Two girls on the street

Magyar filmet újít fel Martin Scorsese alapítványa

Két lány az utcán (Hungary/1939) by Tóth Endre/André de Toth

A Martin Scorsese által 2007-ben a világ filmörökségének megőrzésére és restaurálására létrehozott nonprofit szervezet, a World Cinema Foundation 2010, egy magyar film restaurálását is támogatja. A Két lány az utcán 1939-ben készült, és Tóth Endre rendezte. A World Cinema Foundation angol felirattal ellátott 35 mm-es kópiája az alapítvány honlapjára is felkerül majd. A felújítás kivitelezője a Cineteca di Bologna és a L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, ahol januárban kezdődnek meg a munkálatok.

(Infók a film cselekményéről: itt)

André de Toth was a great filmmaker, we are indebted to him for a number of extraordinary films (dating back to his first Hungarian works) and many masterpieces. He fought to make ambitious films and refused to work under a studio contract, thus showing a rare desire for freedom […] One day, following a screening of Round Midnight, de Toth told me, „You made me cry. And it’s hard to cry when you only have one eye”. He comforted and supported me. He was never bitter, he would never have said something like: „Cinema was better when I was making films”. He remained curious, open-minded; he battled for the American Cinematheque on Hollywood Boulevard […] „We’re like passengers driving at full speed on the new highways of communication”, he wrote. „It’s the same road since 1895, only it’s slippier because of the sweat and the blood and with more cracks: each of them a broken dream. These past hundred years have been terrible, yet we’ve enjoyed every single minute of them. As long as this fever, this love for making films survives, nothing will ever change.” On his sets, one big sign read, „Drama should occur in front of the camera, not behind it”, another, „Technology will never replace brains and intelligence”.

(Bertrand Tavernier)

Two girls on the street

Written by Emőd Tamás, Török Rezső, adapted by André de Toth. Editing: Kerényi Zoltán. Director of Photography: Vass Károly. Production designer: Langermann Gizella. Produced by: Lévay Béla. Production Company: Hunnia Filmgyár. Starring: Bordy Béla (Torma Vica), Tasnádi Fekete Mária (Kártély Gyöngyi), Vaszary Piroska Pletyus (as Vaszary Piri), Csortos Gyula (Filc bácsi), Ajtay Andor, István Csiszár, Kovács Károly Lali. Running time: 85′. Language: Hungarian with French/English subtitles. From: Magyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum (Hungarian National Film Archive).

Restored in 2010 by the World Cinema Foundation at Cineteca di Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory.

Notes on the restoration

The restoration of Két lány az utcán used the original 35mm camera and sound nitrate negatives preserved at the Magyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum (Hungarian National Film Archive). The digital restoration produced a new 35mm internegative.

Mission

The World Cinema Foundation (WCF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and restoring neglected films from around the world – in particular, those countries lacking the financial and technical ability to do so.

Established by Martin Scorsese, the Foundation supports and encourages preservation efforts to save the worldwide patrimony of films, ensuring that they are preserved, seen and shared. Its goal is to defend the body and spirit of cinema in the belief that preserving works of the past can encourage future generations to treat film as a universal form of expression.

Cinema is an international language, an international art, but, above all, it is a source of enlightenment. There are wonderful, remarkable films, past and present, from Mexico, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Central Asia that deserve to be known and seen. Martin Scorsese has created the World Cinema Foundation with the specific purpose of calling attention to the global cause of film preservation.

Composed of filmmakers from every continent, the World Cinema Foundation breathes life into the idea that when a cultural patrimony is lost, no matter how small or supposedly „marginal” the country might be, we are all poorer for it.

From the chairman, Martin Scorsese

The World Cinema Foundation is a natural expansion of my love for movies. Seventeen years ago, together with my fellow filmmakers, we created The Film Foundation to help preserve American cinema. Much has been accomplished and much work remains to be done, but The Film Foundation has created a base upon which we can build. There is now, I believe, a film preservation consciousness.

The World Cinema Foundation is being created to help developing countries preserve their cinematic treasures. We want to help strengthen and support the work of international archives, and provide a resource for those countries lacking the archival and technical facilities to do the work themselves.

I am honored to be joined on the Advisory Board of by Fatih Akin, Soulemane Cissé, Guillermo Del Toro, Stephen Frears, Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, Abbas Kiarostami, Deepa Mehta, Ermanno Olmi, Raoul Peck, Cristi Puiu, Walter Salles, Abderrahmane Sissako, Elia Suleiman, Bertrand Tavernier, Wim Wenders, Wong Kar Wai, Tian Zhuangzhuang and other filmmakers who share the common goal.