Budapest Classic Film Marathon 2024: Music Box

Director: Costa-Gavras

Screenplay by Joe Eszterhas
Director of photography: Patrick Blossier
Music by Philippe Sarde
Cast: Jessica Lange, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Frederic Forrest

Programme section "Open Archives" / Opening movie

The film is screened from a 35 mm copy.

Successful Chicago attorney Ann Talbot accepts the defence of her own father after he is accused of war crimes and the possibility of being stripped of his American citizenship. According to the charges, Michael J. Laszlo is in fact Mishka, former commander of the Budapest fascist Arrow Cross, who is responsible for countless atrocities. Ann is convinced of her father’s innocence and sets about uncovering the truth. This Costa-Gavras film is based on the screenplay by Joe Eszterhas and shows, with shocking force, how denial of the past determines the fate of a family, what individual responsibility and facing up to history mean. The film was already in cinemas when the author's own father was tried and convicted of war crimes.

Supporting film: The Fly
Hungarian animation, colour, 1980, dir: Ferenc Rófusz, No dialogue, 4’

More information on the Budapest Classic Film Marathon's program at Uránia >>