Film Festival Madness: Beverly Hills, Budapest

Latest in the never-seeming-to-end flood of international film festival press releases:

7TH HUNGARIAN FILM FESTIVAL OF LOS ANGELES

Laemmle Theatres, Bunyik Entertainment, Hungarian Filmunio and the Hungarian Consulate of Los Angeles are pleased to present a week of new Hungarian films, October 11th through the 18th at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills. Acclaimed directors, producers and composers from Hungary will host world and U.S. premieres of their latest films. The seventh annual festival will feature nine features, three documentaries and an animated short. Six films were directed by women and three features are their directors’ first. The genres run the gamut, from comedies, dramas, musicals and documentaries. Among the highlights:

56 DROPS OF BLOOD (56 CSEPP VÉR), a new musical about the 1956 Hungarian revolution, will have its North American premiere opening night, Thursday, October 11th.
TAXIDERMIA, Hungary’s entry for the 2008 Oscars and the festival’s closing night film, is an explicit, sui generis horror/satire that recalls the most disturbing work of Monty Python, David Cronenberg and several recent existentialist movies from Central Europe. It’s director György Pálfi’s follow-up to Hukkle and an L.A. premiere.

The world premiere of acclaimed writer/director Robert Koltai’s film TRAIN KEEPS A ROLLIN’ (MEGY A GÖZÖS), will take place on Saturday, October 13th. It’s a pastoral comedy in which a train carrying a valuable relic derails and causes a bitter squabble between the station master, his predecessor, the village’s corrupt police and a stowaway Roma family.
RELATIVES (ROKONOK), the latest from Oscar-winner Istvan Szabo (Mephisto), is a comedy in which Hungary’s newly appointed attorney general finds on the day of his appointment a whole new set of distant relatives, all of whom want some sort of political favor. As with all Szabo’s movies, cinematography by Lajos Koltai.

FRESH AIR (FRISS LEVEGÖ), director Ágnes Kocsis’s first film and a big hit on the festival circuit, is a droll serio-comedy about a Budapest mother and her daughter.
MEN IN THE NUDE (FÉRFIAKT), a gay-themed film in which a married, middle-aged man falls in love with a teenage boy. The film has enjoyed invitations from several major international festivals, including Berlln, Moscow, Montreal, Chicago as well as gay fests such as NewFest (New York City) and Outfest (L.A.).

The lesbian documentary VILLAGE ROMANCE.

All screenings are in Hungarian with English subtitles. Tickets are available for advance purchase at (818) 848-5902. Ticket prices are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors (age 62 and over) and students.

For film and press information go to www.hungarianfilmfestivalla.com