Action! Moments from 125 Years of Hungarian Cinema
One of the most exciting moments on a film set is when the director calls out: “Action!” This command refers to both filmmaking and photography, which have been closely intertwined throughout the past 125 years of Hungarian cinema.
Schedule
Still photographs were originally created to entice audiences, but today they have become shared treasures of film history and photographic art. A well-composed shot is capable of condensing the film’s atmosphere, encapsulating drama, emotion, and story into a single frame. Set photography, meanwhile, offers a glimpse not only into the scenes themselves but also into the entire production process: the concentrated focus of the actors, the life of the crew, and the physical and intellectual labor behind set construction and filmmaking.
Among the exhibited images, one finds both rarely seen documents and well-known visual topoi that live on in the collective memory of generations. The exhibition Action! thus simultaneously celebrates the inception of film and the birth of still and set photography—the meeting of two media that have been shaping Hungarian visual culture for 125 years. Their shared history—from the collection of the National Film Institute – Film Archive—is now being mapped out comprehensively for the first time in the halls of the Mai Manó House.
Curators: László Baki /Mai Manó House – Hungarian House of Photography (1st floor)
Márton Kurutz, Mariann Sipőcz, Gabriella Szállás / National Film Institute – Film Archive (2nd floor)
Visitor information:
Estimated time to view the exhibition: 45–60 minutes
Opening hours of the Mai Manó House exhibition space:
Closed on Mondays
Tuesday–Sunday: 12:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.
Ticket office closes and last admission: 6:40 p.m.
The ticket also grants access to every exhibitions on the first and second floors.
The exhibitions in the ProjectLab space on the mezzanine floor are free of charge.
Please note that Mai Manó House is not wheelchair accessible!
Purchased tickets cannot be refunded or exchanged for another date. Reservations are not possible.
Please be advised that audio and video recordings may be made at our events, and the Mai Manó House may use excerpts from these recordings to promote the institution’s programs.
Hungarian House of Photography - Mai Manó House
Mai Manó House – The Hungarian House of Photographers – operates in a studio-house built at the end of 19th century, for the commission of Mai Manó (1855-1917), Imperial and Royal Court Photographer. This special, eight-story neo-renaissance monument is unique in world architecture: we have no knowledge of any other intact turn-of-the-century studiohouse. In addition, it serves its original goal, the case of photography again.
The aim of Mai Manó House is to advance the development of Hungarian photography and raise photography’s national prestige as a distinct form of art.
The institution plays a marked role in the cultural life of Budapest and Hungary, while the organization of exhibitions and programs abroad is getting more and more emphasis within its activities. The reputation of justly world-famous Hungarian photographers of the 20th century offers a great opportunity to regain our old status in the world of photography by the introduction of the generations following those great masters