Through the Eyes of an Outsider: Scenes from 1964 Hungary by Elliott Erwitt

It was the year 1964, and the place was Hungary. Under the Socialist Kádár regime, progress was still being made. The country’s first self-service grocery store was opened, for instance. Bus travel between Czechoslovakia and Hungary was re-established, and Hungary sent a strong team to the Olympics in Tokyo. Also notable was that American photographer Elliott Erwitt arrived in the country to document life behind the Iron Curtain. Still in his 30s, Erwitt’s photos have been compared to those of street photography master Henri Cartier-Bresson in their capturing of the "decisive moment". It’s possible that his interest in Hungary came from his association with Hungarian photographer Robert Capa, with whom Erwitt worked at Magnum Photo. In his diverse subjects, Erwitt left behind documentation of a Hungary that feels very much in the past, yet somehow still with us.

Elliott Erwitt’s Hungarian photo series was recently on display at Budapest’s photography museum Mai Manó Ház, but you can see a selection of his work below, which is made available through the photo archive Fortepan.

Fotó: Hősök parkja, balra a Dózsa György utca, szemben a Szabadság utca. Mohács, Magyarország, 1964 © Fortepan / Krantz Károly

Fotó: Strand. Balatonakarattya, Magyarország, 1964. © Fortepan / Lencse Zoltán

Fotó: Strand. Balatonakarattya, Magyarország, 1964. © Fortepan / Lencse Zoltán

Fotó: Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út 78., Zrínyi Nyomda, a Magyar Rendőr című folyóirat nyomdai előkészítő munkálata, Budapest V. ker., Magyarország, 1964 © Fortepan / magyar rendőr

Fotó: Magyarország, 1964 © Fortepan / magyar rendőr

Fotó: Magyarország, 1964 © Fortepan / magyar rendőr

Fotó: Kossuth Lajos tér, a felvétel a Parlament erkélyéről készült., Budapest V. ker., Magyarország, 1964 © Fortepan / magyar rendőr

Fotó: Lehel vezér tér, május 1-i felvonulás, Jászberény, Magyarország, 1964. Morvay Lajos felvétele © Fortepan / Morvay Kinga

Fotó: Apáczai Csere János utca, az UVATERV-MÉLYÉPTERV székház tetőterasza, a mellvéden a törökbálinti M1-M7 autópálya kereszteződés makettje. Háttérben a Duna és a Királyi Palota, Budapest V. ker., Magyarország, 1964 © Fortepan / UVATERV

Fotó: Fő tér 10., a Grassalkovich-palota udvara, TEFU telep. Szemben, a Bugát Pál téren álló ház takarásában, a ferences templom, Gyöngyös, Magyarország, 1964 © Fortepan / UVATERV

Fotó: A Fővárosi Tanács VB Városrendezési és Építészeti Osztályának felvétele. Levéltári jelzet: HU_BFL_XV_19_c_11 © Fortepan / Budapest Főváros Levéltára

Fotó: Balatoni út, ÁFOR kút és az autószerviz, Székesfehérvár, Magyarország, 1964 © Fortepan / UVATERV

Fotó: Erzsébet híd Pestről nézve, terheléspróba, Budapest V. ker., Magyarország, 1964 © Fortepan / UVATERV

Fotó: Gyermek tér, gyermek közlekedési park, Budapest XIII. ker., Magyarország, 1964 © Fortepan

Source: Mai Manó Ház; Fortepan

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.

Local Hero: A Farewell to Károly Makk

While we have dedicated much space on this blog to a new and flourishing Hungarian film industry, with such festival hits as White God, On Body and Soul, and The Citizen gaining international attention, not to mention two recent Oscars in Son of Saul and the short Sing, it is fair to say that all contemporary Hungarian film-makers owe a debt to the bellwether years of modern Hungarian cinema, dominated by voices like István Szabó, Miklós Jancsó, Márta Mészáros, and recently departed Károly Makk.

From Makk's film Love

Makk died last week, having left indelible mark on Hungarian and international art-house cinema. Some of this is thanks to the liberalization of the local film industry during the difficult socialist era, giving local film-makers more freedom in subject matter and control over their product. While directing several less ambitious films,  Makk had to wait for slow changes within the government apparatus to make his masterpiece, simply titled (in English translation) Love, a film that would garner him international accolades, including the jury prize at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival. Quoted in the Guardian, Makk said, “I asked every year for six years for permission to make it. The political elite finally gave in because it was part of a rejection of the Stalin years.” His follow-up offering, Cat’s Play, would be Hungary’s selection for the 1974 Oscars, as was his next film Another Way, though that film would be withdrawn on the insistence of the regime in then-Socialist Hungary.

