The Seductive Stairwells of "Time Machine"

Budapest has gotten a lot of press for its architecture, which runs from Venetian Gothic to Art Nouveau, to Bauhaus. Many styles are at work, contributing to the city's diverse feel: at once classic and modern. And there is no shortage of great photography on the topic, as the buildings are quite photogenic. But not many artists have stepped through the front door and documented the oftentimes striking interiors. Balint Alovits, a young Hungarian photographer, has done just that, and came away with what everyone can agree is a fascinating series of stairwells, which he entitled “Time Machine”.  Yatzer.com described the series as “an homage to perfect geometry, repetitive shapes and perspective forms.” Designboon.com puts a finer point on it: “the visual effect generated is achieved in all of them, no matter to which period of time they belong to. The works create a new dimension by splitting space and time while staying within the visual limits of the project’s concept. And although the images do talk about specific architectural movements, the spiral present in all of them continuously evokes the idea of infinity.”

Indeed, many of the photos could also be compared to a vivisection of a snail or sea shell. The funneling effect is hypnotic: it would be easy to imagine a scene from a Hitchcock film incorporating such perspective. It just goes to show that Budapest, as much as it has been shot and photographed, is still rife with undiscovered locations and unique perspectives.

Below is a selection from "Time Machine".

All photos used with permission. You can find more on Balint Alovits at his website here.

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible.

Budapest Street Scenes: Street Photography from Days Past

Street photography has been a speciality in Budapest and Hungary since the invention of portable hand-held cameras. At least one of the world’s most innovative and influential street photographers, Brassai (born in Transylvania as Gyula Halász) was Hungarian; and of course there is Robert Capa (born in Budapest as Endre Friedmann ) who, though best known for his iconic war photography, was also an accomplished street photographer.

With Hungary’s strong roots in street photography, it’s no surprise that there are also excellent photographers who didn’t move to Western Europe. Photo archives in Budapest are rife with street scenes from the country’s rich and embattled past. Photographers like János Müllner and Gyula Schäffer took advantage of Budapest’s lively street life, curious inhabitants, and varied architecture to create a body of work that is unique and accomplished.

Below enjoy a selection of street photographers past and present, many of which are of the collection of Budapest’s Kiscelli Museum.

Main Boulevard, 1956, Gyula Nagy, collection of the Kiscelli Museum

1936, unknown photographer, collection of the Kiscelli Museum

Civil Defense Drill, 1940, Dezső Orelly, collection of the Kiscelli Museum

1945, via MTI, unknown photographer, collection of the Kiscelli Museum

Rákóczi Square, 1937, Gyula Schäffer, collection of the Kiscelli Museum

Firewood shortage, 2019, collection of the Kiscelli Museum

Jewish Street Celebration, 1911, János Müllner, collection of the Kiscelli Museum

Beyond the Balcony No.14, 1996, Illés Barna

Déak Square, 2006, Krisztina Erdei

Óbuda, Szőlő Street, 1995, Lenke Szilágyi

Lehel Square, 2010, Máté Bartha

Rákóczi Street, 2014, Gulyás Miklós

If you are lucky enough to be in Budapest, you can find these street photos and more at a temporary exhibition at the Kicselli Museum. Entitled “IMAGE SCHEMA – The History of Street Photography in Budapest from the Beginning to Present” the exhibition is on display through June 26.

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible.

Shobha Nehru, the Life of a Hungarian in India

It sometimes happens that we stumble across a life so dramatic that it seems worthy of film itself. Such is the case with Shobha Magdolna Friedmann Nehru, a Hungarian Jew who escaped Hungary before the Holocaust, married into one of India’s most prominent political families, was active in social causes, and lived well past 100.

‘Fora’ as she was known, was born on Dec. 5, 1908, into a wealthy Hungarian Jewish family that had changed its name from Friedmann to Forbath in order to better assimilate into Budapest society. Anti-semitic laws later forced the family to change it back, as they witnessed pogroms aimed at killing Jews and discouraging the rising wave of Communism. In Nehru’s childhood days, the otherwise scenic route to Lake Balaton became littered with hanged bodies.

Unable to enter a Hungarian university as a Jew, she went abroad to the London School of Economics, where she met her future husband, fellow student B. K. Nehru. Despite misgivings from both families, they married and moved to India. Not long after, her own family was forced to give up the family home, separate, and scatter in many directions in order to escape the Germans.

Not much of her childhood identity remained after she moved to India but for her nickname “Fora.” She was a woman who was able to take on the roll of Indian wife and matriarch, assimilating into new new family and Indian culture almost completely.

In India, Nehru became a mother and a quiet humanitarian. She was befriended by Indira Ghandi, who was in fact her second cousin. Nehru rose to the occasion when she thought human rights were being rolled back under Ghandi’s reign as Prime Minister. She pressed the leader to reverse a policy of sterilization that was being imposed on local men.

She later played a part in helping Hindu refugees who were fleeing the partition of Pakistan, opening crafts shops that sold the wares of refugee women. The idea was replicated across India as the Central Cottage Industries Emporium, and survives today.

It was not until 1949, after the World War II ended, that she returned to Hungary, with her three children in tow. There she reacquainted herself with the city, only to hear tales of death and destruction.

Later in life, as the wife of a high-level dignitary, Mrs. Nehru moved from Washington, to the northeastern state of Assam. From there they moved to London. Testimony indicates thatthoughts of Hungary’s Jews remained with her throughout her life. It was reported that at official receptions, she refused to shake hands with the German ambassador.

