Hungarian Cinema – From Coffee House to Multiplex

Hungarian cinema has often been forced to tread a precarious and difficult path. Through the failed 1919 revolution to the defeat of the 1956 Uprising and its aftermath, Hungarian filmmakers and their audiences have had to contend with a multiplicity of problems. In the 1960s, however, Hungary entered into a period of relative stability and increasing cultural relaxation, resulting in an astonishing growth of filmmaking. Innovative and ground-breaking directors such as Miklos Jancso (Hungarian Rhapsody, The Red and the White), Istvan Szabo (Mephisto, Sunshine) and Marta Meszaros (Little Vilma: The Last Diary) emerged and established the reputation of Hungarian films on a global basis. This is the first book to discuss all major aspects of Hungarian cinema, including avant-garde, animation, and representations of the Gypsy and Jewish minorities.