The series of digital screenings presented by the Palace of Arts and the Hungarian National Digital Archive and Film Institute (MaNDA) in the autumn programme of Müpa Cinema 2014 explore the many guises in which sexual desire, eroticism and nudity have been portrayed in the history of Hungarian film. Is Eros really pulling the strings here? When are women seen unclothed, and when are men? Do erotic scenes in Hungarian films convey a zest for life? How can the medium of film cope with the text of erotic prose? What is erotic: full nudity, a mere shadow appearing on the wall, or a silk slip slowly pulled up over a suspender belt? What is the nature of our amorous culture, and how does it relate to the depiction of reality in films? What use has Hungarian film made of nudity other than in an erotic context? Is it possible to make “love films” today? These are some of the questions that András Réz’s film club seeks to answer.

This Zeitgeist-capturing film depicting a grotesque parable of the Kádár era takes place on an island in the Danube. A married couple, yearning to escape to a haven of quiet and intimate seclusion, are disturbed as soon as they take their first swim. The deserted island is then progressively overrun by swarms of people, and a chaotic picnic transforms into bureaucratically organised camp-building “for all the people” under the direction of a beer-bellied despot. The nudity, the young people’s massed nude swimming and sunbathing are symbolic, laden with allusions to 1968 in the form of a “hippie” rebellion and protest against the “system.”

Presented by: Palace of Arts, MaNDA