview and explore how the power relations of the dictatorship altered the rules of the field.
Patrik Tamás Mravik
Identification games in the critical discourse on the Hungarian cinema in the 1970s.
Debates on the Hungarian film culture in the reception of László Lugossy's Man Without a Name
The article analyses how critical narratives shaped the discourse on Hungarian cinema. Who were the participants and how did they write about the films? What was the function of the criticism, how did they form the practices of the reception and distribution, and what conflicts did they affect in the socialist cultural sphere? The case study in the essay is the debate in 1976 and 1977 on László Lugossy's first feature film, Man Without a Name. A movie about a soldier who struggles to regain his name in the identification process after World War II. The debate, on the one hand, represents the simulated nature of the discourses in the Kádár era, which strove to prove the democratic diversity of opinions in an autocratic regime. On the other hand, the discourse also revealed that some critics had actual power to shape the evaluation of the movies and proclaim the “proper” interpretation of the movies. At a certain point, the debate diverged from Lugossy's film and raised the question of the function of socialist criticism. The study is based on the original articles and essays and a recent interview with the director László Lugossy.
Márta Elbert - Béla Révész
The role of the Black Box Foundation in the visual documentation of the years of the regime change
Fekete Doboz Alapítvány (Black Box Foundation) was established in 1988 as the first independent media group in Communist Hungary. Since then, Black Box has both participated in and documented Hungarian politics and cultural events in a way fundamentally different from state-controlled media. Black Box gave voice and a face to those deprived of media visibility: those who dared to print samizdat, those who commemorated the 1956 Revolution, those who organized protests against the communist dictatorship, and those who demanded social and political change and advocated national sovereignty before the regime change. Black Box highlights include the “Opposition Roundtable Negotiations,” (1989) documenting the power handover/takeover process that facilitated the peaceful regime change in Hungary from communist dictatorship to multi-party democracy.
Fekete Doboz Alapítvány (Black Box Foundation) was established in 1988 as the first independent media group in Communist Hungary. Since then, Black Box has both participated in and documented Hungarian politics and cultural events in a way fundamentally different from state-controlled media. Black Box gave voice and a face to those deprived of media visibility: those who dared to print samizdat, those who commemorated the 1956 Revolution, those who organized protests against the communist dictatorship, and those who demanded social and political change and advocated national sovereignty before the regime change. Black Box highlights include the “Opposition Roundtable Negotiations,” (1989) documenting the power handover/takeover process that facilitated the peaceful regime change in Hungary from communist dictatorship to multi-party democracy.
Gyöngyi Heltai
The entertainment industry of Budapest – a subterranean stream in the socialist era
The entertainment industry of Budapest – a subterranean stream in the socialist era
Fekete Doboz Alapítvány (Black Box Foundation) was established in 1988 as the first independent media group in Communist Hungary. Since then, Black Box has both participated in and documented Hungarian politics and cultural events in a way fundamentally different from state-controlled media. Black Box gave voice and a face to those deprived of media visibility: those who dared to print samizdat, those who commemorated the 1956 Revolution, those who organized protests against the communist dictatorship, and those who demanded social and political change and advocated national sovereignty before the regime change. Black Box highlights include the “Opposition Roundtable Negotiations,” (1989) documenting the power handover/takeover process that facilitated the peaceful regime change in Hungary from communist dictatorship to multi-party democracy.
Black Box chronicled the events that took place in private flats, underground venues, bars, cinemas, theatres and finally in the streets. The video documentation created between 1988 and 1996 is the largest and most significant private video archive from the era of the regime change in Hungary.
Andrea György
Interpretation of the relationship between literature and theater in early Útunk
The 1954 theatre criticism debate
After the communists took power in the aftermath of World War II, the political leadership set out to impose a new concept of the world and a new kind of man. In this sense, it was necessary to gain control over the cultural press, subordinating the practices of criticism to Marxist propaganda, turning it into a means of manipulating readers. Criticism, like fiction, was a deed, and in the party's view, the critic was to play an important role in shaping the new society. Focusing on the dispute over theatre criticism that took place in the periodical Útunk and studying its editions from 1946 to 1954, I aimed to identify how critical discourse interpreted the relationship between literature and theatre, dramatical text and stage in the era.