From Makk's film Love

Makk would go on to make English-language films that were internationally financed, including Lily in Love, staring Christopher Plummer and Maggie Smith, and The Gambler, an adaptation of Dostoevsky’s novel, with Michael Gambon in the lead role.

Makk was born in 1925, and despite his father’s urging that he go into a practical trade like engineering, Makk joined the national film industry as an assistant, and worked his way through the ranks until he began directing, his first feature being Liliomfi in 1954. Of the many films he made, five would be nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Károly Makk’s films explored how average people maintain their humanity in the face of oppression, something the director had firsthand experience in. Though he has passed, his legacy lives on in the vital and human stories we are seeing coming out of the Hungarian cinema of today.

Károly Makk. Image via Wikipedia

Source: the Guardian

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.

Ballerina Budapest: The Ballerina Project

The Ballerina Project Hungary, a long-running series by Hungarian photographer Tünde Dóra feature ballerinas posing around some of Budapest’s more well and lesser known sites, including thermal bath houses, the metro, and the banks of the Danube. The series is derived from the international Ballerina Project, created by photographer Dane Shitagi some 17 years ago. According to the Ballerina Project Hungary’s Facebook page, “The Ballerina Project is more than just documentation: it’s a nod of respect paid to the most effective essence of human motion, ballet. It is also an undistorted mirror of dancers’ ambitions…The dancers are taken away from the stage – this time the scenery is our living space, the city milieu, simple everyday life.”

Grace, elegance, utility: ballerinas and Budapest make great dance partners.

All photos by Tünde Dóra and used by permission. You can find more on the Ballerina Project Hungary on Instagram, Facebook, and on her website.

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.

Culinary Corner: the National Cake Competition

Anybody in or around Budapest this past month knows there was recently a huge competition taking place. No, we’re not talking about Formula 1’s Hungaroring, or the FINA World Championships in swimming, but something far sweeter. As it’s Hungary’s birthday in August, that can only mean the national cake competition, where confectioners from across the country compete to be awarded the honor of being Hungary’s national cake for the next year. It is viewed as something of a birthday cake, and the winning confection will be sold at confectioners around the country. But forget traditional Dobos or Esterházy tortes of competitions past; bakers these days are turning up the heat and working outside their comfort zones to get noticed, with previous entries featuring such diverse flavors as pumpkin oil and apricot fruit brandy.

While the country’s oldest confectioners usually prevail, this year a relative new-comer, the chic bakery and candy store Sugar! Design Confectionery, took home first prize with a cake translated from Hungarian as ‘Balaton Frothy Hazelnut’, which among other ingredients, is made with black currants, chocolate, caramel, and of course, hazelnut. The cake, or more accurately, torte, beat out 28 other cakes that made it to the final competition.

via Sugar! Design Confectionary

While the years have seen increasingly creative cakes win, it is a requirement that the entries utilize a recognizably traditional Hungarian flavor in the recipe (you won’t be seeing a green mochi cake winning anytime soon).

As sweet as all this is, the contest also recently acknowledged a parallel competition for a sugar-free cake. This year the winner was Budapest confectioner Zazzi Confectioners’ cake that translates at Polka-dotted Panni, a very pink creamy raspberry mousse, plum, and poppy seed concoction.

via One Drop of Attention Foundation

Congratulations to the winning cakes, in this scrumptious summer tradition; just one more example of Hungary rewarding innovation while keeping itself rooted in tradition. And if we have the ear of the Association of Hungarian Confectionery Manufacturers, the contest’s organizers, please drop us a line if you need a judge for next year’s contest.

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.

A Hungarian in Hollywood: Joe Eszterhas

Photo by Franzressel via Wikipedia Commons

Not many screenwriters can lay claim to having penned films whose box office totals exceed 2 billion dollars. Making this feat more impressive, not many screenwriters also ascended to the heights of of being Hollywood’s top paid writer, when English was not their first language. But such is the case with notorious rabble-rouser Joe Eszterhas, or Eszterhas József, as he was his given name when born in the small Hungarian village of Csákánydoroszló, back in the harrowing, war-torn year of 1944.

Emigrating with his family as refugees to American and eventually growing up in a poor Hungarian enclave in Ohio, Eszterhas endured prejudice against immigrants, to find work as a journalist with Cleveland’s newspaper the Plain Dealer. From there he moved west to Rolling Stone magazine, and earned a National Book Award nomination for his non-fiction title Charlie Simpson’s Apocalypse. He broke into entertainment with his union-themed film-script for F.I.S.T, which took a critical drubbing, but didn’t prevent the scribe from following up with the sensational 80’s juggernaut Flashdance and of course the neo-noir icon Basic Instinct. It was the wild success of Basic Instinct that solidified his career and earned him the reputation as Hollywood’s highest paid writer, with his multi-million dollar deals making as much news as his skirmishes with Hollywood’s powerbrokers like Michael Ovitz.