Shobha Magdolna Friedmann Nehru died earlier this week at age 108. She was a rare bridge between the disparate cultures of Hungary and India, and a rare person.

Source: the New York Times

Local Spotlight: the Best of the Latest in Hungarian Film-making

It’s true that every year there is a crop of locally made films that are promising and make ripples internationally by winning prizes at film festivals and awards ceremonies. Some, most notably Son of Saul, have gone onto become global phenomena. This year is starting out with exceptional promise on the local front, with several Hungarian language films showing great promise, and a few bringing home prizes from major film festivals.

First is Nyalintás Nesze, or, the Noise of Licking, by animator Nadja Andrasev, which won a joint third prize at the Cannes Cinefondation programme awards for the best works submitted by film students. The nine-minute digital animation was based on the short story “Forgiveness” by Hungarian writer Ádám Bodor, and was completed while the director was still a student at Moholy Nagy, a prominent Budapest art school. Granted, this is from last year, but we like it enough to include it anyway. You can see the preview here:

Next is a film that enjoyed a huge success at the Berlin Biennale, winning the Golden Bear. That is of course On Body and Soul by Hungarian film-maker Ildikó Enyedi. By all accounts it was an underdog, but the ‘dramedy’ impressed audiences and judges with its sensitive treatment of two slaughterhouse employees who are comically/tragically drawn to each. The synopsis, as per Cineruopa is: "What would happen if you met someone who dreamt the same as you or, to be more precise, had been meeting you in the same world every night for years? Would you be pleased? Or would you feel that you had been in some way robbed? And what if this specific individual didn’t exactly appeal to you? What if you actually hated that person?" These are all good questions, and apparently the judges were pleased with the answers, as the film also picked up three other awards from Berlin's independent juries, including best film honors from FIPRESCI, the association of international film critics. Critics also responded well to the pic. The Hollywood Reporter called the movie “quirky, deadpan and sometimes rather brutal,” while Daily Variety said the film “blends mournfully poetic whimsy with stabs of visceral brute reality.” See the (Hungarian language) preview here:

Recently released the film Állampolgár, or, The Citizen, won best screenplay at the Porto Fantasporto Film Festival, Best Drama at San Jose Cinequest, and the Students’ Choice Award at the the Den Haag Movies that Matter Festival. Directed by Roland Vranik, the feature-length film tells the story of an African refugee’s quest to become an ideal Hungarian citizen. The film has received fantastic reviews locally and is generating a buzz on the film festival circuit. Shot with non-professional actors, and supported by the Hungarian Film Fund, the movie appears to be set to have a life beyond Hungary. The Hungarian trailer can be found below:

And of course there was this year’s biggest success as awards go, "Mindenki" or “Sing”, which won the Oscar for best Foreign Language short. Kristof Deák’s film revolves around a new student at a Hungarian primary school who finds a way to stand up to a choral instructor, an authoritative figure seeking to silence her in order to better win a prize trip abroad. The Oscar nomination is one more laurel for the film, which already won the Grand Prize at the Short Shorts Film Festival in Tokyo and Best Short Film at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival as well as several other international honors. Preview below:

While its wonderful to see so many large-scale productions coming to Hungary to take advantage of expert crews and superbly priced production and locations, it’s equally gratifying to know that the local scene is thriving, and only getting better.

In Invitation to the Launch of Man in the Landscape by Attila Lóránt

That means you are invited to the launch party for multi-award winning photographer, director, artistic director, and founder of the Disappearing Cultures Foundation, Attila Lóránt's book entitled Man in the Landscape. That's April 22 at 2 in the afternoon at the Hungarian Museum of Natural Sciences, located on Ludovika Square 2-6 in Budapest's Eight District. The event will feature an opening speech by former Hungarian president László Sólyom, as well as an introductory word by museum director Dr. Zoltán Korsós.

The book of photographs comprises the results of Lóránt's three-year mission to photograph all ten of Hungary's national parks. The artist found particular satisfaction in photographing not just the varied landscapes of the different territories, but also the people who live within or attend to their preservation. He has taken the approach that man himself, and the rural way of life of many of these people who inhabit these areas, is as much an endangered species as the wildlife. The other non-human species he documented are the famous Hungarian Gray cattle, buffaloes, Racka sheep, cows, horses, and other indigenous animals and livestock.

The author began his work as a photographer back in 1992, and since then has published seven books which have been translated into multiple languages. He has had over 70 exhibitions of his work worldwide. Lóránt was the first Hungarian photographer to have his work published under the auspices of the National Geographic Society, with this being his third title for the imprint. He also founded and owns one of the market leaders in post production, Post-Edison Graphics.

So if you are in Budapest, come on out to the event! For more information on the book and its author, see the site for the Disappearing Cultures Foundation.

Celebrity Chef Showdown: Battleground Budapest

They trade barbs in the media, snipe at each other’s styles and TV shows, and genuinely seem to dislike one another. Is Budapest about to become the next battleground in the war between Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey, two reigning titans of the culinary world?

