Regardless of what one thinks of the current administration in Budapest, it is important to remember the events of October-November 1956, when student-led protests led to serious agreements on government reforms, only for Soviet tanks to quash the whole movement. Refugees fled the country for various parts from Austria to America. 

I'll be brief with this post, so if you want to learn more about this historical event, please see TIME photos here, the Wiki page here, or watch this 48-minute video from the BBC's Timewatch series:

I’ll be brief today on the sad news of the prolific director’s passing at the age of 90, still diligently engaged in creative endeavors. Although not as well known internationally, Wajda’s work outshines that of Roman Polanski, whose career he helped launch. You can read more about him in this Guardian article and in this detailed and penetrating homage. entertainment site called A.V. Club.
 
I must confess that I’ve only seen three of his films. One was 1983’s Danton, in which Gérard Depardieu plays the fiery French revolutionary. Then there was Pan Tadeusz (1999) which I saw as a grad student at Ohio State’s Slavic Department during a weekend-long Polish cultural festival. That movie is Wajda’s lush representation of the eponymous epic poem by national poet Adam Mickiewicz. It takes place in the early nineteenth century, after Poland had been partitioned by Austria, Prussia and Russia. Two families, living in czarist Congress Poland are divided over whether to be loyal to Russia or to support Polish independence. A few years later, at another Slavic Department-sponsored screening, I saw his 2007 film Katyń, which deals with the massacre of Polish officers by Stalin’s Red Army. A grim but powerful film.
 
Wajda has earned his place in the canon of world film. None of his films won an Oscar, though four were nominated, and he was presented with an Academy Honorary Award for his contribution to cinema in 2000. Hopefully, he will now receive even greater recognition outside of Poland. And I'll see if I can find more of him on Netflix!
 
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Photo credit:
By Piotr DrabikDerivative work: TharonXX - →This file has been extracted from another file: Andrzej Wajda OFF Plus Camera 2012(2).jpg, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52180667

Last Week, in honor of German-American Day, I wrote a short humorous list of things Americans find unusual about Germany. Today, I'm switching it around.

1. Americans say “excuse me” every time they pass by in the book store and block your view of the shelf for a mere split second.
2. Nothing costs what it says – there’s always a tip or tax to be added.
3. They drink everything on ice – even milk.
4. All denominations of paper money are the same color and size. How are the blind supposed to tell a single from a hundred?
5. When suffering the occasional but normal melancholy they say “I’m so depressed!”
6. Every aesthetic good gets sacrificed on the altar of convenience. Strip malls, anyone?
7. Strawberry flavored Frappucino decaf is what they call Italian lifestyle.
8. They order a Double Whopper and extra-large fries – and for their beverage, a large Diet Coke.
9. As soon as they get home they turn the TV on like a lamp.
10. They have even more faith in technology than Germans.

These are selections from a batch of 50, translated, sometimes paraphrased and embellished, by yours truly. For those who read German, the original is in Die Zeit.