Work is under way at a film laboratory in Bologna on Two Girls on the Street, directed by Andre de Toth in 1939, and the project is financed by multi award-winning director Martin Scorsese's film fund, in cooperation with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
The association's Hungarian member Aniko Navai told MTI that the restored copy will be shown at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Gyongyi Balogh of the Hungarian National Film Archives said the original negative of the film was taken to Italy a few weeks ago but no details are available about the progress of restoration. Two Girls on the Street is one of five films de Toth made in his native Hungary before leaving for Britain at the start of WWII and eventually becoming an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker in the US.
Balogh said another two classic Hungarian films are being restored at the Dutch Film Archives. One is a 1914 silent film and the other is a 1917 silent film, both directed by Mihaly Kertesz who later gained Hollywood fame as Michael Curtiz. The Dutch Archives are financing the project which originally started in Hungary but the Hungarian Film Archives' technical facilities proved insufficient to complete it, she added.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Photo: imdb.com
