The Hungarian Opera of Cluj-Napoca will host on June 2, from 8.30pm, one of the most spectacular Transilvania IFF 2015 events: the first local screening of the restored copy – with a live score by the Hungarian Opera orchestra – of the once lost and now found A tolonc / The Exile, a film directed by the famed Michael Curtiz 100 years ago in Cluj. The 14th edition of Transilvania International Film Festival will take place between May 29 and June 7.
The highly influential Hungarian-born American Michael Curtiz (aka Mihály Kertész, 1886 –1962), renowned for Casablanca, one of the best films of all times, made over 50 films before leaving for America, but very few of them have survived the passing of time. The only copy of The Exile was discovered by mistake in 2008, in the basement of the Hungarian Institute in New York, and was restored in the Budapest laboratories.
In the fall of 2014, this restored copy premiered during the Hungarian Film Week. For its Transilvania IFF screening, the famed composer Attila Pacsay has prepared a brand new score which will be performed live by the Hungarian Opera orchestra of Cluj.
Made 101 years ago, The Exile is the only Hungarian film in existence featuring the theatre legend Mari Jászai. The film was shot in June and July 1914 in several places in Cluj: the "St. Mihail" Church, the Tailors' Bastion, etc., in Rimetea, on the Aries River and at the Turda Salt Mine. On March 20, 1915, the film was screened at the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj.
The screenplay of this melodrama about a maid wrongfully accused of theft was written by Jenő Janovics, then the director of the Hungarian National Theatre and one of the most prolific film pioneers, creator of a whole film industry in Cluj between 1913 and 1921. Both Michael Curtiz and Alexander Korda owe him their directorial debuts.
Michael Curtiz moved to the United States in 1926 and went to direct some of the most important films in movie history: the "Best Director" Oscar-winning Casablanca (1942), Captain Blood (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Four Daughters (1938), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and White Christmas (1954). He made about 100 films and worked with Hollywood's most important stars: Errol Flynn, Carry Grant, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Reagan, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, Elvis Presley, Walter Matthau, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and Peter Ustinov.
Presented by MOL.
