Wednesday at the Movies

Today should have been Andrey Tarkovsky's 80th birthday. This homage to his iconic Stalker movie can be found outside Toldi cinema and café on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky street. One of the reasons I really wanted to study in Budapest was that I imagined I would be able to watch ALL the movies I wanted. In the meantime of course many things changed and more than often I had to dig up the internet's wide resources to get hold of rare arthouse flicks. But I did spend many pleasant evenings in Budapest's independent cinemas.Sadly they seem to be doing ever worse- Hunnia and Europa closed recently, and other small venues are also visibly struggling. Hunnia had one dingy and flat hall in which you were forever doomed if some tall bloke landed in front of you. The chairs creaked and were uncomfortable as hell, but No Man's Land (http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0283509/) still moved me to tears.Europa smelled of cheap juice and popcorn and the gentleman at the entrance seemed to have escaped from an early German existentialist horror but they managed to find hidden beauties such as the Georgian movie On the Other Bank (http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1368439/) and for that I will be forever thankful. The Hungarian Film Institute's Örökmozgó cinema (such a beautiful name,forever moving, echoing the original Hungarian word for film, mozgókep, moving image, hence the shortening mozi) is safe and sound for the time being, and this week, quite naturally, they are extensively showing Tarkovsky. (http://www.filmarchive.hu/orokmozgo/program/)