Ulrih Celjski i Vladislav Hunjadi

Movie is about 13 min. long w/o non original titles & more likely it was practice for more ambitious movie about Duke Karadzordze made few weeks or months later.. The movie is based on real historical events in Belgrade in the summer of 1456. just after important Christian victory over Muslims. BTW, that event some says use Tolkin in his sagas as stage for siege of Minas Tirith. But after battle, due to many corpses, plague broke that killed many Christian leaders. Struggle for succession between Hungarian nobility begins and that's where this film starts. Movie is worthy cos of scenography and fact that it was filmed on same location where real events took place (Belgrade fortress), and I don't know but that easily can be first or among the first historical movies that exploit such feature. Since this is first Serbian and generally first Balkan feature film, it scores several first in local filmography. It is made from 14 all different scenes, 2 of them have double exposure which was favorite SFX in that era for ghost effects. It also have first panning, goof, comical and even horror scene (killing of Vladislav Hunyadi). I recommend it to any movie fan, specially those inclined to historical movies. Far before Petersen Troy, Braveheart, Ben Hur, Spartacus, Cleopatra etc, this is how that genre begins.

The movie's title translates as 'Ulrich of Celje and Ladislaus Hunyadi'. This 13-minute Serbian film was acclaimed as one of the real finds at the 2006 Cinema Muto festival in Sacile, Italy, where I saw it. The festival screened a beautiful new 35mm sepia print made via the Desmet method, copied from the original nitrate positive and nitrate negative, both of which have miraculously survived in the Reinthaler Collection at Filmarchiv Austria.

The excellent photography was credited to one Louis De Beery, a mystery man of the silent-film era. It has only recently (as I write this) been learnt that De Beery was actually Lajos Zoltan Arpad Pitrof, a Hungarian who apparently felt that success would come more easily if he were a Frenchman.

The uncredited script (believed to be by 'De Beery') is based on an 1839 stage play and an 1844 opera adaptated from that play, both titled 'Hunyadi Ladislaus'. All three dramatisations are based on a true incident in Serbian history. I'm not familiar with the original incident; this film review is based solely on the film, which I'm assuming is historically accurate.

In November 1456, numerous intrigues and pretenders threaten the royal succession in the kingdom of Hungary. Count Ulrich of Celje is the uncle, guardian and regent of young King Ladislaus V. This film details the uprisings of another Ladislaus -- Hunyadi -- whose insurgents storm the Belgrade fortress, murder Count Ulrich, and seize control of the city. Hunyadi's forces are then overthrown by loyalist royalists, leading to the execution of Hunyadi.

Even though it has room for one Ladislaus too many, this film is so brief that it necessarily consists of tableaux rather than a flowing narrative. The actors show absolutely no experience in the techniques of film acting, and confine themselves largely to striking poses and pulling faces. Evidently this particular incident in history is deeply significant to the people of Hungary, and I've no doubt that audiences in 1911 applauded this very simple and simplistic staging of a story they already knew well.

The programme notes at Sacile revealed an interesting fact about this movie which I would not have known on my tod: this brief and by-the-numbers epic was the first film ever made in Serbia (explaning why the actors have no film experience). However, a few days after this production was wrapped, the same production unit made a larger and more ambitious historic epic, 'The Life and Deeds of the Immortal Duke Karadjordja'. Recognising that this second film was the better of the two, they chose to release it first. Accordingly, 'Duke Karadjordja' has been (inaccurately) acclaimed in Serbia and neighbouring nations as the very first Serbian film, when in fact 'Ulrich of Celje' precedes it. Ah, well.

The makers of this film deserve high marks for effort, with somewhat lower marks for execution. If I make allowances for the fact that this movie was made way back in 1911, I must also bear in mind that far more elaborate and ambitious (and better) movies were being made in other nations at that date. However, those production companies in other nations had access to bigger production budgets. Split the difference, and I'll rate this interesting historical footnote 7 points out of 10.