But Eszterhas never forgot his Hungarian roots, and was involved with many projects that either featured Hungarians or took place in Hungary, most recently the extremely well received Hungarian-language film Children of Glory, based on Eszterhas’s script, which details the heroics of the 1956 Hungarian Olympic water polo team that faced off against the Russians during the 1956 Revolution. Earlier, he wrote American Rhapsody, which follows an American teenager discovering her Hungarian heritage in Budapest, and Music Box, about a Hungarian immigrant to America who is accused of being a war criminal.

A few interesting facts about Joe Eszterhas:

He reportedly wrote Basic Instinct in 13 days, and later sold it at auction for 3 million dollars.

He famously had an affair with Basic Instinct star Sharon Stone.

Huge success also came with huge disappointments. His mocked big budget Showgirls and his indie-minded An Alan Smithee Film both won in the Worst Screenplay category of the Razzies.

Music Box’s plot closely resembled life when Eszterhas’ own father was accused of being a Nazi collaborator.

The writer eventually moved from Hollywood back to Ohio, to live quietly with his family, and write books and screenplays.

Eszterhas publicly called out many a star, like Edward Norton, Michael Douglas, and Val Kilmer for overstepping their roles. He even wrote a book on his difficult experiences with Mel Gibson during their ill-fated project on Judah and The Maccabees.

Though Showgirls was considered one of Hollywood’s all-time great critical flops, it continues to gain a cult following and not only turned a profit on video but remains one of MGM’s top twenty sellers on that format.

Joe Eszterhas participated in the Memory Project: the Hungarian American Visual History Project. His episode can be seen below.

Hats off to Joe Eszterhas, a Hungarian in Hollywood, who has left an indelible mark on 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.

Underground Budapest: János Molnár Caves

photo by Janne Suhonen

photo by Janne Suhonen

photo by Janne Suhonen

We make the most of Budapest as a city, with stunning architecture and diverse culture for all mindsets and lifestyles. But you may be surprised to learn that there is also a lot going on beneath the city’s bedrock. We’re not talking about another new metro line or an invasion of gophers, but rather the extraordinary system of underwater caves that supply the city’s dozen or so thermal baths with warm water. This may be one of Budapest’s best kept secrets, though it won’t be for long, as the Hungarian Tourist Board teamed up with media company Great Big Story to make a video about the largest and most explored underwater cave beneath Budapest: János Molnár.

Before diving into the video, here are a few interesting facts about the János Molnár underwater caves:

The opening to the network of caves was discovered in the 1950s by none other than a man named János Molnár, a pharmacist who decided to follow the warm waters of a thermal bath to their source. Divers began charting the caves in the 1970s, and since then four miles of underwater caves have been explored.

The largest underwater chamber of the network can fit (according to the video) 350 double-decker buses. Were it a bath, it would take four-and-a-half years to drain.

This is only one complex of underwater caves in Budapest. Many still exist that have yet to be explored.

Entirely new species of underwater life have been discovered in the János Molnár caves. Biologists, geologists, and chemists visit to study the water's unique properties.

Moreover, you can visit too, as dives are arraigned through a private company. As described by somebody who experienced the caves under Budapest first hand to travel site Atlas Obscura, “Inside, the network of water-carved tunnels curve into bends with striking, pinkish mineral formations decorating the walls. Some of the shapes lie in undulating layers, others resemble small cauliflower heads, while some of the mineral deposits mimic flowers, which earned the cave its nickname the ‘Underground Flower Garden.’”

But if you aren’t certified/in Budapest/ or are claustrophobic, have a look at this spectacular video, which has racked up almost 100,000 views in the few days since it was uploaded, and get to know Budapest’s thriving ‘underground’ culture.

All photos by Janne Suhonen are used by permission. You can find out more about Janne's book and photo projects here and 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.

Hungarian Lesson: i-D Magazine's 'Model Mother Tongue'

With almost two million views for a black-and-white video that teaches the viewer a few key Hungarian phrases, it seems that the Hungarian language has suddenly become very popular indeed. With only 13 million Hungarian speakers worldwide, this represents a huge boost. OK, it’s possible that not everybody is tuning to improve their skills at 'magyarul', but even so, that so many people can properly say liliom (lily) in Hungarian represents something of a minor triumph.