That the local foodie scene here is booming, with Hungarian chefs pulling Michelin stars down from the skies and bringing home prizes in international competitions, is well covered, but it is less known that international brand-name celebrity chefs are staking out territory in our city. It started with the opening of Nobu, the Budapest outlet of the famous Japanese/American sushi house created by Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa. Then Jamie Oliver arrived with Jamie’s Italian opening last year in the Castle District. This wouldn’t have gone un-noticed by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey, whose food empire includes restaurants all around the globe and multiple kitchen-centric reality TV shows. The rivalry between Oliver and Ramsey is long and bitter. Ramsey with his testosterone infused, alpha-male approach to running a kitchen is naturally at odds with Oliver’s more sensitive, humble personality. Ramsey is Vegas, Oliver is an organic garden.

via Wikipedia

To much fanfare, Oliver, with a local investment group, opened Jamie’s Italian, beating the ever-expanding Ramsay to the punch in getting a share of the Budapest pie. Though popular, it hasn’t exactly lit the culinary scene on fire here to the degree that it would discourage the competition. But in truth, Ramsay has been circling around Hungary for some time, initially as a site for a culinary school and label of Tokaj wine. Though that has yet to come to fruition, he was recently slated to return to the city to make an appearance at a new DIY restaurant, the ultra-hip Makery, offering a tweet suggesting as such. While we have no evidence he kept that appointment, we believe it is only a matter of time before his empire extends to Budapest. Will he opt for the fast-moving Pest or more staid Buda? Only time will tell, but we have our ears to the ground and nose to the wind here. In this celebrity chef showdown, we can only benefit.

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible.

Longread: The Norwegian Carpenter who Chose a New Homeland

By Krisztián Nyári

It was by coincidence that a poor Norwegian young man, Guilbrand Gregersen, ended up in Hungary shortly before the revolution of 1848. Soon after that he offered not only his heart but also his workforce to Hungary. Although he withstood several strokes of fate, he was able to stand back on his feet in all circumstances.

If Austrian railway workers had not stolen the baggage of a young Norwegian, the Parliament, Keleti and Nyugati Railway Stations, Mathias Church, the city centre of Szeged, as well as a number of bridges and public buildings in Hungary would look totally different today. Twenty-three-year-old Guilbrand (Gudbrand) Gregersen arrived in Central Europe in the hope of finding well-paid construction jobs and in spring 1847 he left Prague on foot for Vienna, from where he intended to move on to Munich by train. He had no money for a train ticket but he did send his luggage forward by train. His modest trunk was hiding clothes and a few personal items brought from home. Arriving in Vienna, he immediately went to the customs office for his luggage. When he opened the trunk, all he saw was a couple of bricks, rags and straw in it. Gregersen was embittered by the fact that he had been robbed. His friends were just about to have some entertainment in the imperial city but he would not join them wearing the worn-out working clothes. He heard about the construction works in Pest-Buda and he decided to try his luck in the unknown city by the Danube bend and earn enough money to buy new clothes. Parting with his friends, he said he would meet them in Munich within half a year.

Keleti railway station and Baross Square in the early 1930s.

Photo: Ted Grauthoff

In the end he spent 63 years in Hungary, where he became an officer in the national army in the War of Independence and later one of the most significant entrepreneurs in the country, who participated in almost all major construction projects during the age of dualism. In the meantime he went bankrupt and once he lost all his wealth in a fire but he always stood up and started it all from scratch. He died as a Hungarian nobleman and the biggest taxpayer in Budapest; there were legends about his honesty at a time when construction works were accompanied by corruption scandals.

It was not at the construction sites in Pest that he found work as he had planned but at the prolongation of the railway line between Pest and Vác, also recorded by the poet Petőfi. In autumn 1847 he was working in Upper Hungary, now part of Slovakia, and he soon received his first independent task to build a smaller wooden bridge. In the following more than half a century there were hardly any railway development works he did not participate in personally.

We do not know what made the Norwegian businessman, who could not say a word in Hungarian at the beginning and was much more at ease in the company of Austrians and Germans, side with the rebellious Hungarians in 1848. Whatever the case, he joined the national army as a volunteer and served as a sapper officer in an engineering corps. His expertise and commitment are both proved by the fact that he built the pontoon bridge near Pask, indispensable for the military operations in Western Hungary, in a record one-and-a-half days. After the War of Independence was crushed, he also thought it better to flee the country. He headed for Italy, where he worked on the construction of a bridge over the Piave. He could have stayed longer or traveled further on but he intended to settle down in Hungary. After his return he took part in the construction works of the Esztergom-Párkány railway line and it was as a result of this commission that he found himself in Szob, where he bought a plot and built a house from his saved earnings. In 1852 he met the local butcher’s daughter, Alojzia Sümeg, whom he married in the same year.

The couple spoke German at home and knowing this language was sufficient for work, too. However, Gregersen found it important to learn Hungarian and he wrote the Hungarian words to be learnt during the day on a black slate board so that he could glance at it as he walked about. He would not prove successful in this one thing: he spoke the language of his chosen homeland with mistakes and a strong accent even at the end of his life. Not so his children, who learnt Hungarian in addition to German and Norwegian at a young age. Thus Hungarian words were more and more often uttered in the Gregersen house: from 1854 a total of 19 children were born to the couple and 12 of them reached adulthood.

When he felt he had taken root in Hungary for good, he attracted his brothers to his new homeland, too. The first major independent work of the family business was building the railway bridge by Szolnok, ensuring connection between Pest and Debrecen. Built in 1857, the 500-metre-long structure spanning over several riverbeds and flood basins qualified as the largest wooden railway bridge in the country at the time. The Norwegian master builder and his brothers, known for their fast, accurate and cheap work, were then employed to build dozens of railway lines, more than thirty railway bridges, a number of tunnels and several railway stations. The caisson foundation, first applied in Central Europe by the Gregersens while constructing the bridge in Szeged, making it possible to build foundations in wet riverbeds, was considered a technical miracle. The way he solved the design of the railway tunnel starting at Déli railway station in Buda, which withstood the load until these days, was also an outstanding feat.

