Welcome to the first of our special Hungarian edition of “Expedition InterLanguage” posts! We are so glad you could join us!
Hungarian or magyar, with its back to front names and 44 letters is definitely one of the most challenging languages in the world. With approximately 13 million native speakers, Hungarian, with its unique linguistic characteristics, is part of the Uralic language family and is one of the Ugric languages in the Finno–Ugric language group.
There is no denying that Hungarian rhymes with Hollywood. Paul Newman, Peter Falk, Béla Lugosi, Goldie Hawn, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Tony Curtis, Mariska Hargitay, Jamiee Lee Curtis, Drew Barrymore, Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody…a never-ending glamorous list of some of the household names in Hollywood who are known to be of Hungarian origin. This fascinating list however, does not end here.
Did you know that two of “The Big 5” American production companies were founded by Hungarians? Paramount Pictures, founded by Ricse born, Adolph Zukor, celebrates the success of silver screen sensations such as The Godfather or Titanic, while we get to thank 20th Century Fox, today known as 20th Century Studios, founded by Tolcsva born Fried Vilmos better known as William Fox, for films like Home Alone or The Sound of music.
Here is a beautiful and enchanting story of one of the countless Hungarians who were honored by stars on the Hollywood walk of fame, to inspire and uplift this lovely October day.Paul Lukas (born Pál Munkácsi) was born in Budapest in 1894. He was a member of the theater troupe at the Víg Theater when, in the midst of a performance, Paul looked down from stage, looked toward the audience and straight into the eyes of the love of his life, Gizella Benes. With her address in his pocket, Paul left to work abroad on the very next day. This did not discourage him however. Every single day for a year he would send three stems of roses and his business card to Gizella by a courier. His return home led straight to Gizella’s address, where he introduced himself and immediately asked for her hand. Paul went on to star in movies like Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, Little Women with Katherine Hepburn, his most notable success however is his Academy Award winning performance in Watch on the Rhine where he starred alongside Bette Davis.
Hungarians however, are not solely influential in Hollywood. The Hungarian film industry itself has a phenomenal reputation in the world of motion picture arts. With 2 wins and 8 nominations for the Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category, Hungary is one of the top 10 most successful countries in the world in the category. Nominees like Zoltán Fábri’s The Boys of Paul Street and Károly Makk’s Cat’s Play or winners Mephisto directed by István Szabó and László Nemes’ Son of Saul are true triumphs of Hungarian cinema. Films like The Witness (A tanú), Hyppolit the Butler (Hyppolit a lakáj), Merry-Go-Round (Körhinta), or The Toth Family (Isten hozta, őrnagy úr!) with the king of Hungarian theater, Zoltán Latinovits will forever stand the test of time.
So grab a glass of Traubi, some sajtos pogácsa and watch the brilliant Iván Darvas in Makk Károly’s Liliomfi with English subtitles, we can promise you without a doubt, that you will not be sorry!
Dream big, smile often and don’t forget to share!
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