It should be pointed out that the lesson – so to speak – was organized by fashion magazine i-D, and the teacher is known for her ability to capture attention. Over its near 40-year existence, the British i-D has been at the cutting edge of culture and fashion. Not long ago, they started a series of videos called “Model Mother Tongue” in which top international fashion models give a brief primer in their native tongue, along with a lot of atmospheric shots and doe eyes. Irrespective of your interest in fashion models, the videos are – of course – stylish, but also have a sense of humor.

With so many Hungarian models to chose from, who, you may be wondering, did i-D invite to lovingly torture the viewer with a lesson in Hungarian? It turns out the choice was easy in recruiting Barbara Palvin, a Victoria’s Secret model who has also graced the pages of Sports Illustrated iconic swimsuit issue, is a L’Oréal ambassador, and is ranked by Forbes as one of the world’s highest paid models. A British Vogue editor describes her as an “absolutely exquisite looking a cross between a young Brooke Shields and Natalia Vodianova."

While the video doesn’t appear to be shot in Hungary, there is a good amount of hungaricum (artifacts unique to Hungarian culture) dropped in the phrases, like gulyás (goulash) and Houdini. In other words, you might learn something, too. As a model and teacher, Palvin is at the top of her game. Her English isn’t bad, either.

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: Hungaroring, Grand Prix in Hungary

Summer means many different things to visitors from abroad, who come to Hungary for the diversity of attractions and events, unique Hungarian culture, and beautiful landscapes. But racing fans come to Hungary for our Grand Prix: Hungaroring, Hungary’s Formula One event. Racing enthusiasts will flood the town Mogyoród, 20 km northeast of Budapest, to watch the best of Formula One racing. Dubbed ‘Monaco without walls’, in reference to its twists and turns, which are similar to Monanco’s race, Hungaroring will go off this very weekend. 

One could also compare the track to the Hungarian language, loaded with difficult contortions and inevitable complications: it hasn’t been made it easy for anybody. That said, once they get going, drivers can reach speeds of up to 300 km/h on the lone hospitable straight. The drivers will rack up 70 laps for a total of just over 306 km over the two-hour race.

While McClaren are favored this year, fans will get a kick out of watching Force India’s pink car do its best. Said Sergio Perez from Force India team, “I like the twisty layout, which reminds me of a street circuit. And when you find your rhythm, it’s very enjoyable to drive.”

Only time will tell if on Sunday driver Lewis Hamilton will match Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 68 poles, an occurrence that would make this year’s Hungaroring all the more eventful. Hamilton is the most successful driver in Hungary's F1 history, with five wins to his name, including a win at last year’s race. Unfortunately there are no locals to root for, and only one Hungarian has participated as a driver in the race -- Zsolt Baumgartner in 2003 and 2004.

Hungaroring has been held here since 1986, making it the third most long-standing Formula 1 event. Initially, the then-Communist authorities had wanted to race to take place in the streets of Budapest, but that proved not feasible, so a purpose-built track was constructed. The first Formula 1 race attracted over 200,000 fans from across the Soviet Eastern bloc. These days, while it is popular locally, the majority of attendees are foreigners – Germans, Austrians, Finns, and Polish are the most represented nationalities who come to Hungary in the heat of summer for a day or two at the races.

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 Tops the 'Nomad List' as Best City for Digital Nomads

In terms if ‘best of’ lists of cities, Budapest usually finds a spot. A lesser known list than, say Conde Nast Travelers top travel-destination list, but one that may be more of a harbinger of a city on the rise, is what’s known as the ‘Nomad List’. That’s a list of cities that are considered best for digital nomads, people who spend their lives traveling for long stretches and working as freelancers, remote workers, or online entrepreneurs. Though the list on nomadlist.com is ever changing according to shifting criteria and metrics, Budapest is currently rated the top city in the world for digital nomads, beating out such perennial nomad favorites as Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Lisbon, Portugal.

photo via Wikipedia

Why does Budapest scratch digital nomads where they itch? Affordability is of course paramount. For workers on international wages, the rents are still reasonable, about half the price of an apartment in a typical US city. Also, the textured culture and nightlife is attractive, as is the broadband, which one nomad described as ‘fast and furious’. Though Budapest is a bit late to catch up to the phenomenon of digital nomadism, there are new co-working spaces spaces opening all the time and serviced apartments that cater to short-term living.

Other than affordability, let’s look at a few other amenities that Budapest digital nomads cite as reasons for making it the top spot to spend time in.

Nightlife: People who won’t be sticking around long appreciate accessible night life. Rooftop films at Corvin Rooftop are a hit, having both a cultural event and club-like atmosphere. Gozsdu Udvar is one-stop shopping for a night of food and fun.