Help in trouble

Gregersen was not yet considered a particularly rich man when he felt he had to thank Hungary in some way for accepting him. In 1860 his name was among those aristocrats and bankers who donated some of their wealth for the construction of the Hungarian Academy of Science. Later, he coninued offering significant amounts for charity purposes. When he had accumulated enough capital, he purchased a plot in Lónyay Street in Ferencváros, where he first established a wood depot and joinery factory and later a windmill. His business was so prosperous that when the first Transylvanian railway was constructed, he participated in the works not only as a contractor but also as a shareholder of the investment company.

And then he went bankrupt within a matter of days. As a result of a stock market crash, construction projects came to a halt so Gregersen also became insolvent. Not wanting to be in debt with his subcontractors, he paid and almost all his wealth went up in smoke. It seemed he had to give up his dreams of founding a company. However, he contacted his previous business partners and he took up minor loans from them instead of the banks. As there were legends going around about his honesty, they were happy to lend him and he duly repaid the loans within a few years. His situation had just normalised when in 1870 his entire wood depot burnt down in a huge fire. He rebuilt everything and then all of it burnt down yet again in 1875. Others would have given up long before but he managed to stand up even after this.

The railway construction fever was followed by the decades of developing the new capital, Budapest, when he participated in the construction of Mathias Church, the Museum of Fine Art and the Opera House. When a new avenue was built in the capital, the residents of the palaces along the way did not wish to hear the rattle of horse carts on the cobblestones. As a solution, the Gregersen factory produced tens of thousands of wooden bricks, which were used to cover the main road now called Andrássy Road. The company then cooperated in building Nyugati railway station, designed by the Eiffel Office from Paris, and participated in the construction of the National Theatre. In 1875 he built the family’s palace in Lónyay Street not far from his factory. The equipment of the two-storey, Neo-Renaissance building, decorated with frescoes by Károly Lotz, was 20-30 years ahead of its time: bathrooms, water closet toilets and food lifts served the comfort of its residents.

The building of the National Theatre

Gregersen did not deplete his business revenues nor would he take it to the stock market due to his bad experiences: he used to profit from his companies to purchase plots in the outskirts of Budapest. Within a few decades he owned a substantial part of Ferencváros and Angyalföld quarters and as the city grew the value of his plots also soared. It is to prove both his enormously increased wealth and his honesty that he was the biggest taxpayer in the capital as early as in 1873. At the construction sites he controlled, he sometimes employed tens of thousands of people simultaneously. His approach to business is well demonstrated by the fact that he most probably did not earn a penny on the work that brought him national fame. When the flooding Tisza ruined the city centre of Szeged in 1879, Gregersen did not hesitate to offer his services for the rescue operations. First he had temporary wooden houses built for the thousands of families who suffered flood damage and then he removed the water from the inundated city centre using his special pumps. He employed 3,000 people, who loaded 160 horse carts and 84 railway carriages daily with earth, with which they filled up the low-lying areas and erected circular dykes around the city. The works lasted for three years and Gregersen’s expenses exceeded the previously estimated budget so the operations were concluded with a loss. The writer Kálmán Mikszáth, who at the time worked as a journalist in Szeged, set the Norwegian from a faraway land as an example in one of his articles as opposed to the local entrepreneurs wishing to make a profit even on the disaster. But appraisal arrived from elsewhere, too: King Franz Joseph granted noble rank to the Norwegian peasant boy.

Son of two countries

If anyone wished to boast with the achievements of the Hungarian construction industry before the beginning of the 20th century, they mostly listed works completed by Gregersen’s company: they were involved in building the Opera House just as in constructing the Elizabeth Bridge. In Fiume, they built the largest harbour of wooden structure in the world at the time but they also received orders in Prague and Bosnia. This required the establishment of subsidiaries but Gregersen kept managing the company in the traditional way as a kind of patriarch. On special occasions he would listen to the concert given by the brass band formed by the factory workers and the employees received presents from him at Christmas. In his elder years he returned to his native land on several occasions and he bought an estate and a farm house there. He is regarded as one of the founding fathers of Norwegian technical higher education, for which purpose he donated huge amounts of money. Several times he was received by the king and the prime minister of Norway, which seceded from Sweden in 1905, and he conversed with them in the rural dialect he had brought from his village. He could always reconcile his Norwegian and Hungarian identities; he was a major multinational entrepreneur, a Hungarian nobleman and a Norwegian peasant at the same time. He never retired from work: even over the age of 80 he regularly traveled to sites in the countryside to check the progress of the work in person.

Border crossing at the Elizabeth Bridge in Komárom

On Christmas Eve in 1910 Guilbrand Gregersen of 86 years presented his family members and employees in his house in Szob as usual and he even told them a Christmas poem in Norwegian. He arranged some milk loaf and wine to be sent to the policeman stationed at the corner and then retired to his room for the night. He could be righteously proud to have transformed the image of his chosen homeland with his two hands and his talent in six decades. Fresh in mind and healthy in body, he went to sleep forever.

For a short time after his death it seemed that the company inherited by his family kept developing vigorously: they received a request from the Turkish government to modernise the sea port in Constantinople. There was no way to implement the work though; the world war broke out and peaceful construction investments were soon halted everywhere. The construction industry withered during the recession after the war; moreover, the Transylvanian, Upper Hungarian and Bosnian wood depots of the company were suddenly in foreign land. And as there was no one to start anew despite all difficulties, in 1921 the owners of Gregersen G. and Sons Construction Company decided to wind up the company. The winding-up process lasted for decades while the family lived from utilising and gradually selling the vast real estate holdings. They had properties left to be expropriated even in 1951, from where the last living daughter and grandchild of the emigrant Norwegian were evicted by the Rákosi regime.

