Actors may be all over the news for movies they are starring in or run-ins with the law, but it’s rare that we get the chance to learn the stories of those who stay behind the lens. These people are just as important, if not more so to the movie making process, and some of them have a heck of a lot more interesting stories than Lindsay Lohan overdosing on Advil.
Two of those stories are coming forward in the documentary, Laszlo & Vilmos: The Story of Two Refugees Who Changed the Look of American Cinema. Director of Photography James Chressanthis is writing and directing the feature which will share the story of Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond, two filmmakers who documented the Hungarian Revolution before coming to the United States as refugees in 1956. Both went on to successful careers as Directors of Photography on movies like Paper Moon, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Easy Rider, and The Deer Hunter.
Chressanthis worked with Zsigmond on The Witches of Eastwick as an intern. He remembers vividly the D.P. calling an extended lunch one day for a special lunch to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. That was before the curtain fell and the two Hungarian D.P.s didn’t think they’d ever see their family and friends again.
The Hollywood Reporter has announced that high profile names like Martin Scorsese, Dennis Hopper, and Mark Rydell are slated to be interviewed for the documentary.
