Hungarian films on DVD

[TMDaines]

I'm definitely doing an order sometime this year. Looks very interesting.

[Aunt Peg]

Last week I emailed MaNDA regarding their upcoming releases and with permission this is what is in store for the coming months:

Every DVD and their bonus features will be subtitled in English.
The timing is somewhat loose, we try to keep to following schedule:

last week of June:
- Oh, Bloody Life (Te rongyos élet, 1983 by Péter Bacsó)

third week of July:
- Eldorardo (1988 by Géza Bereményi)

second half of August:
- Diary of my Loves (Napló szerelmeimnek, 1987 by Márta Mészáros) - currently restored

September:
- Love (Szerelem, 1970) by Károly Makk - currently restored
- Angi Vera (1978 by Pál Gábor) - currently restored
- Another Way (Egymásra nézve, 1982 by Károly Makk) - currently restored

first half of October:
- 1956 Newsreel Collection (4 discs, 500+ minutes of unedited, newly scanned newsreels from the year) accompanied with a 30 minutes mini-documentary with amatuer footages about the days of the revolution (when no newsreel was produced by the state).

first half of November:
- The Football Star (A csodacsatár, 1956 by György Révész) - currently under restoration

first week of December:
- At Midnight (Éjfélkor, 1957 by György Révész) - currently under restoration

Expected early next year:
- Whooping Cough (Szamárköhögés, 1986 by Péter Gárdos) - currently restored
- Lucky Daniel (Szerencsés Dániel, 1982 by Pál Sándor) - currently restored

Some of the DVD publications remember or are somehow connected to the 1956 revolution.

I will definitely purchase Angi Vera & Whooping Cough. Hopefully Time Stands Still will emerge sometime during 2017 as well.

[L.A.]

Halálos tavasz / Deadly Spring (László Kalmár, 1939)

Some interesting extras are offered, including a short drama film Jön az öcsém (1919) directed by Michael Curtiz.

[feketekino]

Looks like they are falling behind schedule already as Te rongyos éle has just become available in the last couple of days. I have placed an order for it and will update when it arrives. It looks as though MaNDA is starting to work through some of the films previously released by Fantasy DVD.

I have received A ménesgazda and while the film was certainly good and the image quality also good, the bonus feature Eltiport hitek – Kovács András a filmről és az ötvenes évekről does not contain English subtitles. Kovács films are very intelligent and there is certainly a lot of layers in A ménesgazda so it is a shame that the almost 50 minute interview with Kovács is unsubtitled.

A ménesgazda didn't have as strong as an effect on me as Hideg napok, but I haven't had time to research the film at all. The photography is great and at times the photography of the horses reminds me of how Gaál captures the falcons in Magasiskola.

[L.A.]

Károly Makk's Love and Another Way listed.

[L.A.]

Angi Vera (1978)

[Aunt Peg]

Angi Vera (1978)

Received my copy of Angi Vera today. I flicked through it and it looks like a beautiful restoration.

Imdb states the film at 1:66:1, however the DVD is 1:85:1.

There are also 4 short films from director Pal Gabor. I flicked through one of them and it had English subtitles so I assume the other 3 do as well.

Can't wait to watch the film again for the first time in over 36 years.

[MichaelB]

IMDB aspect ratios are often "educated guesswork" that bear little resemblance to reality, especially if the film has been out of circulation for ages.

[Kauno]

I'm in Budapest next week and I would like to visit stores that carry Hungarian films on DVD or Blu-ray. Are there still stores like that?

The last time I was there, in 2009, I found some great DVDs with English subtitles. A lot has happened since then and I can't even remember which side of the river I was on.

[MichaelB]

I remember a pretty central bookshop with a decent selection of DVDs, but this was back in 2007 or thereabouts and I couldn't for the life of me tell you precisely where it was. I think it was reasonably near the House of Terror museum (which is well worth a visit), as I stumbled upon it by chance while heading there, but I'm afraid that's all I can recall.

[TMDaines]

Doesn't lira.hu have shops?

[L.A.]

MaNDA's DVD page and the second paragraph lists some stores where they sell films.

[Brevity]

Not that recent either, but I picked up 21 discs on my November 2014 trip (any more wouldn't have fit my luggage). Most bookstores I visited had frustratingly few Hungarian films, but by far my biggest haul was in (my Excel file tells me) the Rákóczi út branch of Lira. I recall they had a great MaNDA selection on the second floor!

... aaand of course, all of these are still unwatched (save for a few minutes of Hyppolit the Butler, aborted due to fatigue one time...)!

[L.A.]

Most of the Hungarian films are on DVD only but fortunately some Blu-ray is available and two comes to mind: Hyppolit, a lakáj (1931) and Az ember tragédiája (2011).

Hopefully someday Fehérlófia (1981) comes to Blu.

[Brevity]

On that note, I'll specify that even the above-mentioned Lira shop wasn't of help in my search for the Hyppolit BD, so I bought the DVD instead. With the per-disc average price for the trip at (my Excel file tells me) 3,61 euros, it was only a minor disappointment...

