He understood everything that was a means of artistic expression, he was a genius with polyhistorical knowledge - described Zoltán Várkonyi, the director of the Hungarian National Film Archive.
Although it was commissioned in the fifties, Zoltán Várkonyi's early work Bitter Truth Thirty years had to wait for the release of the film - which the director no longer understood. As a guest of Libretto, György Ráduly, director of the Hungarian National Film Archive, spoke about the reason for the ban in connection with Duna's series presenting Hungarian film classics. The indexed work can be seen on the channel on March 31.
"He understood everything that was a means of artistic expression, he was a genius with polymath knowledge. He walked around the yard of the film factory with a jacket over his shoulders and made plans. He always had a plan he was working on"
– the director of the Hungarian National Film Archive described Zoltán Várkonyi as a guest of the program Libretto on the M5 cultural channel.
György Ráduly characterized the director-actor's suggestive personality, supporting young people, by saying that in March, as a continuation of the Danube's series presenting Hungarian film giants, the films of Zoltán Várkonyi, who was born 111 years ago, will be shown. On the following Sunday evenings, in addition to the film adaptations of Jókai and Gárdonyi novels - Zoltán Kárpáthy, A kősívű ember fiai and Egri csillagók - the film drama Bitter Truth, banned for thirty years, can also be seen as an encore.
The Bitter Truth, filmed in 1956, was screened for the first time in 1986, so Várkonyi, who died in 1979, could no longer attend the screening. This is the first film that openly criticized the Rákosi system. Through the tragedy resulting from irresponsible decisions, the story shows how the country reached the revolution.
"This is an early work by Zoltán Várkonyi, commissioned in the mid-1950s. An article was published in the newspaper Szabad nép about a party cadre who abused his power and became involved in a corruption case. They wanted to make the film to show what a dishonest figure he was and to set an example to the population that such scoundrels are rejected by society. But they didn't give enough instructions and direction to Zoltán Várkonyi and László Nádasdy, who wrote the screenplay, and they started to make this character into a somewhat fallible figure, as a result of which the work became a criticism of the system," explained György Ráduly, why the work was shelved for thirty years. The film will be broadcast on Duna on March 31 from 22:55. The entire conversation the Libretto Media Click page .
Libretto - on weekdays from 6 p.m. on the M5 cultural channel.
More movies:
March 10, 9:00 p.m. – Zoltán Kárpáthy
March 17, 9:00 p.m. – Sons of a Stone-Hearted Man 1-2
March 24, 9:00 p.m. – Stars of Eger 1-2
March 31, 10:55 p.m. – Bitter Truth
Featured image: NFI
