Müpa Mozi, the film club of the Palace of Arts and the Hungarian National Digital Archive and Film Institute (MaNDA), continues to welcome sell-out audiences for its third season. This series of musical films beginning in February presents a selection of iconic screen gems containing the biggest Hungarian hit tunes of the past 50 years. Audiences will get to see their favourite stars perform in a broad variety of genres, from operetta to socialist-era road movie, and from straight musical to ret...ro parody. The casts feature everyone from János Sárdy to Zsuzsa Koncz, Hobo to the Latabár Brothers, Violetta Ferrari to János Gálvölgyi, Miklós Gábor to Hanna Honthy, and Imre Soós to “Bill the King”. The film club hosted by András Réz explores the source material behind the birth of hundreds of hit tunes, examining how the professional world of cabaret and operetta – inherited from the films of Gyula Kabos – was enriched by the social “workshops” of the 1950s: the factory, the swimming pool, and the sports field. Seen through a variety of filters in both period films and later satirical adaptations, we can discover how the naïve and love-struck, but ideologically ignorant, young worker was re-educated in the 1950s. During the lukewarm period of “goulash communism” in the 1960s, what role did the World Festival of Youth and Students and the TV talent show “Ki mit tud?” play in the emergence of beat groups such as Illés and singers such as Zsuzsa Koncz? How were iconic objects such as the Pacsirta radio set, noodles with grits or the Bambi soft drink – as well as socialism in general and its declaration of communal cooperation and ideals – portrayed in a musical film of the 1960s, or in a later retro satire from the 1990s? Why has György Ránki’s musical Egy szerelem három éjszakája (Three Nights of Love) remained a popular favourite almost continuously since its appearance in the 1960s? How is it possible to capture the feeling of blues-rock in the context of a documentary-style portrayal of the Kőbánya district of Budapest? And to the rhythm of which tune by the band Fonográf do we recall the emblematic image of the Zil truck grinding over the socialist asphalt having picked up a curly-haired blonde hitchhiker? After the great opening of the cultural floodgates in the 1960s and the flourishing film scene that accompanied it, the period of apparently hopeless, lukewarm Goulash Communism following 1968 saw a steady decline in movie audiences. By the mid-1970s, newspaper columns were writing of “deserted theatres” and “vanished comedies”. One method of tempting the public back into the cinemas was by producing distinct local versions of American movie genres, such as the “Eastern” or the “socialist road movie”. A pioneering example of the latter was the first film by János Zsombolyai, A kenguru (The Kangaroo), which featured two great discoveries in László Gálffi, playing the lead role of the gangling Kőbánya truck driver in his obligatory denims smuggled from the West, and Györgyi Tarján as the blonde, skimpily clad hitchhiker he picks up on his way. While the Zil truck motors along at great speed over the socialist highway, choice dialogue alternates with a whole host of Hungarian hit songs by Skorpió, LGT, Gemini, Fonográf, Omega, Kati Kovács, Zsuzsa Koncz and Sarolta Zalatnay. While the driver heading to Paks dreams of the West, Volvo lorries, quality cigarettes and branded goods, the character of Zsozsó represents the reality of his working-class background in Kőbánya with its own conflicts and adventures. Presented by: Palace of Arts, MaNDA
Parking information
We wish to inform you that in the event that Müpa Budapest's underground garage and outdoor car park are operating at full capacity, it is advisable to plan for increased waiting times when you arrive. In order to avoid this, we recommend that you depart for our events in time, so that you you can find the ideal parking spot quickly and smoothly and arrive for our performance in comfort. The Müpa Budapest underground garage gates will be operated by an automatic number plate recognition system. Parking is free of charge for visitors with tickets to any of our paid performances on that given day. The detailed parking policy of Müpa Budapest is available here.
Safe ticket purchase
Dear Visitors, please note that only tickets purchased from the Müpa website and official ticket offices are guaranteed to be valid. To avoid possible inconvenience, we suggest buying tickets to our performances and concerts via the mupa.hu website, the Interticket national network (jegy.hu) or at our official ticket offices.