Two comedies, two purposes

The purpose of movies is to serve the needs of the audience – be it the masses, who strive especially for entertainment or a minority of people interested in movies that require in-depth thinking and careful watching. Be it either way, until films and filmmaking can afford to serve the needs of the audience and to reflect upon issues in society, they enjoy a relative freedom. Losing, however; even this little freedom is really easy. An abrupt change in politics and state power is enough to curb this freedom and instantly films will serve the needs of the state. Filmmaking is of course always under some influence and independent filmmaking is in a difficult situation even in democratic countries but in totalitarian dictatorships freedom of filmmaking ceases to exist. Films become a weapon or a tool that are perfect for serving the needs of the state.

In the history of Hungarian filmmaking there are numerous examples showing that both of these are possible but the aim of this essay is not to list all of them. The aim of this paper, however, is to highlight a popular genre, the comedy in Hungarian filmmaking and compare its manifestation in different time periods. The two periods under introspection are the 1930’s and the period between 1948 and 1952.  These two eras have the potential to give a perfect representation of the formerly mentioned influences on filmmaking since they are in contrast in terms of purposes. The differences between these two types of comedies will be examined later.

Before diving into the comedies of the 1930’s it is inevitable to mention a few things about the background of Hungarian filmmaking.  Filmmaking in Hungary began in 1901 with Táncz, six years after the first officially screened movie. This prominent movie was well-received and greatly contributed to the spread of movie theatres in Hungary. In each year more and more movies were produced and this tendency continued until 1919 when first in the world filmmaking was nationalized. Nationalization of filmmaking did not last long still it had a detrimental effect on it. It is not an exaggeration to say that Hungarian filmmaking was dying in the 1920s and this period signaled the end of Hungarian silent movie. In order to resurrect filmmaking, experts were sent abroad to acquire the necessary technical knowledge. Besides technical development national financial support came to the rescue of Hungarian filmmaking. Thus, by 1931 with the production of Hyppolit a lakáj (Hyppolit the butler) Hungarian movie was again alive (Veress 18-21) .

Hyppolit a lakáj started a new era in filmmaking that lasted right until 1939. In this era the ruling genre of movies was comedy. The two trend making movies in this period were the formerly mentioned Hyppolit a lakáj and then Meseautó (1934). These two movies set the tone of filmmaking for a whole decade and a series of movies were produced based on these two. The main themes of these movies were centered around the life of the bourgeois but there was a little difference between the approach towards this social class. Comedies based on Hyppolit a lakáj praised the bourgeois for their practicality, pragmatism and simplicity against the posh aristocracy. At the same time, movies following the pattern of Meseautó (Car of My Dreams) concentrated on the topic of ‘rich man- poor girl’. They emphasized the idea of ‘everything is possible’ with a Cinderella like coating. Movies like Meseautó were mass produced and almost one hundred Meseautó based movies were made in a five year interval.  The artistic value of these movies is still debated but it is for sure that these films were successful and they could be successful because they served the needs of the bourgeois, the ones who were regular cinema goers.  This prolific period of comedies, however, completely vanished with the outbreak of WWII.

WWII had a lasting impact on Hungarian filmmaking and went through many struggles but after the war it seemed that it would regenerate. This partly came true. Partly because it received financial support from the state but in 1948 filmmaking was nationalized for the second time (Fazekas, filmkultura.hu) .  The communist regime used film for their own benefit. They encouraged the production of comedies but with a new supporting ideology. The aim of these films was to mock and ridicule both the aristocracy and the bourgeois in opposition to the working people of Hungary. The movies produced between 1948 and the early 1950’s accomplished the task of brainwashing perfectly. They illustrated aristocracy as complete idiots and the new audience, because the audience has changed as well, loved it. The former audience of the 1930’s, the bourgeois was replaced with the masses of working people as cinema has become affordable. These masses were hungry for simple entertainment, for pure joy and the state provided that in the form of comedies. Many of the movies were not masterpieces but there were a few memorable ones including Mágnás Miska and Úri Muri (Karcsai and Veress 46-47) . The success of these movies were again the result of charismatic acting and appropriately placed jokes and not because they represented high artistic value. The resurrection of comedy, however, did not last long because of the growing disapproval of the Soviet oppressors. The era of happy entertainment had to disappear and could not return for many years.

As a conclusion, unbiased or independent filmmaking is almost impossible and to some extent it is natural. It does not cause problems if the opinion of the director, writer is visible or if the movie represents ideas in a less serious way, still it can be seen as a piece of art. Things get complicated when films become ideological weapons. From that point on films cease to contribute to art but instead they are just part of a deadly machinery.

Works cited

Fazekas, Eszter. "A Magyar Film Fő Tendenciái (1945-1979)." A Magyar Film Fő Tendenciái (1945-1979). N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2016.

Karcsai, István, and J. Veress. Magyar Filmkalauz. N.p.: Magvető Kiadó, 1985. Print.

Veress, József. A Magyar Film Története. Debrecen: Anno Kiadó, 2006. Print.