Gozsdu Udvar photo by Thaler Tamas via Wikipedia

Nature: The huge, green spaces like Margit Island are appreciated as places for solo or group yoga, running tracks, and abundant walking spaces. Budapest is a bus ride away from hills for hiking, and caves for caving.

Japanese Garden on Margit Island via Wikipedia

Transport: Though Hungarians and long-term residents alike bemoan the public transport, in reality the wide-reaching and dependable tram, bus, and metro services are great, inexpensive ways to see the city. Nomads who have been in New York, where the subway is constantly breaking down, or Ho Chi Minh City, where you can’t walk for the all the motorbikes, love that Budapest is accessible without a car.

Fancy coffees with a side of Wifi. In particular nomads cite the new Megvető café, owned by the venerable Hungarian publishing house of the same name, and coffee bar Fekete as favorite spots to get work done in.

Classic Budapest: nobody comes to Budapest exclusively for the modern. Travelers love the old-world feel the city is so famous for, not to mention their loyalty to their home cuisine. Both architecture and Hungarian food are much touted by those who spent time here.

Hungarian Gulyás via Wikipedia

Digital nomads are people who left their home to see the world as they work. Having been around, they are a sophisticated and demanding bunch. To land on top of a list curated by such nomads means that not only has Budapest arrived, but worldly travelers have arrived (here) as well.

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.

Brutal Budapest: Local Examples of Architecture's Most Divisive Trend

The Barbican Center (not in Budapest). via Wikipedia Commons

It doesn’t matter if you think it’s an eyesore, or if you think it’s utilitarian beauty for the ages, the brutalist architecture movement is enjoying a huge wave of popularity. Everyone from hipsters to Millennials to architecture mavens have taken up the brutalist cause with brutalist tours, brutalist Facebook pages, and books devoted to nothing but brutalist architecture. We’ll leave it to the more learned people at ssense.com to give a concise definition of brutalism: “Concrete facades. No decoration. Strict social ethics. Low cost and fast effect. In the period between the 1950s and the 1970s, brutalism was the blue pill of urban planning for communities and town councils across five continents. It allowed municipalities to build social housing and public buildings with a limited budget and a cultural blessing. The godfather of all architects, Le Corbusier, explicitly highlighted the beauty of “brutal matter,” and in general terms, colors and shapes that look great on a concrete background. Moreover, erecting structures in concrete was easy, economical, and functional for the large social housing necessities of expanding cities in the golden age of postwar Western industrialization.”

But not all concrete architecture is brutalist, and not all brutalism is made from concrete, as purists on the web are quick to point out. Brutalism is a bit like pornography: you may not be able to say exactly what qualifies, but you know it when you see it.

Detractors, particularly right leaning or libertarian Americans, call the movement either elitist or socialist, depending on their agenda. There is no doubt that the Russians and former satellite states excelled at brutalism.

Surprisingly (or not) when Budapest decided to renovate Moszkva Square, and rename it Széll Kálmán Square, they went with a concrete brutalist look for the metro stop and surrounding structures. Whether this is forward thinking or retro nostalgia is a matter of opinion.

via BKK

via BKK

Recently torn down Puskás Stadium was much loved for its football games and Metallica concerts but was also derided for its very industrial, hence, cheap, hence, brutalist look. Today’s hyper-modern stadium (not pictured) doesn’t have that problem.

The Budapest Hotel (not to be confused with the Grand Hotel Budapest, which is a different style altogether) is a cylindrical concrete spot for your brutalist Budapest getaway.

via Danubus Hotels

And if you want to get out of Budapest, there’s the retro-wondrous Ezüstpart Hotel in Siofok on the beautiful (or brut-iful?) Lake Balaton.

via szallas.hu

Of course, with its Socialist past, Hungary has some good examples of the brutalist architecture that is so trendy these days (though not as many as one would expect from a post-Bloc country). Above are just a few. If you know of any more drop us a line in the comments.

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.

Ashton Kutcher: A Budapest Bucket List

Lately, local social media feeds have been a’ flutter with the news that Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis are currently residing in Budapest, while Kunis shoots The Spy Who Dumped Me. Fans have documented Mr. Kutcher food shopping in Buda, near the house they are reportedly renting. As far as we know, this is the actor’s first time in Budapest, so we’ve put together a bucket list of things to do, based on his most popular parts.

In The Butterfly Effect, Kutcher finds himself trapped in multiple alternate realities, and has to rely on his ingenuity and intelligence to set his life straight. With that in mind, one of Budapest’s famous and unique ‘escape rooms’ should be a cinch. This attraction, where the participants must solve puzzles and follow clues in order to escape a locked room, has proven hugely popular with tourists and locals alike. Some ambitious companies are even exporting the idea to other parts of Europe.

