Jews, Nazis, and the Cinema of Hungary: The Tragedy of Success, 1929–44 by Frey David (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 785 (dedicated to Britten), his Thirteenth String Quartet and Britten’s Third Cello Suite, described as reflecting the relationship between the two composers ‘in its closest form hitherto’ (p. 255), notably in the Suite’s full statement of the Russian Orthodox Kontakion for the Departed. The chapter ends with a consideration of Shostakovich’s Fifteenth Symphony and his projected operatic version of Chekhov’s ‘The Black Monk’ in relation to Britten’s opera, ‘Death in Venice’. In the conclusion to this admirably comprehensive book, Pyke introduces a number of other composers, including Mieczysław Weinberg, John Tavener and Arvo Pärt, who also showed the influence of Britten and Shostakovich. In sum, Britten’s building of bridges with Soviet culture undoubtedly improved for a while the progress of detente. Seventeen appendices provide valuable additional detail and background to the extensive footnotes. The book is remarkable for the author’s diligence and resourcefulness as well as his studious avoidance of exaggeration and excessive speculation. Rich in ideas, with musical, statistical and pictorial illustrations, this handsome volume is a splendid tribute to one of Rostropovich’s outstanding pupils, the tragically short-lived Professor Alexander Ivashkin who, incidentally, recorded Britten’s complete works for cello. Cameron Pyke’s admirable study deserves a place in all major libraries and on the shelves of many of the composer’s admirers who wish to know more about an important aspect of his life and work. London Arnold McMillin Frey, David. Jews, Nazis, and the Cinema of Hungary: The Tragedy of Success, 1929–44. I. B. Tauris, London and New York, 2018. xvi + 462 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £85.00: $115.00. Hungarian cinema has had a consistent impact on international audiences since the Second World War. Film-makers from Zoltán Fábri to Miklós Jancsó and Béla Tarr have all established their place in cinema history and the achievements of émigré film-makers such as Alexander Korda in the United Kingdom and Michael Curtiz in Hollywood are also well recognized. Yet its cinema before the 1950s remains virtually unknown. While this is scarcely unique in terms of common knowledge, it also applies to the world of academic film history. István Nemeskürty’s Word and Image was translated into English as early as 1968 and there was no other systematic account of the history of Hungarian cinema in English until John Cunningham’s seminal The Hungarian Cinema: From Coffee House to Multiplex in 2004. But even here, the coverage of pre-war cinema is restricted in terms of space. In its extensive coverage of the period SEER, 97, 4, OCTOBER 2019 786 from the 1930s to 1944, David Frey’s new study therefore provides a much needed history of what was then a commercial industry. Referring to the Treaty of Trianon (1920), when the country lost 70 per cent of its pre-war territories, Frey points out that Hungary was transformed overnight from a multi-national state to one in search of a new identity. The cinema and, in particular, sound cinema was ‘to become a central collision point in the quest to define, locate, and discover Hungary’s national nature’ (p. 7). Not only would cinema represent ‘Hungarianness’ both at home and abroad but it would become a major element in the creation of a new identity. Surprisingly, between 1929 and 1942, it was also to become a major commercial success and, by 1942, was one of Europe’s most prolific industries, behind only Germany and Italy in terms of international exports. One of the book’s central themes is the role in this played by Hungarians of Jewish origin. The assimilation of Jewish citizens had been welcomed under the Dual Monarchy and, from a statistical perspective, they counted as ethnic Hungarians. Frey points out that by the 1920s they constituted the core of the middle and upper middle classes. Film distribution was controlled by Jewish Hungarians and nearly all leading producers and directors were of Jewish origin. When Hungary became an ‘ethnically homogenous’ nation state following World War One, he argues that Jews lost their ‘swing constituency’ status. Consequently, antisemitism found a new breeding ground, reaching its...