Tuesday 26 April 19.00 Urania National Film Theatre

THE ROUND-UP / SZEGÉNYLEGÉNYEK (1965)

The film depicts a camp full of prisoners after a defeated revolution. The prison staff try to identify the rebels and find out if a chief rebel is among them using various means of mental and physical torture and trickery. In The Round-Up, the contemporary viewer had an opportunity to learn about the reprisals that followed the 1956 Revolution. On the spectacular stage that is the Puszta, the camera tracks the protagonists (also performing involved movements) with long, complicated movements, thus illustrating the inscrutable, manipulative nature of the functioning of authority. Many (including Martin Scorsese) consider The Round-Up as a true classic of world cinema. It was selected to be screened in the Cannes Classics section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.

Directed by Miklós Jancsó
Screenplay by Gyula Hernádi, Miklós Jancsó
Director of photography: Tamás Somló
Cast: János Görbe, Zoltán Latinovits, Tibor Molnár, András Kozák, József Madaras, Lajos Őze
Genre: historical drama
Production: Mafilm Studio 4
Technical specs: black and white, 90 min
Format: 4K restored, 35mm digitally recorded, cinemascope, grading supervised by János Kende, DOP

Awards and selections

1966 – Cannes Film Festival – In Competition
1966 – Locarno International Film Festival – FIPRESCI Prize
1968, 2000 – Part of The Budapest 12 – One of Hungary’s Best Films
2015 – Cannes Classics – Official Selection
2015 – Lumière Film Festival – Selection by Martin Scorsese

Wednesday 27 April 20.00 Urania National Film Theatre

THE WORKMAN’S OVERALL / A MUNKÁSZUBBONY (1914)

Hornyai, the wealthy factory owner, bids farewell to his family and sets off for his country estate for some relaxation. While out hunting, he accidentally injures a beautiful Gypsy girl who, attracted by the man, enters the villa garden in the evening. Returning to his office, Hornyai finds an anonymous letter in which one of the employees complains about the foreman Darvas. The director decides that he himself will get to the bottom of the story. He pulls on his old work clothes and signs up at his own factory under a pseudonym. Meanwhile, his wife and daughter travel to the villa where the jealous Gypsy girl appears. At night, Hornay spies on Darvas as he smuggles products out of the factory. In revenge, the next day the foreman arranges for the boiler to explode and he tries to shift the blame onto the new worker. The gendarmerie arrest Hornyai. Meanwhile, Vilma disappears from the villa. The kidnapper Gypsy girl ends up in the same jail as Hornyai. Seeing the man, the girl’s conscience is stricken and she escapes in order to inform the director’s wife, who sets out to free her husband. At the end, the girl is found and the gendarmerie catch the culprit Darvas. This movie is the earliest surviving full-length feature film in the collection of the Hungarian Film Archive. It stars Gyula Hegedűs, one of the greatest figures in Hungarian theatre history, and Elza Szamosi, one of the most famous Puccini singers on American and European opera stages. The copy, found in the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, was identified in 2017.

Directed by Istvan Brody
Screenplay by Imre Foldes
Director of Photography: Bela Zsitkovszky
Cast: Gyula Hegedűs, Ilona Berzetei Hegedűsne, Elza Szamosi, Vilma Szakvary, Elemer Thury
Genre: Drama
Production: Genius
Format: 2K Restored DCP, live music: Jazzical Quintet

The Round-Up (Photo: NFI/Inkey Tibor)