Imagining Modern Hungary Through Film

Film scholars and cultural theorists have explored the relationship between the emergence of cinema and the experience of modernity in various early twentieth-century settings. ¹ Part of this project has been the investigation of how cinemagoing contributed to the creation of new social structures and expectations among audiences. Several recent studies have begun to complicate the meaning of cinema’s modernizing potential, emphasizing the ways in which cinema interacted with and was integrated into pre-existing structures and cultures, not all of which can easily be characterized as traditional. ²