Vera Gyürey

Special Birthday Issue

The Budapest "CineMémoire" Festival

In the "Örökmozgó" Film Museum, the 40 year old Hungarian Film Institute and the Institute Francaise in Budapest, - embarking upon the 50th year of its existence, - are celebrating their common birthday.

During the early part of the 90s in Paris, - where the cult of film is perhaps the greatest, - an enthusiastic film historian decided to screen to the public old but restored films no longer shown in ordinary movie distribution. He carried his plan into effect, and CinéMémoire – i.e. CinéMémoire – has been organised each year ever since. Twice the Hungarian Film Institute also presented its restorations at this event.

The screening of restored treasures and curios of film history is hardly less than a tradition today, and is certainly that at film museums. This month movie-goers - as part of the Budapest special issue of the Paris CinéMémoire - may at the Örökmozgó watch films that have previously been shown at CinéMémoire as well as other festivals, e.g. in Bologna and Pordenone. Exactly 30 films selected from the history of film, - long and short feature films, silent and sound films, well-known films and those never screened in Hungary before, - will be shown during these 18 days.

Restoring old films not only lengthens the life of these films, but images that have often been rendered hardly visible with scratches come to life as a result, sounds are made audible again, - in one word, restoration provides us with an enjoyable experience. Because enjoyability, a characteristic so essential to film, is regrettably absent from worn copies. It is our hope that at this time - having on so many occasions been forced to illustrate the history of film with deteriorated copies - we may treat our audiences to true visual pleasures.

The series will be opened on the evening of September 13, with one of the most significant films of universal film history, i.e. a restored version of Doctor Faustus. When last summer we watched Murnau's film in Bologna, - restored with international co-operation, - we were daydreaming about at least once screening it at our own film museum in Budapest. How wonderful it would be if all our plans were realised in such a short time!

During these September days, in one sense the World will be brought to reside in the Great Boulevard of Budapest. The screening of films restored at the French, Belgian, English, German, Czech, Russian, Italian, Dutch, Roumanian, Serbian, Slovenian, and of course Hungarian, film archives will give an insight into past, recent and contemporary film history.

Silent films, e.g. the Dutch melodramas and Doctor Faustus, will be screened with the original musical accompaniment. Last year, we managed to restore Béla Balogh's silent film, entitled The Fourteenth, hand in hand with the Dutch archive and with the sponsorship of the Lumiere Foundation. The recoloured pictures, the playing of the actors and the subject matter could each by itself make this film a memorable experience, yet we hope to offer our audience an additional surprise in the form of the musical accompaniment.

Along with the films, those colleagues of ours from sister archives who are the most renown experts of film restoration will also come to Budapest. And as the film, the moving picture is made for the public, we are convinced that questions regarding its fate can not be looked upon as the business of a limited circle. For this reason, on September 20th, a professional day will be held at the Örökmozgó Film Museum, where the problems, the purpose and the importance of film restoration will be discussed during an open session.

This September is a special time for us. It will stop the flow of weekdays for a second, and after that we shall continue the work which many of us consider a personal issue.

The following films will be screened at the CinéMémoire Festival:

13, 19: Doctor Faustus; 14: The Indian Girl's Love, Glowing Embers; 15, 29: Four Dutch Melodramas + Three sensations from a Belgian Festival; 16: Amok; 17: Films of the Czech Avantgarde; 18: Piccadilly; 19: Satanic Rhapsody; 19, 23: The Fall of Berlin I-II.; 20: Mihail Strogoff; Etudes about Paris; The Fourteenth; 21: Psyché I-III.; 22: Hindu Sepulchre; 23: Harakiri; 24: The Battle of Rigómező; Roumania's Independence; 25: Iván Nikulin, the Russian Sailor; 26: The Great Reverie; 27: Sad Street; 28: The Purple Crysanthemum, Roads of Fear; 30: Farewell, America!

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