BudapestZIN

Since film plays an important part this year in the themes of the programmes selected, we would like to jolt fans leafing through the pages of our publications with familiar and unfamiliar images from slide films. We have taken the slogan from a strip intended to teach the correct fashion: “Jewellery with a uniform is not good style!” Let’s see what is behind all this!

We must begin by drawing attention to two unusual musical films, both combining the visuality of the 1920s with the music of today. One evokes what was perhaps the first horror film in the history of the cinema: we are projecting Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s 1922 film Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror, with film music composed for electronics and organ by the Austrian composer-organist, Wolfgang Mitterer. Similarly, the 2005 composition by French composer Yan Maresz and the 1923 silent film on which it is based, René Clair’s Paris qui dort, can be seen and heard at the festival in a production by the legendary French contemporary music workshop, IRCAM.

100%Zappa will be a full-day bash devoted to the life work of the brilliant Frank Zappa, with appearances by Zappa’s former fellow musicians, Zappa fans and clones from the Hungarian rock scene, and the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ádám Fischer. And while on the subject of (slightly) lighter genres, this is the place to mention Japan’s number one jazz group, Soil & “Pimp” Sessions, which will bring its refined but brutal music to the Hungarian public for the first time during the BAF.

As for the stage genres: the choreographer Yasmeen Godder, known for her raw sincerity, and her dance company will be our guest again, as well as the Japanese company Pappa Tarahumara, with an original dance theatre interpretation of Three Sisters. The first performances of contemporary Hungarian dramas will be held in joint productions with five Hungarian theatres. Among the authors will be János Térey, Péter Kárpáti and Ágens.

All this, of course, is “only” the tip of the iceberg. Rambling around the Kelenföld switching centre, introducing the Fringe prize winners, contemporary Russian films, EDIT2007, young composers’ evening… and…and…and. You will soon find more information about the events planned for the 16th Budapest Autumn Festival, here on the website, on leaflets throughout the city and from early September in the programme booklet. Until then it is worth getting in the mood so that when autumn comes you will all be ready to receive the latest art! And there is still time to get hold of a slide projector!