To follow up retrospectives of two other Hungarian directors, Károly Makk and Géza Bereményi, CAC Voltaire will present a total of 10 films by Béla Balázs Studio founder István Gaál between February 20 and 28. The legendary experimental film studio BBS was founded in 1961 and Gaál?s first feature film Current was made in 1963. Also included in the programme at the Maison des Arts du Grütli is Cannes Jury Award winner The Falcons (1970), which is about a rural outpost where falcons are trained and used to control birds considered pests to farmers. But this narrative is simply a cover for subtle observations on the communist system and its depersonalising nature. Roots (1999) is a documentary about Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The retrospective will be opened with a screening of An Extraordinary Inventory of Paris, which will be attended by the director.
The latest issue of Hungarian film magazine Metropolis, published to coincide with the Hungarian Film Festival, concluded earlier in February, is dedicated to the films of István Gaál.
The third international film festival of Bangkok opened this week. The only Hungarian film invited to the festival was director Krisztina Deák?s Bonnie and Clyde from Miskolc (2004), a rendering of a 1995 bank robbery accomplished by two Hungarian teenagers.
FICCO, the festival of contemporary cinema in Mexico City, started on Tuesday and it features two films by another young Hungarian director: Kornél Mundruczó. Pleasant Days (2002) has been compared to the works of Pasolini and Fassbinder, while Johanna (2005) is a modern musical interpretation of the Passion of Joan of Arc.
A film festival of female directors, Sguardi Altrove, will be held for the 13th time in Milan from February 22. Márta Mészáros is featured with the film The Uninterred Corpse (2004), Lívia Gyarmathy with Our Stork (1999) and The Ninth Floor (1977), and Zsuzsa Böszörményi with Guarded Secrets (2004). The festival this year is dedicated to an examination of family relations and it will include a roundtable discussion attended by Gyrmathy.
