By: Mignot Delstanche

Mignot Delstanche — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 15:30:51 +0000

Unfortunately, the above commentary is somewhat misleading. This short film, or rather an asembly of two shorts was a movie insert in the theatre of Arad, during the performance of a popular operetta of the epoch “Mozikirály” in the season 1913/14. This operetta (Original title “Filmzauber”, authors Bredschneider, Willy, Kollo, Walter, Szirmai Albert – music, text by Bernauer, Rudolf, Schanzer, Rudolf, Hungarian stage adaptation by Harsányi Zsolt ) was first performed in Budapest, with a film insert (most probably lost) directed by Mihály Kertész (director of the first Hungarian Feature film in 1912) , who later moved to the US to become Michael Curtiz (Casablanca etc.). Following the success of the operetta in the capital, several theatres in the country staged the blockbuster, with musical additions, each having a film insert of its own. The direction of the Arad theatre commissioned the film insert from the same Budapest company (Projectograph) that made the Budapest version. There is unfortunately no direct evidence that the director of the present insert would have been the director Szendrey, although his contribution must have been enormous. The filming locations were carefully selected to provide a showcase of the famous buildings and the main square of the city of Arad and several rehearsals were held especially because of the equestrian scenes. Filming took place on 14 December, 1913, followed by the premiere of the piece on stage (directed by Sándor Polgár) on 19 December. It was an immediate success, and was played with full house eight times subsequently, and held the stage for the whole season. The film insert, apart from the introductory presentation and farewell of the artists, contains two parts: a marriage scene in the city of Arad, and a scene of “Napoleon und die Müllerin”. The marriage scene is rather a caricaturistic scene of carousing people and in my opinion is by far not sponaneaous. In the year of the production, Arad was part of Hungary, within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, a flourishing and highly developed industrial town in the Transylvania region, with a vast majority (73 %) of Hungarian inhabitants vs 16 % Romanians. It was ceded to Romania only in 1920 – under the Treaty of Trianon. So whatever took place in the territory of the present day Romania is not necessarily part of Romanian history, and this short film prepared by Hungarians, played by Hungarian actors as well as the kissing is not part of Romanian cinema. Thanks for preserving and displaying this old gem.
Source: Az aradi magyar színjátszás 130 éve, 1818-1948. Vol. II. (130 years of dramatics in Arad) Piroska Katalin and Piroska István, IJK, 2017

Comments on: Mihály Szendrey – Nunta la Arad (1913)

By: Mignot Delstanche