Synopsis
László Ede Hugyecz(1893-1958) -- later L.E. Hudec -- was aHungarian architect who fled the vicissitudes of Europein the early 20th century, taking with him the style and knowledge of Europeanbuilding design and construction. His work – spanning nearly 30 years ofShanghai’s economic and cultural ‘glory days’ – includes the first skyscraperfrom London to Tokyo.
In 2008 newarchive materials – including original letters, photos and 16mm film – havesurfaced from his descendants in Hungaryand the U.S.These archives paint a complex and thinking man living at the crossroadsbetween Europe and China. The newarchive materials reveal the man behind the architect that even his childrenbarely knew.
Through theirtestimony, through his incredible film footage, and through our research of hisfootsteps, his story will give a extraordinary inside look at the first rush ofEuropeans to China,of its first modernization (skyscrapers !), and of the turmoil of the 20thcentury. A perspective all the more fascinating that, today, once again, China looks like the new El Dorado.
Visual Approach/Creative Style
Dr. Eszter Jánossy is 65 years old, and lives in Budapest. She’s outsideunpacking wooden crates on the two-columned, old-style veranda of her family’sold villa. She’s pulling out dozens of dusty and moldy letters, one of them hasa Chinese stamp on it dated “Shanghai,December, 1918.”
“This is it!” says Eszter in an excited tone. “Mymother told me that he escaped from the Russian POW camp in 1918 and reached Shanghai later thatyear.” Afterwards she reaches back into the crate and pulls out more letters andan album. She dusts off about two centimeters of 50 year-old dust and reads“L.E. Hudec Architecture – this was also Uncle László’s.”
“Uncle László – also known as László EdeHugyecz – was Eszter’s uncle. Ten thousand kilometers from Budapest,Shanghailanders are just beginning to commemorate the 
50thanniversary of his death: indeed, it’s his name that people in Shanghaiassociate the most with Hungary,a country they know little to nothing about. Meanwhile, in his native Hungary and Europein general, few people have even heard of László Hugyecz. And still,globalization is more than twenty years old -- and so are the intense, andcomplex, European-Chinese relations.
The new-oldarchive material about Hugyecz/Hudec includes some 250 letters written by him -about his architecture, but mainly his life. He writes about everything, fromhis early days as a student in Budapest, his time in the military, as a POW,his early days in Shanghai in that city’s glory days, his struggle to build upa profession as a foreigner in the Far East, as well as the political climateand persecution from 1937 until after WWII. After he left Hungary to go to war in 1914, he visited Hungary a dozentimes, but could never move back, and he missed his family more than anything.He kept tight ties with them through the mail, and wrote to Eszter’smother, Jolán, on almost a weeklybasis.
Hudec also senthundreds of photos – some of which he made into personal postcards, whichincluded his own comments and writings on the back. He was a skillfulphotographer, documenting his work in Shanghai,as well as his trips in Chinaand elsewhere (Japan, Europethe US).His pictures sent to his family are a type of ‘blog’ in today’s terminology –they take you on a visual tour of what he saw. For example : when he arrived toChina, he sent generalpictures of Shanghaito his family, so they would understand what a different world he was livingin. One postcard includes three Chinese pagodas and he writes on the back “Heretheir churches don’t ring church bells. Here they beat drums and use clattersand rattles.”
But, mostimportant for our film, he was also a prolific filmmaker. He filmed (on 16mm)many of his trips and architectural projects from 1927 until about 1940. Over10 hours of film include Shanghai, New York, Budapestand various European capitols. There is ample footage of his family, hischildren – the material forms almost a core document, visually, of his era.
Finally, thenewly revealed family archives, now collected and being researched under the“Hudec Heritage Project,” include beautiful archive pictures from the late 19thcentury, from Hudec’s family background living in the ethnically mixedAustro-Hungarian Empire. Until now, if people knew about L.E. Hudec, they knewabout his architecture: about the Park Hotel, the Grand Theatre, Dr. Woo’sHouse. But these materials show who LászlóEde Hugyecz was, personally, in his own words, his own photos, and his ownfilms. And this has to be thoroughly researched for a successful film.