The whole article can be read in the March 2017 edition of BBC History.

Photos via Fortepan

Location Spotter: the Budapest Eye

Like it or not, the city-scape of Budapest is changing. Though there are strict zoning regulations that prohibit skyscrapers, there is still much renovation underway of old buildings, along with new, more modern, structures rising from the streets. Perhaps one of the more controversial new additions to downtown is the Budapest Eye, the enormous Ferris wheel situated on Erzsébet Square. Once a seasonal, warm-weather attraction, if reports are true, it is set to be a year-round fixture. While it is considered an eyesore to some, others appreciate the whimsy and playfulness of having an amusement-park ride in the middle of downtown Budapest.

The wheel, modified from the Eye of past years, comprises 41 cabins and rises to an impressive 65 meters high at its peak. That makes it taller than many of the surrounding buildings. As of last year, it was the tallest in Europe, though we cannot confirm if this is still the case. From its top vantage point, the ride affords a unique view of such other Budapest locations as Andrássy Avenue, the Basilica, and the Castle, across the Danube.

Ferris wheel enthusiasts (and, yes, there are many) will note that there is a Hungarian connection to the contraption’s invention, at least as far as Hungary’s Habsburg past is concerned. The Wiener Riesenrad in Vienna, while not the first Ferris wheel ever, was one of the first to function as a permanent ride, and the first in Europe, was constructed in 1897, and was only half a meter shorter than the Budapest Eye.  

Is the Eye an eye-sore? Even the Eiffel Tower was considered an abomination to the Paris skyline when it was erected. So only time will tell if the ‘Eye’s have it.

* All photos via Wikipedia Commons

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible.

Celeb Spotter: Budapest Suits Gosling

Though Ryan Gosling wasn’t the man around town the way some actors are when they come to Budapest, during the shoot for Blade Runner II he did get out enough to have an opinion about our…baked goods, which he touted on an American talk show (his own words were that our 'bread game is very strong'. True, in terms of baked goods, nobody will walk away from Hungary disappointed, as we have all the basic cakes, pies and other delicacies covered. But the actor did get out enough to manage time to hastily (perhaps too hastily?) shoot a promo for the fashion magazine GQ that allows one to place him in the context of 'classic' Budapest. We pass the video along, not because it is an outstanding watch, but because it makes a lot of the film-noirish feeling so many locations here have, ones that were used so effectively in the spy and actions films shot around the city in recent years. The suit may be Ralph Lauren, but the locations are pure Budapest. You can see the actor (ironically?) starting his day reading a Hungarian newspaper before waiting at an empty table at an empty café for a coffee that never arrives (where are your baked goods now, Mr. Gosling?). Which naturally calls for improvised hijinks at the city’s most fabled and luxurious thermal baths: the Gellért baths at the Gellért Hotel. The baths aren’t exactly under-used as a filming location in Budapest: you can find them for instance in a pivotal scene in Matthew Barney’s art-house classic Cremaster series, and the location is also where food guru Anthony Bourdain relaxed in his Budapest episode of Parts Unknown. But it shows that even when incorporating the goofy scenario of Gosling pretending his soggy shoe is a telephone, the Art Deco interior still looks stunning and seductive. Though the 'point' of the video is to show off the Ralph Lauren suit, it's Budapest that steals the scene. Just have a look. No, really, do!

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible. 

Viral Video: 84 Seconds of Beautiful Budapest

When it comes to film production on Hungary, it is well documented that you are spoiled for choice when it comes to locations. That a new video seems to make the rounds weekly showing off the classic and the modern, the shabby and the chic of the city only confirms how dynamic a location it is. The latest offering, and one of the best, comes from The Calvert Journal, a culture/design sight that calls itself "a guide to the contemporary culture of the New East: eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia and Central Asia." The video must have taken some doing, as it manages to achieve that rare balance of both presenting well-traveled locations in a new light (the thermal baths, the Chain Bridge, the Basilica) alongside locations you need to get your fingers dirty to find, like the hip new Eight District bars and graffiti of central Pest. All in all it's a poetic ode to modern Budapest with a real eye for its contemporary, photogenic flavor. 

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible.

Culture Corner: the Statues of Budapest's 5th District

Like every city, Budapest has its own particular lore, as well as having been influenced by a hodgepodge of external cultural forces, be they political or cultural. This is why you can find not one, but two statures of Ronald Reagan in the city, in addition to a statue of TV detective Columbo (Peter Falk) intermingled with tributes to prominent Hungarians. Coupled with whimsical tributes to local legends, Budapest is home to an amazing array of street art in the form of its statutes. Because it is both central and large, many of the most striking and photographed statues of the city are in the much touristed 5th District. Let's have a look at a few of the more curious ones.

via Trip Advisor

Downtown in the inner 5th District is where you will find a statue of a fat policeman. It is said to commemorate a hedonistic cop who loved wine, women and song, and merrily went about his days drinking and twirling his moustache at his romantic prospects. Passers-by rub his protruding stomach to bring luck in love.

via columbophile@wordpress.com

You can also find a statue of American TV character Columbo in the 5th, scratching his head, looking at his dog. Perhaps he is wondering how he ended up in Budapest. The solution is easy: Peter Falk, the actor who plays the iconic private-eye, has Hungarian roots on his mother’s side, and the Columbo statue is on Falk Miksa street. Though no familial connection as been made between Peter Falk and Falk Miksa, that didn’t stop the city from erecting this popular tribute to yet another entertainer with Hungarian blood to make it big in Hollywood.

