RENDEZÖK CÉRNASZÁLON

They meet in “Gerbeaud”, the elegant café in Vorosmarty Tér in downtown Budapest. István Szabó and Jiří Menzel have a lot in common. Both directors were born in 1938, embarked upon their careers around the same time, each has received one Oscar respectively. They begin by speaking about François Truffaut and other cinematic role models. István Szabó grew up with Italian Neo-Realism and worked as an assistant director after graduating from film school. It was a job he liked – he saw himself as a mediator between the crew and the director whose every wish, as he saw it, it was his duty to fulfil (and to do the real work at the same time). Jiří Menzel laughingly admits to having been a poor assistant, although he did once agree to be hired as assistant director to Vera Chytilová, who needed somebody for moral support. Either man takes a wholly different view of his ambitions as an actor. While Jiří Menzel has taken parts (usually minor ones) in over 40 films, Szabó frankly admits that he casts himself in bit parts out of vanity but then cuts his cameos when editing.

Although only 49 minutes long, this short documentary about two grand masters is as entertaining as it is informative. Szabó first shows his Czech colleague round the Budapest he knows, Menzel subsequently invites the Hungarian to Prague. One senses the liking and respect between two human beings and artists.