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If anyone does pick up Mephisto, please share any info on its quality as I'd like to pick it up.

In case this hasn't been picked up elsewhere Örökség (1980) Marta Meszaros starring Isabelle Huppert is coming from Gaumont a la demande in June. No english subs but French HoH.

Latest release from Magyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum is A kiskakas gyémánt félkrajcárja és más mesék, a collection of animated short films from Gyula Macskássy.

Two more are coming:
Zoltan Fabri's Boys of Paul Street
and Viktor Gertler's The Man of Gold

videozor wrote:Two more are coming:
Zoltan Fabri's Boys of Paul Street
and Viktor Gertler's The Man of Gold

Went through the Fabri DVD today. Great picture quality. The 16 minute documentary on the history of the book and film versions is English subtitled. Unfortunate that they didn't include the 1924 Balogh Bela silent version touched on in the doc with clips. Looks stronger than this '68 version (Fabri is a long way from the top of his game here IMHO). Also exciting was to see short clips of Merry-go-Round and Professor Hannibul that appear to be from restorations! Hope to see these coming soon.

skuhn8 wrote:Also exciting was to see short clips of Merry-go-Round and Professor Hannibul that appear to be from restorations! Hope to see these coming soon.

That's excellent news - I've never been happy with the cropped Merry-go-Round DVD.

Szabó's Confidence (Bizalom) just released by Second Run - details here

Merry-Go-Round would be a natural for Second Run if they could get their hands on a restored version in the correct aspect ratio. They've been gradually mopping up the absolutely canonical Hungarian titles - The Round-Up, Love, Szindbád and so on - and this would fit right in.

And if the BBFC website is to be believed, not a single Zoltán Fábri film has ever been commercially released in the UK - and while there were probably one-off screenings at festivals and places like the NFT, that's not a lot for someone who's regarded domestically as being right up there with Jancsó, Makk and Szabó.

In fact, John Cunningham's history of Hungarian cinema started out as a monograph on Fábri - his publisher advised him that there simply wouldn't be a market for it in the English-speaking world and advised him to broaden his scope.

In fact I'd venture to say that in Hungary Makk and Fabri are far more celebrated than Szabo and Jancso, these latter two being more foreign film fest darlings. Liliomfi and Korhinta play on TV quite regularly; everyone here grew up with them.

Hopefully Magyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum puts out Szindbád in an edition that also includes some of director Huszárik's short films.

L.A. wrote:Hopefully Magyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum puts out Szindbád in an edition that also includes some of director Huszárik's short films.

Just wish someone would move their butt to get his Csontvary out!

I've personally translated Istvan a Kiraly(1984) to English now. The subtitles can now be found by doing a google search and/or looking at most subtitle websites. And these subs are better than most google or otherwise translated versions.

More here.

What would be the best Hungarian phrase to use to beg for a Blu-Ray?

Calvin wrote:What would be the best Hungarian phrase to use to beg for a Blu-Ray?

"Adjátok már ki Bluray-en, basszátok meg!" roughly translates "Release it on blu-ray already, for f*ck's sake!"

Mine would be "Adjátok már 'Csontvary-t' ki Bluray-en, basszátok meg!"

I fear you may be out of luck - I'm pretty sure Second Run told me that the 2011 master that they used was SD only, so it's likely that the transfer will be identical, and that that's the best we're going to get for the foreseeable future, given the financial crisis in the Hungarian film industry and the resulting clobbering of the Archive's restoration programme.

But I'll be buying it anyway for the shorts - so far I've only seen off-air YouTube versions of Homage to Old Ladies and A piacere.

MichaelB wrote:I fear you may be out of luck - I'm pretty sure Second Run told me that the 2011 master that they used was SD only, so it's likely that the transfer will be identical, and that that's the best we're going to get for the foreseeable future, given the financial crisis in the Hungarian film industry and the resulting clobbering of the Archive's restoration programme..

Well, that's a darn shame. In my opinion, it's one of the most beautiful films ever made and, although Second Run's transfer is terrific, it could really benefit from Blu-Ray.

L.A. wrote:

skuhn8 wrote:Sára Sándor (Fel-feldobott kő)

Any news when this might be released?

Finally.

L.A. wrote:

L.A. wrote:

skuhn8 wrote:Sára Sándor (Fel-feldobott kő)

Any news when this might be released?

Finally.

So I picked this up at the shop yesterday--watched the main feature and scanned the supplements. The film didn't do much for me except for the quasi-documentary portions.

Pic quality is quite good on the feature; clearly some restoration took place. Sadly the the sound isn't so good with some serious fluctuation issues, but these 'spell's last less than 5 minutes and don't seriously interfere with the viewing experience (I was listening with headphones so I assume it was more dramatic for me).

Three short films from Sara Sandor:

• Cigányok < http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169687/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; >
  Egyedul < ? >
  Vízkereszt < http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179508/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; >
  + a 27 minute interview

All have English subs. Even the gypsy songs in Ciganyok have optional english subs (where there are burned in Hungarian subs).

Nice package

Thanks for that - that's excellent news about subs on the shorts, as I've only got an unsubtitled copy of Cigányok at the moment: I've been relying on my memory of a 2009 cinema screening of a subtitled version!

Thanks for sharing the details, skuhn8.

Guess I'll have to place an order for Lira.hu soon. Lots of interesting discs have come out in Hungary recently, including the new Szindbád.

Hi, I am looking to get a copy of Egy szerelem három éjszakája (1967). Can anyone help?
Thank you

New Zoltán Fábri title on DVD: Isten hozta, őrnagy úr (1969).

greatakela wrote:Hi, I am looking to get a copy of Egy szerelem három éjszakája (1967). Can anyone help?
Thank you

Has not yet enjoyed a dvd release in Hungary...or elsewhere as far as I know. I believe Facets may have released on VHS back in the day, but cannot confirm.

L.A. wrote:New Zoltán Fábri title on DVD: Isten hozta, őrnagy úr (1969).

If I recall this is the film about a manufacturer of empty boxes and a strange visit(or). If that's the one--saw on TV here many years ago--it should appeal to lovers of heavy-handed political allegory a la Budapest Mesek and fans of Sinkovits and/or Latinovits (I'm in the latter camp).

Is Pál Sándor's Régi idök focija (Football of the good old Days) still available on DVD with English subtitles. Can't find one anywhere.