<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The article focuses on Hungarian films produced between 1939–1944 by examining how they tend to refrain from representing conflicts, and scrutinizing the political as well as social issues. However, directors started to revise this avoidance of conflicts by employing a so-called noir sensibility from the beginning of the Second World War in certain films, especially in “doomed love movies” such as <italic>Deadly Spring</italic> (<italic>Halálos tavasz</italic>, 1939), <italic>Mountain Girl</italic> (<italic>A hegyek lánya</italic>, 1942), and <italic>A Woman Looks Back</italic> (<italic>Egy assszony visszanéz</italic>, 1942), or melodramas, such as <italic>At the Crossroads</italic> (<italic>Keresztúton</italic>, 1942), <italic>Lent Life</italic> (<italic>Kölcsönadott élet</italic>, 1943), and <italic>Black Dawn</italic> (<italic>Fekete hajnal</italic>, 1943). The essay also offers a case study of the banned Hungarian movie <italic>Half a Boy</italic> (<italic>Egy fiúnak a fele</italic>, shot in 1943, but only shown in February 1946) by D. Ákos Hamza, which represented and protested against the stigmatization of Jewish people. <italic>Half a Boy</italic> is an often-cited emblematic film of its era. It is also an enigmatic one: it is a work full of social and political-historical reflections. Its humanistic point of view makes it outstanding in its era, nevertheless it is also rather ambivalent in terms of its orientation of values.</p></abstract>

The article focuses on Hungarian films produced between 1939–1944 by examining how they tend to refrain from representing conflicts, and scrutinizing the political as well as social issues. However, directors started to revise this avoidance of conflicts by employing a so-called noir sensibility from the beginning of the Second World War in certain films, especially in “doomed love movies” such as Deadly Spring (Halálos tavasz, 1939), Mountain Girl (A hegyek lánya, 1942), and A Woman Looks Back (Egy assszony visszanéz, 1942), or melodramas, such as At the Crossroads (Keresztúton, 1942), Lent Life (Kölcsönadott élet, 1943), and Black Dawn (Fekete hajnal, 1943). The essay also offers a case study of the banned Hungarian movie Half a Boy (Egy fiúnak a fele, shot in 1943, but only shown in February 1946) by D. Ákos Hamza, which represented and protested against the stigmatization of Jewish people. Half a Boy is an often-cited emblematic film of its era. It is also an enigmatic one: it is a work full of social and political-historical reflections. Its humanistic point of view makes it outstanding in its era, nevertheless it is also rather ambivalent in terms of its orientation of values.

Distressed Glamour. Genres and Political-Social Context in Hungarian Cinema of the 1930s and 1940s

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The article focuses on Hungarian films produced between 1939–1944 by examining how they tend to refrain from representing conflicts, and scrutinizing the...

Distressed Glamour. Genres and Political-Social Context in Hungarian Cinema of the 1930s and 1940s

Published Online: Oct 29, 2020

Page range: 173 - 193

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2020-0008

Keywords
Hungarian cinema in the 1930s and 1940s, noir sensibility, melodrama, genre analysis

© 2020 Zsolt Pápai, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Distressed Glamour. Genres and Political-Social Context in Hungarian Cinema of the 1930s and 1940s

Published Online: Oct 29, 2020

Page range: 173 - 193

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2020-0008

KeywordsHungarian cinema in the 1930s and 1940s, noir sensibility, melodrama, genre analysis

© 2020 Zsolt Pápai, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Hungarian cinema in the 1930s and 1940s, noir sensibility, melodrama, genre analysis