East of the West - Competition 2004 / Mix / Hungary, USA 2004
The incredible adventures of an American in Hungary. Twenty-year-old Mitch studies classical piano, but is much more interested in club dance music and sex via the internet. When he is stranded for several days in the Hungarian capital, he enthusiastically launches himself into the snares and gaiety of Budapest night life.
Twenty-year-old Mitch is studying classical piano in Los Angeles to please his father Peter. However, what really interests him is club music and he only really feels like himself as a DJ. He doesn’t have a girlfriend but is an enthusiastic consumer of sex on the internet. When Mitch’s grandfather dies in Budapest the young man goes with his father to visit his grandmother Klára. He spends several days in Budapest against his will, during which he has to earn money for his air ticket. He gets to know life backstage at one of the better brothels, where Bea works as an erotic photo-model. He grows close to her and to other frequenters of Budapest’s night life: the petty thief Lou (originally from New Jersey), the pornomagnate Zoltán and others... The film never claims to be a “documentary” portrayal of one of Eastern Europe’s metropoles through the eyes of a young man from the West. It treats primarily the many forms of love and music, linking apparently incompatible musical genres: club dance music, Hungarian folklore and classical.
97 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Steven Lovy
/ Screenplay Steven Lovy
/ Dir. of Photography János Vecsernyés
/ Music Timothy Kelly
/ Editor Steven Lovy
/ Producer Steven Lovy, Robert Lovy
/ Production Mixpix Production, koprodukce / coproduction: HCC Happy Crew Company
/ Cast Alex Weed, Jeffrey Schecter, Dorka Gryllus, János Kulka, Peter Rudolf, Krisztián Kolovratnik
/ Contact National Film Institute Hungary, SPI International Czech Republic, SPI International CE
www: www.mixthemovie.com
Steven Lovy (b. 1964) is a graduate of the department of film and television at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He gained attention with the short student sci-fi film Circuitry Man, on the basis of which he made the feature film of the same name and its free continuation at Columbia Tristar studios. Lovy works with his brother Robert under the label Lovy Brothers. Filmography: the horror Don’t Go Near the Park (1981; actor, dir. by Lawrence D. Foldes), the sci-fi Circuitry Man (1990; co-author of the script, director), A Weekend with Barbara and Ingrid (1992; executive producer, music, dir. by Gregory Neri), the sci-fi Plughead Rewired: Circuitry Man II (1994; co-author of the script, co-director, co-producer), Mix (2003; co-author of the story and script, co-executive producer, director, editor).
National Film Institute Hungary
Róna utca 174., 1145, Budapest
Hungary
Phone: +36 30 4414465, +36 146 113 20
SPI International Czech Republic
Branicka 1950/209, 140 00, Praha 4
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 261 216 318
Fax: +420 261 221 375
E-mail: [email protected]
SPI International CE
Matúškova 10, 831 01, Bratislava
Slovakia
Phone: +421 254 650 824
Fax: +421 254 793 653
E-mail: [email protected]
Ivan Hronec
Cinema Representative, Distributor, Festival Organizer, TV Representative
Annamária Basa
Steven Lovy
Producer
Olga Koos
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