American Cinematographer - July 2008 - 10

Global Village Torn from the Flag: Laszlo Kovacs, ASC Takes a Final Bow by Bob Fisher Left: Budapest’s Corvin Circle, the site of a major battle of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, is shown during a lull in the fighting. The flag with the hole in the center became the emblem of the revolution. Right: A Soviet tank dumped into a Budapest public toilet entrance during the fighting. egendary cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, ASC earned his final credit for the documentary Torn from the Flag, which revisits a subject close to his heart: the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, when citizens rose up against the Communist regime but were crushed by the Soviet Army. (The title refers to the Communist hammer-and-sickle insignia that was ripped from Hungarian flags during the uprising.) As very young men, Kovacs and fellow Hungarian Vilmos Zsigmond (future ASC) shot much of the footage of the rebellion featured in “Torn from the Flag,” which also includes interviews with “freedom fighters,” politicians and historians. At the time of the uprising, Zsigmond had graduated from the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest, and Kovacs was in his final year of study L there. The young cameramen borrowed a 35mm Arri camera, took some film stock from the school and documented civilians battling the Soviet Army with small arms, Molotov cocktails and their bare hands. Bullets were flying, and the Soviets were arresting and executing people caught with cameras or film. After the revolt was crushed, Kovacs and Zsigmond made a perilous trek on foot across the border into Austria, smuggling out their exposed film. Torn from the Flag was conceived by Klaudia Kovacs (no relation) and codirected by her and Endre Hules, who spent six months on the project. Although Klaudia hails from Hungary, she says she “knew absolutely nothing about the revolution while I was growing up.” She met Zsigmond at an exhibition of his still photography in Los Angeles around 1999. “I just walked up to him and introduced myself; we have a mutual friend, still photographer Peter Sorel [SMPSP], who is also a Hungarian expatriate. Vilmos and other Hungarians he introduced me to started telling me about their experiences during the revolution.” In 1998, a Hungarian TV network asked Klaudia to produce a short segment about the uprising. She conducted interviews with expatriates living in Los Angeles. “Hearing their stories was a cathartic experience,” she recalls, “but the TV station withdrew its offer at the last moment.” She turned to George Adams, a producer with whom she had collaborated on plays and short films. He encouraged her to make her own film and agreed to contribute as associate producer. “George was with me during the entire nine-year process of making this film,” she says. “He is a fantastic collaborator.” In 1999, Klaudia and Adams wrote a letter to Zsigmond describing her intentions for the film and asking if he would agree to be interviewed on camera. When they met, he volunteered to film the interviews; later, when he took a feature-film assignment, he intro- 10 July 2008

American Cinematographer - July 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - July 2008