Réka Haász - Eszter Tóth
The Literary Stage of Pécs and Tamás Bécsy’s Pocket Theatre
The article presents so far unpublished sources about the Literary Stage which was established in Pécs in the mid-1960s and the amateur/alternative/theatre group associated with Tamás Bécsy’s name. The sources will be included in a collection of documents about the theatre life of Hungary in the 1960s. The agent reports show the reaction of the power to the unusual features of the amateur theatrical group. By the mid-1960s, the importance of cultural centres had grown around Hungary, and cultural “workshops” were organized in larger cities which had higher education institutions, with the cooperation of a major theatre or periodical. Several amateur groups, ensembles and literary journals of national importance appeared in Pécs too. Similarly to the neighbouring countries, new concepts appeared in the amateur theatre groups in this era, and instead of traditional, “full-stage” performances, they began to focus on clubs, circles and academies. The literary stages established in this period mainly compiled their programmes without any political implications, and focused on lyrical and prose works, which could be enhanced with music and movement. Initially, official culture politics identified the amateur drama groups as grassroots movements, which could operate with the support of educational or cultural institutions. In addition to literary stages, several alternative theatrical experiments appeared too. The work of these groups was characterised by the novelty of stage tools, but later they tried to broaden the boundaries, and included pieces in their repertoires which were not allowed in official theatres. As a result, they often found themselves in conflict with the official cultural politics, and triggered aversion and counteraction by local or central politics.
Boglárka Hidi – Zoltán Imre – Balázs Kalmár
Documents from the history of the Szeged University Stage
The Kádár regime basically retained the theatre structure created by the nationalisation of theatres (1949), which in principle aimed to serve the democratic access to theatre, since all theatres were subsidised institutions, exempt from the laws of the market. In return, however, the cultural authorities continued to subordinate the theatre to their own ideology and policies and had full control over the theatres. From the early 1960s, ‘amateur’ theatre groups (Universitas, Kassák House Studio, Orfeo, Stúdió K, Kovács István Stúdió, Brobo Társulat, as well as the Manézs Színpad in Miskolc, the Bányász Színpad in Tatabánya, the Reflex Színpad in Zalaegerszeg, the Főnix Ensemble in Debrecen, and others) emerged. These groups existed with minimal institutional support, as independent, often grassroots, semi-autonomous/autonomous civic initiatives. The documents published here date back to the 1970s, when the Szeged University Stage (SZESZ) was in operation. They show the path and potential of a highly successful ‘amateur’ theatre of the period and reflect the ways in which it conducted its day-to-day operations. At the same time, however, they also draw attention to the fact that none of the ‘amateur’ theatres managed to become institutionalised, and that the inclusion of their participants, if at all, could only be achieved at an individual level.
Tamás Gajdó
The betrayal of theatre critics
A bookreview on
Noémi Herczog: KUSS! Feljelentő színikritika a Kádár-korban. [SHUT UP! Reporting theater criticism in the Kádár era] Kronosz Kiadó, Pécs, 2022. 480. p.
The author of the book explored a part of Hungarian theatre history which had previously been overlooked. She researched the indirect ways the communist party manipulated the opinions formed about theatre performances that were allowed to be presented but the party had ideological problems with. Loyal critics were to condemn them to set the viewers’ as well as the author’s minds right, which could even result in a final ban. Noémi Herczog not only revealed what role theatre criticism and theatre itself played in the Kádár-era, but also described the steps that were to be taken to compile and get the permission for the programme of the season. She emphasizes that even communists considered the theatre to have a major role in the legitimization of their politics. A full-scale study being impossible, the author presented emblematic plays and typical issues they generated, also showing whether or not any political intervention took place. She also examined whether any negative criticism appeared at the time, and whether it resulted in any sanctions concerning the performance.
Every page of the book shows that the author deeply immersed herself in this topic. She knows all the available sources and handles them professionally. Besides using these, she also conducted various oral history interviews with contemporaries.
Noémi Herczog’s book is an outstanding groundbreaking work among those dealing with the theatre history of the Kádár era. Many will reference it, and some may argue with what she concluded. This excellent work, however, cannot be in any way overlooked when discussing this era of Hungarian theatre.