via wikipedia creative commons

While there is a bust of Ronald Reagan in the city park, the more prominent version of him was erected in Szabadság Square, not far from the American Embassy. Reagan’s contribution to ending the Cold War was acknowledged with this statue, which tourists happy throw their arms around and take selfies with.

via wikipedia creative commons

Perhaps the most iconic and photographed statue in Budapest is that of the Little Princess, along the Danube promenade. The sculptor, László Marton, tells of its inspiration: "I modeled it after my own daughter. She was maybe six years old and playing in the garden. She dressed as a princess: laid a bathrobe on her shoulders and put a crown on her head. I managed to capture this moment and immediately felt that this was a successful work of art. Years later, the capital requested a statue from me. I immediately thought of the "Little Princess" and luckily we managed to find the place where the statue feels good."

There are replicas the Little Princess in Hungarian village of Tapolca and in front of the concert hall of the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space in Japan, both donated by the artist.

Given the eccentricity of taste in the city, is it only a matter of time before we see a Bud Spencer statue in Budapest's statue-friendly 5th District?

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible. 

Hungarians in Hollywood: Then and Now.

It’s been so long since a Hungarian film won an Oscar. About an entire year! Of course we can’t let the week go by without sending a hearty congratulations to the short “Sing,”  by Hungarian director and Academy Award winner Kristof Deak. We did a post about the film a few weeks back, so we won't plagiarize ourselves by repeating the same information, but rather honor the win by mentioning a few other notable Oscar winners of days gone by.

It comes as a surprise to a lot of people outside of Hungary just how many prominent film professionals, be they writers, directors, cinematographers or actors, are Hungarian or of Hungarian extraction. There’s a lot of them, from Oscar winning screenwriter Géza Herceg (The Life of Emile Zola) to Mephisto director István Szabó. But none of the culture from which the Academy grew might have been possible were it not for Hungarian Adolph Zukor, founder of one of the world’s largest and most influential film studios: Paramount.  Zukor was known as the “father of the feature film in America” due to his ambitious take on film-making and support for longer film formats.

An immigrant to the United States at age 16, he began his career in a poor section of New York City as an upholsterer. The World’s Fair in Chicago brought him farther west, where he started a fur business, which boomed. He was already a wealthy man a decade later when he partnered with a relative and began distributing films. From there he began to produce, eventually opening his own studio. Known as a studio head with an eye for spotting talent, Zukor signed actors like Rudolph Valentino and Mary Pickford, both of whom would become Hollywood icons. Paramount boomed for decades before weathering bankruptcy, economic depressions, and dwindling theatrical revenues, though it never stopped making films and attracting talent. Zukor stayed with the studio for all its unrest, and held the title of Chairman Emeritus until his death in 1976.

Zukor passed away at the age of 103, a long way from his hometown of Ricse, Hungary. But not before he won his own Oscar, a special lifetime achievement award for his service to film.

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible.

Soulful Win in Berlin: Hungarian film takes home the Golden Bear

While we are seeing more and more big budget productions from all around the world make their way to Budapest, it is also gratifying to see the local film culture thrive creatively, and get recognition beyond our borders. Recently, there was the short “Sing,” which will see how it fares with Academy voters on Sunday’s Oscars, but closer to home Hungary saw a win with Hungarian filmmaker Ildiko Enyedi winning the Golden Bear for her film On Body and Soul at Berlin International Film Festival. This marks a return to the spotlight for the director, who won the Cannes Camera d’Or prize for first feature way back in 1989 for her debut My Twentieth Century.

By all accounts On Body and Soul was an underdog, but the ‘dramedy’ wowed audiences and judges with its sensitive treatment of two slaughterhouse employees who are comically/tragically drawn to each. The synopsis, as per Cineruopa is: "What would happen if you met someone who dreamt the same as you or, to be more precise, had been meeting you in the same world every night for years? Would you be pleased? Or would you feel that you had been in some way robbed? And what if this specific individual didn’t exactly appeal to you? What if you actually hated that person?" These are all good questions, and apparently the judges were pleased with the answers, as the film also picked up three other awards from Berlin's independent juries, including best film honors from FIPRESCI, the association of international film critics.

Critics also responded well to the pic. The Hollywood Reporter called the movie “quirky, deadpan and sometimes rather brutal,” while Daily Variety said the film “blends mournfully poetic whimsy with stabs of visceral brute reality.” Both sources hesitate to say that this particular film, with rather explicit and brutal scenes from the daily workings of an abattoir, will have the success of a Son of Saul, but are hopeful it will get a broader international audience after festival wins. We can only hope so as well, and send huge congratulations to the film and its creators.

photo of Ildikó Eyedi via berlinale.de

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible. 

Filmed in Budapest: Spy Game

Every once and a while it is important to remind ourselves just how good Budapest appears on the screen. It looks especially good when we are talking about its use in Cold War and post Cold War spy films. For example, the photogenic rooftops of the downtown 7th District are made excellent use of here in Spy Game, one of the more prominent Hollywood movies shot in the city, back in 2000 before Budapest became a go-to location for so many international shoots. The dizzying establishing shot gives us a peek at the wonderful pair of onion domes atop the Dohány Street Synagogue, in all its Byzantine, Romantic, and Gothic glory, before focusing on the film's stars.

