Postcards of Memory - from Debrecen (9)
9. From a Classmate
Móricz Zsigmond, the author of a beautiful novel based in Debrecen, used to be a student here himself. When the hero, an innocent little boy from a village enters the famous Kollégium of Debrecen, he often remembers his mothers's words: " Be good, my dear son. Be faithful unto death." This is the title of the novel.
When, in the early sixties the black-and-white movie "Be faithful unto Death" was shot, the square in front of our house looked the same as in this old postcard from the beginning of the century. The film crew didn't need to change much here. Me and my brothers watched the shooting of a scene from our bedroom window: I can still imagine hearing the knocks of boots on the cobbled road, as the boy acting as Misi is hurrying among horse-carts - in the sharp light of the film-crew's lamps.
This postcard was actually sent to me by mail from P., an old classmate of mine. At high-scool both of us were planning to go to a faraway university, possibly to Budapest, and we tended to quote - laughing - , a famous sentence from close to the end of the novel. Misi, bitterly disappointed with the world of adults, cries in tears: "I don't want to be a student in Debrecen any more!"
One night a few years ago I was sitting with P. in the theatre of Debrecen, watching a play for which she was the stage designer. "Be Faithful unto Death", the novel with a quiet beauty has been carved out for today's world as a rumbling rock musical.
Móricz Zsigmond, the author of a beautiful novel based in Debrecen, used to be a student here himself. When the hero, an innocent little boy from a village enters the famous Kollégium of Debrecen, he often remembers his mothers's words: " Be good, my dear son. Be faithful unto death." This is the title of the novel.
When, in the early sixties the black-and-white movie "Be faithful unto Death" was shot, the square in front of our house looked the same as in this old postcard from the beginning of the century. The film crew didn't need to change much here. Me and my brothers watched the shooting of a scene from our bedroom window: I can still imagine hearing the knocks of boots on the cobbled road, as the boy acting as Misi is hurrying among horse-carts - in the sharp light of the film-crew's lamps.
This postcard was actually sent to me by mail from P., an old classmate of mine. At high-scool both of us were planning to go to a faraway university, possibly to Budapest, and we tended to quote - laughing - , a famous sentence from close to the end of the novel. Misi, bitterly disappointed with the world of adults, cries in tears: "I don't want to be a student in Debrecen any more!"
One night a few years ago I was sitting with P. in the theatre of Debrecen, watching a play for which she was the stage designer. "Be Faithful unto Death", the novel with a quiet beauty has been carved out for today's world as a rumbling rock musical.
posted by bm at 3:17 PM
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