Kornél Gelley

Never miss a satire if you'd like to have a wider view of the 60's or 70's (and maybe the 80's) Eastern Europe. Both the regime and behavior of people are pilloried, with many-many hints that show deeper details of the correlation of the two. And the creators didn't miss to have some words about the West and it's part of this history. But don't sit down to see the film if you'd like to have a light funny evening movie, 'cause that will lash up your feelings alright. The director is that same Peter Bacso, who directed the legendary satire 'A tanu' (The witness) which deals with the same historical era, the same relations between politics and the people, just from a little different point of view.

A story about Lala, an eight years old magician.

The heroes of this story, based on real events at the end of the 1930s and during World War II, face and dismiss the illusions of intellectuals about their ability to transform society. Professor Magyary and his disciples hoped to promote the modernisation of Hungarian society through a radical reform of public administration.

A revizor

In 1963 in Tihany, somebody addresses the writer Gábor Náday. He is reminded of a night drive in 1944 that saved his life. Painful memories start coming to Náday.

Palacsintás király

This film describes the narrator's childhood, the years before and after the Hungarian Soviet Republic, in a burlesque and fabulous style and with the humour of a child's fantasy.

Epic recalling the early days of the Republic of the councils.

Zsolt Mohai, an eccentric shop window decorator in his 40s, drops by Anna Parádi on his wedding day, asking her to phone his bride Klára Horváth and call off the event. Drama, discussions and musical numbers ensue over topics like romance, loyalty, ambition, and settling for a family life in a modern day city.

Dery is a grande dame actress of the Sarah Bernhardt school of big-gesture theater. Her beauty and popularity is fading, and a new school of acting which involves the use of one's own emotions (a-la Eleanora Duse) is emerging in the person of her younger Viennese rival. She thinks of retiring from the stage, and reunites briefly with her estranged husband in a newly-built manor in the country. Finding that life there is boring, she returns to town, the theater, and her old friends.

The Immortal Legionary

Hungarian TV movie about King Béla III of Hungary

This is a romantic biographical film about Franz Liszt. In a distinguished saloon of Paris, the unknown composer, Liszt, defeats the renown Thalberg at a piano competition. Through his playing, he wins the favours and later the hand of the countess D'Agoult. A daughter is born in their marriage, Cosima. Liszt is better and better known, Marie introduces him to the circle of artists.

Félix, a somewhat clod-hopping young man, finds himself in the Grand Hotel of Little Lagonda, barefooted and in pyjamas. He is soon followed by a hooded, fat and leggy gangster. This is all the more strange as the hotel is under quarantine with the pretext of a plague-epidemic, in order to make it a suitable ground for the negotiations of certain oil-companies.

Feature film version of the 1971 series.