[Kauno]

Not that recent either, but I picked up 21 discs on my November 2014 trip (any more wouldn't have fit my luggage). Most bookstores I visited had frustratingly few Hungarian films, but by far my biggest haul was in (my Excel file tells me) the Rákóczi út branch of Lira. I recall they had a great MaNDA selection on the second floor!

Nagyon szépen köszönöm a segítséget! I'm pretty sure the store you mention above is Fókusz Könyváruház on Rákóczi út 14. I visited 5 or 6 big bookstore and it was basically the only store that had a MaNDA selection. Írók Boltja is perhaps the most impressive bookstore in Budapest, but all they had was Angi Vera. Mediamarkt, Tesco and Aldi were all disappointments.

I could not find Hyppolit, a lakáj Blu-ray either, so I had to settle with the DVD. The price was whopping 3€. My total was 14 DVDs, the average price being 4 euros.

[L.A.]

Lira.hu's selection of MaNDA DVDs is quite scarse at the moment, maybe they are going OOP? Also Libri.hu lists only two MaNDA titles and the English-friendly interface is gone .

[L.A.]

Attila Dargay's Lúdas Matyi + Vuk receive new DVD releases (June 20th marks the late director's 90th birthday). Are these perhaps new restorations?

[feketekino]

Lira.hu's selection of MaNDA DVDs is quite scarse at the moment, maybe they are going OOP? Also Libri.hu lists only two MaNDA titles and the English-friendly interface is gone .

I believe MaNDA is experiencing a lot of restructuring as they secure more funds from less state sources. They are currently rebranding as well as refocusing on the types of films they will restore and release and while they haven't had any official releases lately I do know that they will finally release Gábor Bódy's Psyché soon.

[L.A.]

Magyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum (MNFA) posted two pics of an interview being included as an extra for an upcoming DVD of Valahol Európában / Somewhere in Europe (1947). That is if I understand correctly.

[L.A.]

Darn, those MaNDA's are becoming hard to find. Lira.hu was supposed to have Makk's Szerelem and Egymásra nézve. Nope, they couldn't fulfill the order I did last week so they canceled it. Oh well, guess you can't have everything.

[feketekino]

Darn, those MaNDA's are becoming hard to find. Lira.hu was supposed to have Makk's Szerelem and Egymásra nézve. Nope, they couldn't fulfill the order I did last week so they canceled it. Oh well, guess you can't have everything.

MaNDA has since been restructured in the last year and they have spun off the archive as MNFA (Magyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum). Unfortunately this means that they stopped producing the MaNDA DVDs. MNFA is rereleasing the older films in new packaging with essentially the same material. So far they have only release around 5 along with a new release, Gabor Bódy's PSYCHÉ. They hope to balance their resources between reissuing the old films as well as new releases.

To be honest this is actually a great thing. Leadership under MaNDA was pretty sad, restricting their resources so they couldn't restore and release several classics, for example PSCHÉ would of never seen a release under MaNDA. I've also seen several of the digitizations from 2005-2010 project and some of them were offensively bad. Under MNFA they are doing a lot of great work with Hungarian Film Lab and doing 4k restoration work. They are starting to partner with some of the bigger festivals asproject give them some time, it's a small operation but I am sure a lot of the films will be back in print eventually.

SZERELEM has also been restored in 4k and will probably be releases as a new DVD this year.

[L.A.]

Thank you for the information, feketekino. Guess it's a good thing my order was cancelled then. How about Psyché, is it any good?

[feketekino]

Thank you for the information, feketekino. Guess it's a good thing my order was cancelled then. How about Psyché, is it any good?

I'm not sure if you want me to talk about the disc or the film.

The disc is great, while I'm of the understanding a HD digitization occurred, the film could still use some more restoration work before a Blu-ray would be more substantial. The release is of the longer TV version of the film which runs 261 minutes in 3 parts. The image is much better than the previous German release of the DVD and the current restoration effort was supervised by the original D.O.P.. This disc doesn't contain either of the shorter edits of the film but does provide great extras. Present is Bódy's experimental film MOZGÁSTANULMÁNYOK (1880-1980) as well as KINEMATOGRÁFUS A VIDEOGRÁFIÁRÓL, a 37 minute interview from 1985 with Bódy and Walter Gramming about philosophy of videography. I can talk more about the film and Bódy's work as well if you are unfamiliar.

I should also note that typical MNFA discs retail for 1000HUF but this release retails for 5000HUF.

[L.A.]

The disc is great, while I'm of the understanding a HD digitization occurred, the film could still use some more restoration work before a Blu-ray would be more substantial. The release is of the longer TV version of the film which runs 261 minutes in 3 parts. The image is much better than the previous German release of the DVD and the current restoration effort was supervised by the original D.O.P.. This disc doesn't contain either of the shorter edits of the film but does provide great extras. Present is Bódy's experimental film MOZGÁSTANULMÁNYOK (1880-1980) as well as KINEMATOGRÁFUS A VIDEOGRÁFIÁRÓL, a 37 minute interview from 1985 with Bódy and Walter Gramming about philosophy of videography. I can talk more about the film and Bódy's work as well if you are unfamiliar.

Cheers for that. Should have ordered this from Lira instead.

I should also note that typical MNFA discs retail for 1000HUF but this release retails for 5000HUF.

I understand this is three discs? If yes, then understandable.