Directed by now-departed Tony Scott, the film was one of the larger box office successes to be shot here, grossing nearly 150 million dollar worldwide. Scott’s brother, Ridley Scott, would also spend time in Budapest a decade and a half later when he shot the much lauded and award-winning film The Martian here. But the big coupe in 2000 was that we got both Robert Redford and Brad Pitt in town for weeks on end. Pitt would return to Budapest and Hungary with his then wife, not just to shoot the zombie film World War Z, but to spend summer vacation with his family on the picturesque Lake Balaton peninsula of Tihány.

Spy Game wouldn’t be the only spy-themed film to use Budapest as a backdrop. The wonderfully executed Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy made use of the Párizsi Arcade for one of its pivotal scenes, and the delightfully retro video for Selena Gomez’s song “Round and Round” also casts the city as its shaddowy backdrop. Oh, and of course there is the movie Spy, the comedy starring Melissa McCarthy that was shot here several years ago. And while A Good Day to Die Hard isn’t exactly a spy movie, it does utilize the same gritty Soviet atmosphere some of the city’s neighborhoods conjure up. And who can forget I Spy and Mission Impossible: the Ghost Protocol. There is no huge reveal here: Budapest looks good cast with a cloak and dagger, whether it is in disguise or not.

Have a look at the rooftop sequence from Spy Game here:

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible. 

Hungarians in Hollywood: Casablanca turns 75

Not many films are so notable that their birthdays get observed, but when the film is Casablanca, culture mavens are bound to make a fuss. As pointed out in this article in the Paris Review, Casablanca turns 75 soon, and its influence and renown are only growing.

Directed by Hungarian Michael Curtiz, born Mihaly Kertész in 1888 (see the Hungarian connection?), Casablanca is rarely left off of ‘best all-time films’ lists. It is more relevant now than ever, made by an immigrant (Curtiz moved to Hollywood at age 38 to direct for Warner Brothers, and many of the actors are either immigrants or refugees in this film about expats/refugees during political tumult). According to Wikipedia: “Much of the emotional impact of the film has been attributed to the large proportion of European exiles and refugees who were extras or played minor roles (in addition to leading actors Paul Henried, Conrad Veidt and Peter Lorre.” Incidentally, character actor Peter Lorre also had Hungarian roots. Even though Curtiz directed many other Hollywood classics, including Yankee Doodle Dandy and Mildred Pierce, he will be best remembered for this anti-fascism-themed war film with a Hungarian flavor.

American film critic Roger Ebert once summed up his feelings for the commercially and artistically ambitious Casablanca as such: “When asked what is the greatest film of all time, I say Citizen Kane. When asked what is the movie you like the best, I say Casablanca.”

Following are some of the more interesting, less known factoids about the film:

It was originally slated to be directed by Ben Hur director William Wyler.

It was a rare case of a film being shot in sequence, done so because to script wasn’t finished until halfway through shooting.

It was filmed entirely on a sound stage in Los Angeles.

Ingrid Bergman was 5 centimeters taller than Humphrey Bogart. He needed to stand on cement blocks or cushions for their more intimate scenes.

The film’s iconic line “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” was written by a producer and dubbed in a month after final shooting.

The New Yorker magazine was not impressed, calling the film “pretty tolerable”.

Casablanca was nominated for eight Oscars and won three, including best director and best picture.

The film premiered at the Hollywood Theater in New York City on November 26, 1942, to coincide with the Allied invasion of North Africa and the capture of Casablanca.

François Truffaut refused an offer to remake the film in 1974. Later there was talk of Ben Affleck remaking it with Jennifer Lopez.

There is an unconfirmed rumor that Ronald Reagan was going to play Rick instead of Bogart.

A hugely unpopular colorized version of the film was released on cable TV in the 80s.

The hero of the film is an anti-fascist with a Hungarian name – Viktor Laszlo.

The airplane in the final scene is actually constructed of cardboard.

Happy 75 Casablanca! Here's looking at you, kid.

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible. 

After Hours: Trip Advisor Sings the Praises of Budapest's Aria Hotel

We are always thrilled when Budapest and the hospitality our city has to offer are recognized by international awards. It only validates the fact that if you are coming here for work or play, you will be looked after, and done so in high style. It is especially gratifying, though, when accolades are handed down from average visitors to the city, as was done last week when the recently opened Aria hotel won the top prize from Trip Advisor in 2017 Travelers’ Choice Award, adding to its win of the Best Hotel in Central Europe award, given by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler in 2016.

The Aria is located on the cozy but cosmopolitan Hercegprímás street in Distrivt V, a neighborhood that has a downtown vibe but is also quite historical. The interior of the seven-story, 18th century building was renovated and decorated with the theme of music in mind. Each of its four wings is dedicated to a different style of music: classical, contemporary, opera, and jazz; the decorations paying homage to such greats as Bob Dylan, Maria Callas, James Brown, and Hungarian-born Ferenc Liszt. Guests who stayed there touted the rooftop bar with their sweeping, 360-degree views of the cityscape, dominated by Budapest’s famous Basilica just down the street. Moreover, two of Budapest’s five Michelin star restaurants are in the immediate area.

Behind the hotel, which also has a Prague outpost, is New York City-based hotelier Henry Callan, a man who got his start in the hotel business as a busboy in Manhattan. Callan’s aim with Aria, according to the website budapestbylocals.com, was “to design a hotel for Budapest that felt like a private home with a distinctive personality and cultural experience along with the personal care for which we’re known”  By all accounts, he has succeeded here.

It is a new year, and already it appears it will be the best one yet in getting Budapest and Hungary recognized for its value as a value-oriented location with high-end amenities.  

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible. 

