BOOK LAUNCH

“The greatest film composer that ever lived.” This is how John Williams, world-famous composer on the Star Wars movies, rated Miklós Rózsa who died at the age of 88. Miklós Rózsa worked on the music for nearly 100 feature films including Ben-Hur, The Thief of Baghdad and The Jungle Book. In the course of his career he was nominated for an Oscar 17 times, in the end carrying away three golden statuettes. 

His autobiography, Double Life, is a sentimental, readable confession written with wry, Hungarian humour, which 40 years after the first edition can now finally be read in Hungarian as well (Kettős élet). Parallel with this volume, Gergely Hubai’s extensive collecting, collating and professional opus, Zene: Miklós Rózsa (Music: Miklós Rózsa), is also published, in which he puts the entire film music oeuvre of one of the most successful Hollywood Hungarian artists in a fascinating historical context, meanwhile clarifying the occasional inaccuracy contained in the composer’s autobiography.

The biographies of two Hungarian founders of Hollywood, Adolf Zukor and William Fox, are published for the first time in the series Magyarok Hollywoodban (Hungarians in Hollywood) by FilmHungary publishing house. The aim of the latest, two-volume work on Miklós Rózsa is to inform Hungarian public opinion and teach the community of domestic film enthusiasts about another iconic Hungarian creator of film history in addition to the two studio founders. 

The quote by Miklós Rózsa that appears on a plaque at Nagylóc faithfully reflects the importance and strength of his origin and roots: “This is where my music started… the stamp of Hungarian music is there, in every one of the beats that I put to paper, invisibly, but indelibly.”

The book launch is being attended by Dr. Tamás Kollarik and Dr. Sándor Takó, editors of the Hungarians in Hollywood series, and Gergely Hubai, author of Music: Miklós Rózsa. Moderator: Janka Barkóczi, National Film Institute – Film Archive.

Book launch language: Hungarian

CONCERT FEATURING PIANIST KRISZTINA FEJES

Miklós Rózsa: Kaleidoscope Op. 19
March, Zingara, Musette, Berceuse, Chinese Carillon, Burlesque

SCREENING
17:30, 14 September, French Institute

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
English-American comedy, colour, 1970, dir: Billy Wilder, Language: English, Russian, French, German, Subtitles: Hungarian, 125’

Music by Miklós Rózsa

"Wilder considered the original version of the film a four-piece symphony, giving his old friend the rare opportunity to merge the world of film scores and concert music. The director was an enthusiast of Rózsa's 1953 violin concerto, amongst others it was his idea to build the Holmes-film around certain themes of the concerto. The violin connects to the story beyond the person of the composer, as Holmes does practice his favorite instrument in this film as well." (Gergely Hubai)