In Just Married, Kutcher plays half of a newlywed couple on a disastrous honeymoon in Europe. The pair watches their relationship disintegrate as they trek across France and Italy (yet weirdly misses Budapest). Perhaps things would have turned out much different had they chilled a bit and taken a room at Budapest's Gellért Hotel, famous for their indoor and outdoor thermal baths and wellness center. What could be more relaxing and romantic than a hot bath, massage, and room looking out over the Danube? No amount of arguing can withstand that kind of couples' team building.

via Danubus Hotels

via Wikipedia

Finally, as a nod to Mila Kunis’s most famous role of up-and-coming ballerina Lily in Black Swan, we recommend an evening of ballet at the Hungarian State Opera. One of the city’s most iconic sites and film locations, the State Opera is also home the the Hungarian National Ballet. Kutcher may even catch a performance of Swan Lake, which plays there from time to time. Built in 1884, the State Opera House has nurtured talents like Ferenc (Franz) Liszt, Béla Bartók, and Gustav Mahler. Using 7 kilograms of gold in its interior decorations, it is said to be one of the most beautiful opera houses both inside and out in Europe.

via Wikipedia

via Wikipedia

Ashton Kutcher, the city welcomes you. If you happen to have free time and still find yourself at a loss for what to do, just give us a shout.

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.

A Hungarian in New York: the Life of Edit Deak

We don’t write much about the Hungarian art world too much here. Perhaps that’s because so much creativity was stifled or re-purposed under the Socialist regime, the affects of which are still lingering. But Hungarians have had a significant influence on the international art scene due mass emigration in the middle of the 20th century. We could bring up artists like Hungarian-born Rita Ackermann, whose drawings of sexualized adolescents earned her a worldwide reputation as being at the forefront of transgressive New York Art.

DeAk with Warhol

And then there were voices like Edit Deak, who spelled her name with a capital ‘A’, making it DeAk. Having fled the Socialist regime in 1968 at age 18, and, after a brief stop in Italy, DeAk very quickly managed to establish herself as a fixture in the downtown New York art scene. As a student at Columbia, she was able to connect with fellow art afictionados and start an art magazine, Art-Rite, that championed difficult art, with DeAk dubbing the effort “coverage for the uncovered”. The magazine was one of the first of its kind to promote video and performance art, street art, and also paid special attention to outsider art, meaning, non art-school trained artists.

via Wikipedia

Moreover, DeAk founded the influential downtown art bookstore and publisher Printed Matter. Through her magazine and other outlets she would champion now mainstream artists like William Wegman, Keith Haring, and even had Jean-Michel Basquiat decorate the walls of her Soho loft. Of course she was also friends with Andy Warhol.

Basquiat's Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump

As a writer she was highly praised, and indeed, other art critics were quick to pick up on the places she was leading, with William Zimmer saying in The SoHo Weekly News: “DeAk has been everywhere before anybody.”  You could say she was a Peggy Guggenheim for outsider art. DeAk died in early June of this year, and was mourned widely, though her passing garnered little notice in her home country.

Source material: New York Times.

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.

Bizarre Foods get Real in Budapest

We love it when TV hosts from abroad come to Budapest to sample the culture and cuisine, then present it back to the world like a new discovery from some distant, unknown land. They all assume a similar attitude when confronted with a kitchen that is so different than that of its Slavic and Balkan neighbors: awestruck, confounded, impressed, and relived all at once. This is particularly true when it comes to famous cooks and foodhounds who are profiling Hungarian cuisine while trying to get their mouth around a fat véres huka (blood sausage), while forcing their tongue to do the acrobatics required to pronounce the Hungarian language.

This is true of American Andrew Zimmern, who hosts the popular show Bizarre Foods on US cabal TV's Travel Channel. Maybe it is because he is on his second trip to Budapest that he has forsaken such ‘bizarre’ delicacies as kakashere pörkölt (rooster testicle stew) and zúza pörkölt (gizzard stew) in favor of more conventional Hungarian dishes like stuffed cabbage and chicken paprikash (the only bizarre thing here is that they are not more popular worldwide).

Chicken paprikash

That said, the host does make an effort to cover the range of price points, from a ‘street food’ lángos (fried dough) to a pricey dessert cake called Solmóli galuska from the city’s one-time most esteemed restaurant, Gundel.  In the in-between space we see visits to local treasure Rosenstein, where traditional Hungarian Jewish cuisine is served; to a hip new ‘Party District’ restaurant called Getto Gulyas that specializes in old-school Hungarian goulash and stews.

