Once upon a time there was..a wonderful little film festival in the beautiful baroque town of Eger. It was the time when intellectuals all over Europe dicussed the new films of Bergman, Fellini and the French ”Nouvelle Vague” and they were ready to become enthusiastic about new films from countries belonging to the then existing ”Eastern Bloc” too. Wajda, Polanski, Tarkovski had a chance to become noticed - but Hungarian film makers such as Miklós Jancsó, István Szabó, and Károly Makk as well. During this period of post-68 intellectual and cineastic fermentation the ”Summer Unversity of Hungarian Film” in Eger was founded. Its starting point was the initiative of a group of French ”cineastes” who wanted to get to know closer the people who made those interesting Hungarian films- and their country. But soon the seminar turned really international and became an ”East meets West” place of encounter. Just as ordinary Germans from both sides of the Berlin Wall would meet on the shores of lake Balaton, German speaking film lovers from both sides of the Iron Curtain would come to Eger to meet. The ”Egri Nyári Egyetem” turned into a huge success. Even though the conditions of boarding (at first in a nurses'school) and of film showing and translation (at first in the ”Ifjúsági Ház”) were far from perfect, a joyful atmosphere of curiosity reigned. People coming to this little festival did not just watch films, they were having a good time as well. At the highest point of the institution more than 100 people from more than a dozen countries came to Eger around the end of July and that beginning of August – and that held for about a decade, from around 1980 to 1990. The author of these lines came to participate in the ”Nyári Egyetem” in the mid 1980's, loved it and stayed on until today.
But people and times change, for the better and for the worse (the latter meaning of course that everybody is getting older). The intellectuals of the 68’generation who adored to discuss politics and film are nearing retirement age now, and new ”cinephiles” are getting relatively rare. The Iron Curtain has fallen – a happy event in itself – but this also meant the end of Hungary as the meeting place of East and West. The ”Old Masters” of Hungarian cinema have by now really reached a ripe age and Hungarian cinema , well subsidized as a showcase of the late Kádár era, entered a period of profound crisis at the time of regime change. There were still hot discussions going on with Hungarian film makers during the wonderful Egri summer nights - now in the garden of the Hotel Korona – but there were fewer and fewer people participating. Also some Hungarian film artists started to say things such as: ”I am against Communism but also against the materialistic age that is coming now, ” or - more problematic: ”I am not interested in the public. I am creating films for myself – and for posterity”,
It was forseeable that people with such an attitude would not be loved by the Hungarian public which tended more and more to regard Hungarian films as by far too ”dark and tedious” and who now flocked to view in increasing numbers the Hollywood products now freely available throughout the country. But an attitude like that could not be loved by subsidizing state authorities either, who realized that they were pouring sizeable amounts of money into an ”entertainment industry” whose products were little appreciated by the public and not even by the intellectuals from abroad.
Today the process of market orientation of Hungarian cinema appears in full swing – box office results tend to become better, but there is evidently less stuff for intellectual discussions.
In this context the Eger Film Seminar started to age too. Fewer and fewer people came. The organization stayed in the same hands and started to become a ”family affair”.There was a touching element of friendship and trust involved, as fewer and fewer faithful guests were happy to meet the same friendly hosts in the charming setting of a beautiful Baroque town. But there was evidently less and less life in the project. Reforms were tried and appeared to be successful for a while e.g. : Let’s not just talk about Hungarian films , but let’s present a foreign country and its filmmakers as well. The idea was tried with France, Germany Finland and India but never really caught on. In recent years there has been a tendency to probe into other forms of art such as modern dance and pantomime: Impressive artists came to Eger such as (this year) Csaba Méhes or András Kecskés. But they were met by a sadly shrunken public. Today Eger’s film summer unversity counts less than 20 paying guests from abroad.
Is this development inevitable? Is it time to close down this friendly institution that has just celebrated its 30th anniversary? It would be a great pity and a great loss to do so – for there is enough potential to develop it, to regenerate it.
Hungarian film today is less internationally discussed than in former times. Things like that happen and Hungarian football also has never quite regained the glories of the time of Puskás and Hidegkuti. But Hungarian film is a mirror of Hungarian reality, and young people engaging in Finno-ugristic studies all over Europe could e.g. learn a lot about Hungarian culture coming to Eger. With the help of Eger’s pedagogical university the Film Seminar could maybe be combined with advanced language training facilities and (on a three –country basis as a prerequisite) EU-money could perhaps be mobilized for such an Eger-based cultural exchange scheme. This would also serve as an antidote against a certain provincialisation of the institution that has become evident in recent years. A cautious rejuvenation of the organizing team could help in that respect.
The Eger Summer University on Hungarian Film does not have to die – but in order to survive it needs new blood, new ideas, and an opening up to new intellectual challenges. Then again young people from many countries will come together in Eger to study and to discuss, but also to love and to dance. And some of the ”old faithful ones” would also continue their presence and enjoy the fact that a valuable institution has come to new life.