Huge Hopes for a Short Film: A Hungarian Oscar Nomination

It’s fair to say that the spotlight has been on Hungary both as a go-to location as well as a source for rigorous, exciting home-grown cinema in the past few years. With the huge win at the Oscars last year for Son of Saul, the intensity of this expectation has only grown. That is one reason why this year it is so gratifying to see local film-making live up to such pressure, with the announcement of the Academy Award nominations, which saw a Hungarian language short film nominated for Best Live Action Short Film.

The film in question is called Mindenki in Hungarian, though re-titled as Sing for foreign audiences. Written and directed by a young graduate of the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest, Kristóf Deák, the short revolves around a new student at a Hungarian primary school who finds a way to stand up to a choral instructor,  an authoritative figure seeking to silence her in order to better win a prize trip abroad. The Oscar nomination is one more laurel for the film, which already won the Grand Prize at the Short Shorts Film Festival in Tokyo and Best Short Film at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival as well as several other international honors. It is perhaps an underdog, as it will go up against a few shorts screened without subtitles, though the theme of the film, the individual standing up against authority, could not be more timely.

Deák, who now splits his time between London and Budapest, has this to say about his personal film-making style: “I believe pacing and timing are the most important tools in a director's hands. Only perfect timing will evoke real emotions - and that all comes down to actors and director.”

Following is the official trailer for Sing. It’s without subtitles, but still gives you a taste of the film, foremost because, after all, music, is the universal language.  

You can find Deák Kristóf's vimeo channel here.

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible.

Location Spotter: Urania and Pushkin Cinemas in Budapest

Lists are great and we love being featured on them. Here, from Bored Panda, where sophisticated lazybones go to waste time, we find a list where Budapest gets not one, but two mentions. Conveniently, it’s a list of the most beautiful movie theaters in the world, where we can claim both the third and sixth spot, with the Urania National Theater, and the Puskin Theater respectively.

The Urania is something like a functioning monument to the great artistic achievements of film and a monument to audiences who still like to enjoy cinema in a traditional movie theater. The structure housing the Urania was constructed in the 1880s. Its original purpose was actually not film related: nickelodeons had yet to even debut at that point in history. The Urania was what is known as an ‘Orpheum’, which is a kind of cabaret/dance hall. Right before the turn of the century, it was refitted to be a movie theater, in order to first host a Hungarian Scientific Society’s presentation, and then later to accommodate the rush of interest in this new crowd-pleasing medium.” Currently, it is the theater of choice for film festivals and movie premiers.

The Pushkin is smaller than the Urania, but still elegant and painstakingly preserved. When it opened in 1926, it was then the largest cinema in Europe. Though it has passed hands many times, the splendor of the main theater has been kept intact, with the original gilded ornamentation of sculpture Sándor Kristián having created a regal, majestic atmosphere for film-goers. Perhaps the attention to the opulent ornamentation is due to the fact that the Pushkin was originally a casino before being converted. Like the Urania, it bucks the trend towards blockbuster films, and serves primarily as an art-house cinema for Hungarian and foreign films alike.

So stop by Budapest; it’s a film lovers’ city, for those who make them but also for those who just enjoy them. Here you will find two of the most beautiful cinemas in the world. We know, because lists don't lie.

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible.

Chilling Beauty: the Danube in the WInter

Well, as dynamic and photogenic a city as Budapest is as a location, its current primary characteristic is that it is cold. With a record cold snap in effect, buildings are shining with frost, snow covers the statues in the parks, and the Danube is freezing over. What? The Danube is freezing over? It’s true. Though it seems inconceivable for a body of water as vast and constantly in motion as the Danube, which flows from Germany, splitting Budapest down the middle, before making its way through the Balkans and on to the Black Sea, it is true. And wonderfully so, as the below drone video, taken by FlyingEyes Media shows.

But, characteristically of the city, a little intemperate weather won’t keep us down. In fact, there are more and more films being shot here in Hungary than ever, including hottie Jennifer Lawrence’s latest (if she can’t melt the ice, then at least she’ll melt a few local hearts, as she has been sighted around town as of late).

You can see the denizens of the city taking up the challenge of the cold and making the best of it. That included recording the strikingly beautiful ice floes that are currently floating by, some the size of barges. So we invite you to see just how majestic this particular winter has turned this essential part of Budapest and this part of Europe’s landscape. Enjoy.

Budapest Then and Now: a Walk through the Ages

There is nothing like the turn of the dial on the year to cause one to get a bit nostalgic and with a bit of wistfulness, look back. Luckily, with the Internet and other media, it is becoming easier and easier to take a peek and see things as they were years, even decades ago. It is our good fortune to have stumbled upon this thrilling – yet somehow meditative – video that highlights gorgeous old photographs of Budapest as it was a century ago. And because we love putting locations in Budapest in front of your eyes, we went ahead and did a little photo research of our own and gathered a few of the same sites as they are now. It is amazing to see what has changed, and what has stayed the same. That’s one of the things that makes Budapest such a fantastic place to work and film: the melding of the old and regal with the modern and sleek. But enough chattering, have a look at the video, then join us below for a cozy trip back in time. No need to bring your camera: we’ve got you covered.

Lukacs Baths (.33 in the video):

via Lukacs Baths

Hungarian Parliament (.50 in the video):

via wikipedia commons

Keleti Train Station (1.05 in the video)

Kalvin Square (1.09 in the video)

Fisherman's Bastian (2:19 in the video)

via By Ealdgyth - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2674945

Flatpack Films is based in Budapest, Hungary. We are a film company that offers an inspiring and professional work atmosphere for our local and international clients. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast, and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we facilitate, we do to highest standard possible.