Friday 19 January, 8 pm, Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College

Film Night: Colonel Redl

Klaus Maria Brandauer stars in the prize-winning 1985 classic by István Szabó, based on true events and influenced by John Osborne’s play A Patriot for Me. (international version - in *German* - with English subtitles)

Friday 26 January, 8 pm, Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College

Colonel Redl and Other Traitors in the Late Habsburg Empire

Mark Cornwall

Redl was the most notorious Austro-Hungarian ‘traitor-spy’. This talk will reveal how and why, over the past century, his story has blended fact and fiction, becoming a firm favourite of filmmakers, playwrights and novelists. Prof. Cornwall is the UK’s leading historian of the late Habsburg Empire.

Friday 2 February, 8 pm, Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College

The World of András Sütő

László Gróf

Sütő (1927-2006), an ethnic Hungarian writer and politician in Romania, was one of the leading 20th-century writers in Hungarian. For his more than 50 books, including novels, essays and dramas, he received the Herder Prize (1979) and Kossuth Prize (2002). László Gróf is a historian and expert on cartography who has spent much time in Transylvania and made a special study of Sütő.

Friday 9 February, 8 pm, Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College

Film Night: Tiszta szívvel (Kills on Wheels)

This 2016 Hungarian comedy, directed by Attila Till, about a hitman in a wheelchair, is an inventive coming-of-age tale. (English subtitles)

Friday 16 February, 8 pm, The Buttery, Wolfson College

Maximilian Hell (1720-92): Astronomy and Enlightenment in Hungary

László Kontler

Hell, a Jesuit priest and prolific astronomer, best known for his observation of the transit of Venus, founded the astronomical observatory in Vienna; a crater on the moon is named after him. László Kontler, a former Soros scholar, is professor of history at Central European University, and currently Leverhulme visiting professor at Cambridge.

Friday 23 February, 8 pm, Haldane Room, Wolfson College

Recital by cellist Pál Banda

Pál, a musician of international repute, will play Bach and some Kodály, and talk about his music-making and his instrument. Pál Banda was born into a musical family in Budapest. At the Franz Liszt Academy of Music he studied with his father, Ede Banda.

***EVENT RESCHEDULED TO WEEK 8***

Friday 9 March, 8 pm, The Buttery, Wolfson College

Bvda, Ofen, Pesto, Buda, Pest

Andrew Alchin

The earliest views of Budapest: 15th- and 16th-century woodcuts, copper engravings and paintings depicting Buda, Pest and Óbuda. Andrew Alchin is a collector of old maps and views, including Hungarian-related items.

N.B. Unfortunately, due to inclement weather we have decided to re-schedule the planned event from Week 7 to Week 8. The talk will take place on 9 March.