By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Péter Forgács
Country: austria
Year: 2007
Running time: 70
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0846784/
Bruce says: “Tracking down home movies and combining them with other (usually professional) archival footage is an intriguing way of telling a story, creating a verité effect while providing a history lesson. Péter Forgács is a founder of the Private Photo & Film Archives Foundation (PPFA) in Budapest. He is also a media artist; his works are in the collections of MOMA, the Getty, the Harvard College Library and many other institutions.
“MISS UNIVERSE 1929 is a compelling story of two cousins Marci Tenczer and Lisl Goldarbeiter. Marci was a Hungarian Jew from Szeged. Lisl’s family lived in Vienna; her father was a merchant. Her mother was Protestant which allowed her to have Arian papers during the Nazi occupation. When Marci was denied entry to Hungarian University, he went to live with Lisl and her family so he could continue his education in Vienna. Always so close to his cousin, he fell hopelessly in love with her as a teenager. At the same time he bought himself a movie camera and began to enthusiastically document family and public events. Lisl was a fabulous subject, beautiful and photogenic. Marci submitted a photo of her to the Miss Austria contest and she was picked as one of the 30 contestants. She won that contest and was sent to Paris for the Miss Europa Contest, the first ever European beauty pageant. There Lisl placed second to Miss Hungary. The next stop was the Miss Universe Contest in Galveston, Texas. Miss Hungary did not make the trip and Lisl was crowned Miss Universe. In the audience was King Vidor who promptly offered her a two year Hollywood contract with the stipulation that she work on her English to get it up to Hollywood standards. Lisl turned Vidor down and returned to Vienna. One can only speculate what might have happened had she accepted the offer. She was as beautiful as Garbo, who had already been in Hollywood for three years, and Bergman, who would not become a star for at least seven more.
“Back in Vienna Lisl rejected several offers of marriage – one of which was from Marci -before she married Franz Speilman, the biggest playboy in Vienna and an heir to a tie manufacturing fortune. WWII put pressure on everyone. The Speilman family left Vienna and Lisl and Franz moved to Paris and Brussels. Wherever he went Franz accrued huge gambling debts; finally his family disowned him. Lisl stuck by him for a few more years and she ultimately returned to Vienna and waited out the war years with Marci’s family in Szeged. Marci was interred in a Soviet work camp for five years and returned home after the war ended.
“MISS UNIVERSE 1929 is also the story of two countries. At the beginning of the film we see Emperor Franz Joseph frolicking at Schönbrunn Palace during the final years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. For a few years Austria and Hungary lived with democracy until Hitler easily annexed Austria. Following WWII Austria became independent but during the war Hungary fell under Soviet control. The Hungarian Revolution happened in 1956, and Hungary achieved independence and sovereignty once again in 1989.
“While successfully reviewing history from a personal level, MISS UNIVERSE 1929 never delves into the true character of its subject. One can only guess that Lisl had a somewhat superficial side considering who she initially chose to marry. The film notes that she was great friends with Franz Léhar although it never offers any details. MISS UNIVERSE 1929 can be easily appreciated for what it is; it is difficult to overlook what it is not. 3.5 cats
“MISS UNIVERSE 1929 screened at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.”