Somlói galuska

One of those interviewed proclaims that there is a ‘culinary revolution’ underway in Budapest. And he is right. Old dishes are being revamped for modern tastes, while Hungarian Millennials are seeing the value local cuisine as street food. It is fair to say that the the food scene reflects the city as a whole: vibrant, traditional, progressive, and always inventive.

We invite you to have a look at the latest Budapest installment of Bizarre Foods, which can be consumed in bite-sized portions below.

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.

Cityscape Budapest: the Mesmerizing Drawings of Stefan Bleekrode

used by permission of the artisit

If you look at Stefan Bleekrode’s drawings of Budapest, it’s impossible not to also imagine the artist squinting into a photograph of the cityscape and painstakingly recreating the streets and buildings in inky analog. But would you be surprised to learn that the artist relies on nothing but memory when rendering the intricate details of Budapest? Without this nugget of information, the drawings would still be amazing. Instead they are a unique wonder, like a trick produced by the slight of hand of a practiced magician.

Budapest is but one location of the series he calls Cityscapes, which also includes cites like Paris, New York, and London. In the Budapest drawings, we find such blue-chip locations as Keleti train station, Parliament, and Margaret Bridge, though he told us he is currently working on a new drawing of Budapest called Budapest at Night.

used by permission of the artist

At age 30, Dutch artist Bleekrode has been training his memory and talent for drawing since he was a child, as he told odditycentral.com.  “At the age of 10 I wanted to recapture my impressions of places in France and Belgium I’d visited during a holiday the previous summer. Where I lived there was very little that pleases the eye – just 1960’s housing estates and offices. By doing these small pencil drawings I could drift back to those sunny and inspiring places where the world was colorful and eager to be explored. I continue to do the Cityscape drawings for as long as I enjoy it or until I run out of ideas.”

used by permission of the artist

We expect Budapest to imprint itself of people’s memories, but this surprised us. Bleekrode is entirely self taught, which makes the feat all the more amazing. Our curiosity peaked, we contacted the artist, who made himself available to answer a few questions in a recent interview with Flatpack Films.

FPF: What about Budapest appealed to you as an artist?

In terms of artistic appeal, I find Budapest a fascinating city because, unlike most other cities in Europe, it is truly impressive, beautiful and distinctly different. The wide Danube crossing through the city in a gentle curve defines Budapest's two sided appearance, hilly, historic and green on the Buda side and imposing, stellar and energetic on the Pest side. In between a number of beautiful bridges connects these two halves. In particular Pest stands out for me as one massive monument to the great economic and artistic revival of the 2nd half of the 19th century, nowhere this seems to be more visible and so well retained as in Budapest. The combination between delicate, shapely and so often original architecture and the strict geometry of the city's layout I find most appealing for my work.

FPF: How did you train your memory to draw such complicated scenes? Or do you just have a photographic memory?

By focusing so strongly on the visible world around us and using this collected bulk of information in my artwork, I am convinced this trained my memory and made it easier for me to see and retain more details than let's say ten years before. But I always preferred images over written stuff or sounds, as a child I loved looking at picture books but didn't care very much about novels or music. Later on however I realised I could use my 'pictoral' memory also to memorise place names or to learn languages with greater ease. Even Hungarian doesn't seem to daunting for me!

FPF: Have you ever gone back and compared your pictures to the actual view?

Certainly, but I never intend to make an exact replica of existing cities, much more it's a composite view, an amalgamation of many impressions to recreate as truthfully as possible what I enjoyed and how a felt a bout a certain place. But I'm working on a Budapest at Night picture and that one must be fairly realistic.

FPF: How did you find Budapest as a city, independent of your artistic endeavor?

Budapest very much seems to me like some kind of boomtown again, it's very energetic, much more so than many (better known) cities in western Europe. Which greatly surprises me every time I go there because it's the capital of a fairly small country nowadays. Other than that I find it very safe, functional and surprisingly liveable for a city of 2 million. And to me it feels relaxed as well, mainly because of the spa's I suppose. On the downside there's a lot of work that still needs to be done, some areas remain a bit grim but I'm convinced it will look great in the future as well.

used by permission of the artisit

used by permission of the artist

To see more of the artist’s Cityscapes, have a look here.

We expect Budapest to imprint itself of people’s memories, but this surprised us. Bleekrode is entirely self taught, which makes the feat all the more amazing. 

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.

A Hungarian From History: The Remarkable Life of Tibor Déry

Hungarian literature – now more than ever – has managed to take a prominent place on the world literature stage, while at the same time remaining distinctly Hungarian. It’s fair to say that there has been a rush on Hungarian writers in the German and particularly English language markets. All that said, there are still any number of fantastic Hungarian writers whose work has not been fully explored outside of the Hungarian language.

