120 years of Magyar film’s history screened in Bucharest

Balassi Magyar Institute in Bucharest in partnership with the National Film Archive in Hungary is initiating several screenings this year meant to present the history of the Magyar film. 120 years since the first movie screening in Budapest and since the opening of the first cinema in Budapest are marked this year.

The history of the Magyar film began in 1896 when Lumiere brothers’ movies were screened in the café of Royal hotel in Budapest. After that, two Hungarian filmmakers, brothers Sziklai Arnold and Zsigmond opened the first Magyar cinema on Andrássy Boulevard, Ikonográf.

The Balassi Institute initiated a series of monthly screenings presenting the most representative Magyar cinema productions of each decade as of 1896 up to 1989.

The series is kicking off with two silent films, ‘Until we get old’ (1916) and ‘The Last Night’ (1917), which have been restored and digitalized. The movie screenings will be accompanied by a piano live by Cătălin Răducanu.

“Until we get old” is the first cinema adaptation of Jókai Mór’s novel, which tells the story of an aristocrat family during the 1848 Revolution and the upcoming reform period.

“The Last Night” is a remarkable melodrama of the silent film age, which has been shot at Trasylvania film studios in Cluj in 1917. The studios were set up by Janovics Jenő, the head of the Magyar Theatre in Cluj. A successful cabaret diva returns to her native country after the outburst of the WWI, but she cannot find her family anymore. She hires herself at a theatre in the Capital city and she is acclaimed by a secret adorer every night.

The films will be screened at Eforie Cinema (2 Eforie Street) in the second half of every month on a Thursday. The first screening is due on January 21, at 7 p.m.

More info at: www.ccu.ro.