EUROPEAN FILM GATEWAY – THE AGE OF HUNGARIAN SILENT FILM

Stars, pho­tos, pos­ters, films

The Euro­pe­an Union la­un­ched its Euro­pe­an Film Ga­tew­ay (EFG) pro­ject in Sep­tem­ber 2008, with the par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on of 20 film ar­chi­ves, mus­e­ums and film ins­ti­tu­tions in 14 count­ri­es. Its pur­po­se is to make as large a part of Euro­pe’s fil­mic her­i­tage as pos­sib­le ac­ces­sib­le for the wider pub­lic. The first three years of the en­de­a­vo­ur saw 790,000 do­cu­ments di­gi­ti­zed, inc­lu­ding films, pho­tos, pos­ters, as well as writ­ten and audio ma­te­ri­al. The Hun­ga­ri­an Na­ti­o­nal Film Ar­chive un­der­to­ok to make ava­i­lab­le 1000 pho­to­gra­phs from the age of si­lent film and the dawn of sound film, to­get­her with 1200 pos­ters that were made from the be­g­in­nings up to the 1990s. The mul­ti­me­dia ter­mi­nal at the ex­hi­bit­ion will allow vi­si­tors to brow­se the cont­ent of the newly la­un­ched EFG por­tal, and we pre­sent al­most 200 hours worth of film from the Ba­lázs Béla Stú­dió.

This cham­ber ex­hi­bit­ion pre­sents an exc­lu­sive se­lec­ti­on from films, pho­tos and film pos­ters made du­ring the era of si­lent film, tre­a­sures of the film and spe­ci­al coll­ec­tions of the Hun­ga­ri­an Na­ti­o­nal Film Ar­chive, which are fea­tu­red in the EFG pro­ject.

It is a ty­pi­cal and reg­ret­tab­le cha­rac­te­r­is­tic of the his­to­ry of si­lent film that a sig­ni­fi­cant num­ber of the works were lost or dest­royed over time. This makes pro­fes­si­o­nals, or any film lover for that mat­ter, hold in high re­gard those do­cu­ments that ac­com­pany a film th­ro­ug­ho­ut its life: scripts, news­pa­per ar­tic­les, re­ports, re­views, pho­tos of stars, pos­ters, and above all, such be­hind-the-sce­nes do­cu­ments as pro­duc­ti­on stills or lo­ca­ti­on pho­tos. These may help to re­con­struct the cont­ent, mood and vi­su­als of a lost si­lent film, its tech­ni­cal and ar­tis­tic qu­a­lity.

The ex­hi­bit­ion is ac­com­pa­ni­ed by a se­ri­es of scre­e­nings, fea­tu­ring such ra­rely seen works as Sán­dor Korda’s Arany­em­ber (The Man of Gold, 1918), Jenő Jano­vics’s Utol­só éj­sza­ka (The Last Night, 1917) and Alf­réd Deésy’s Aph­ro­di­té (1918).