For example, there is Tibor Déry, who philosopher Georg Lukács praised as being “the greatest depicter of human beings of our time”. The Hungarian satirist, whose novel, Képzelt riport egz amerikai popfesztiválról (An Imaginary Report on an American Pop Festival),  should have international appeal, as it is based on the Rolling Stones' notorious Altamont concert, where the Hell’s Angels biker gang took over security, and were subsequently accused of assaulting audience members before stabbing one to death during the Stones’ set. The novel was popular enough in Hungary that it was adapted into a musical production, which was staged in Berlin before touring in Europe and, in 1986, finding its way to Albany New York, where it was presented in English with an American cast. Yet nobody has taken it upon themselves to translate and publish that book. His classic novel, the 1200-page tome An Unfinished Sentence, also remains untranslated.

Born in 1894, the writer was persecuted throughout his adult life for his support for Communist causes and the political affiliations they brought. Indeed, he was exiled in 1919 for his views. Upon return to Hungary, he was imprisoned for translating Andre Gide into Hungarian. Towards the end of his life, Déry turned his back on Stalin’s brand of communism, and was expelled from the Hungarian Communist Party in 1953. During this period, Déry was imprisoned again, and sentenced to nine years for his writings and participation in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. In support of Déry, artists and writers worldwide registered local protests, including: Picasso, Camus, Satre, Bertrand Russell, and E.M. Forster.

Déry died in 1977. Compared to greats like Bruno Schultz and Anton Chekov, Déry's has yet to receive the recognition of either of those writers. But he hasn’t gone totally ignored. Dery’s most popular novel, Niki: the Story of a Dog, is still in print, in its 1954 English translation, and his short story collect Love and Other Stories was put out in English on New Directions in 2005. But it is possible that his greatest and most accessible works are slipping us by.

For those courageous enough, below is thesoundtrack to the musical based on Déry's book An Imaginary Report on an American Pop Festival, with music by Hungarian band Locomotiv GT.

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.

2017 Cannes Film Festival: Hungarians at the Gate

Cannes has been good to Hungarian films in recent years, with efforts like Son of Saul, which of course won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2015. In this, the 70th incarnation of the Cannes Film Festival, we see three Hungarian films entered in three different categories.

In the main competition, we find director Kornél Mundruczó’s feature Jupiter's Moon. The director is no stranger to Cannes, with his last feature White God winning the Un Certain Regard prize in 2014. A magic realist tale that follows the friendship of a refugee and a Hungarian local, Jupiter's Moon is the director’s fifth (fifth!) trip to the festival. He was quoted in the Budapest Business Journal as saying  “Jupiter’s Moon is set in a world where we have lost our moral handles/grip. We are falling. We have forgotten to look outside. In the Europe of our ages, amidst such life-changing situations as the refugee crisis, we have no compass for making the appropriate decisions. I am the most interested in whether there is a mutual belief that could tie us together. Is there salvation? What can give us hope in the worst of times?”

Screenshot from Jupiter's Moon via Screen Daily

Indiewire gave high praise to the film’s direction and cinematography (by Marcell Rév): “Even the film’s lone car chase is a breathless experience, as Rév and Mundruczó strap a camera on the hood of a high-powered sedan and lead us on a winding, high-speed drive that always seems framed for maximum impact. These people are the film’s true miracle workers, and they could turn Hollywood upside down if given half a chance (a Marvel movie backed by this sort of talent would be a genuine game-changer).”

In the Un Certain Regard category, we can find Out, by Hungarian/Slovak György Kristóf. Out features an ethnic Hungarian/Slovak engineer who leaves home for Latvia to look for a better life, and some good fishing. There he lands work in a shipyard, and has to deal with xenophobia and a taxidermied rabbit. It is Kristof’s debut feature film. Daily Variety praised the pic’s performances, humor and look, saying “The visuals are among the film’s strongest suit.”

Screenshot from Out via the Czech Film Center

Finally, the short Invisibly by Áron Szentpéteri was selected as one of the sixteen film school films in the Cinéfondation category. The Hungarian National Film Fund, which also provided much of the funding for Jupiter’s Moon, describes the film as such: “Two everyday people meet in the dark. The darkness of an invisible exhibition. Through the film we follow them as they get closer and move apart from each other by crossing blurry boundaries. Boundaries that exist between and within people and are mostly invisible. Not only for the blind.” Szentpéteri attends the famous Hungarian University of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest.

Prizes will be announced on May 26, 27 and 28. Good luck to all the films - especially the Hungarian ones - being screened at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

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.

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.