Young Vilmos News Today

♪ >> i did not even think about death. but [indistinct] going through that, i should be. anybody with a camera was shot. immediately. that time, i did not think about it. i found out [indistinct] >> anthony: you were alive and holding a camera at a very important time in history. >> it is very easy to make beautiful pictures. but pictures which mean something more than what is in it. that is a totally different story. ♪ i took a walk through this beautiful world the league felt the...

Here along the tiza river is no exception. here young vilmos and his dad would come here to eat the local specialty, fish soup. how old were you when you first came to play this place? >> i must have been about 7 years old. ♪ my father was really great in those days. we did not have much. but occasionally, he wanted to take me away from work. because he loved this place actually. he loved it. it was special. fish. >> anthony: that is murky. pike from the river shimmered with a healthy amount o...

Are thronged with families and here, along the tisza river, is no exception. here, young vilmos and his dad would come and eat halászlé, the local specialty, a fish soup. how old were you when you first came to this place? >> vilmos: i must have been about 7 years old. no, my father was really great. in those days he was, actually he didnt have much time, but occasionally he wanted to take me away somewhere, you know, a day, away from work, because he loved this place actually. he loved especi...

Tonight, vilmos has invited me to the home of his longtime friend and college in the film business. he met richie on set of a movie more than 20 years ago, and they have been friends and partners ever since. >> to your health. >>ers. ers. >> in hungary its -- >> ill never learn to pronounce that.

You had to skip lunch for a pair of socks. so we were very, very poor. but i must say that under this whole four years, the happiest part of my life was i was learning. so i fell in love, immediately. >> in fact, some of vilmos most powerful and world-changing footage occurred around this time, before leaving hungary, as a film student during the outbreak of revolution. but well get to that later.

Being under a regime, terrible things happened. we were studying cinematography. being in the film school was like an island of the craziness. >> i grew up in new jersey. my family was sentimental about beautiful pictures, a beautiful script. we saw every film you ever shot and talked about them at the dinner table. these were important. this has got to look pretty close to the way it did in the old day, right? >> oh, yeah. didnt change much. >> through it all for vilmos was this place, however....

Like? >> i remember that i was actually scared to death. shooting those, going through there, should be. i found i had to photograph it. things were going from one side to the other side of the danube. >> there were tanks coming across this? >> well, yes, actually. it was a pretty cool, cold day, too. >> yeah. >> not this cold. but it was raining. it was bad weather. it was pretty much, you know, you could see what was happening in budapest. >> after the war, a cold war. hungary now found itself...

Streets. a revolution. thats when vilmos and laszlo and some pals snuck 35 millimeter cameras and film out of their schools equipment room, and at great risk to themselves, joined their countrymen in the streets, documenting the revolt and the aftermath. these images are from some of that historic footage. it seemed for ten glorious days, that freedom had finally come. encouraged by the west and by cia radio broadcasts in particular, the hungarians believed that help was on its way. that this wa...

[ speaking hungarian ] >> richies wife maria, daughter judith, vilmos wife susan, friends and family reunite for the best of simple pleasures. we start with a rich carroway and onion and paprika soup finished with homemade croutons and theres a deeply rich and deeply warming beef stew with smoked pork sausage for good measure and cooked for hours and, of course, heavy on the paprika, traditional cucumber salad. to accompany the stew, boiled dumplings. >> our style in photography was not realist.

>> richies wife maria, daughter judith, vilmos wife susan, friends and family reunite for the best of simple pleasures. we start with a rich carroway and onion and paprika soup finished with homemade croutons and theres a deeply rich and deeply warming beef stew with smoked pork sausage for good measure and cooked for hours and, of course, heavy on the paprika, traditional cucumber salad. to accompany the stew, boiled dumplings. >> our style in photography was not realist. its poetic realist. th...