Original – adaptation – intertextuality – compilation : about the "Joke" by Péter Gárdos compared to other filming literary works

The article makes an analysis of the contemporary Hungarian movie Joke (2009) directed by Péter Gárdos. References are also made of how outstanding literary works including those by Dezső Kosztolányi were filmed. The movie is an adaptation of the psychological novel of one of the most emblematic representatives of the first generation of artists gathered around the literary magazine “Nyugat” (1908–1941). The originality, singularity and also great riskiness of this adaptation, together with numerous themes borrowed from other literary works and movies, are incorporated into the picture (lasting only an hour and ten minutes). Among them they are foreign and Hungarian inspirations: a short story by Géza Csáth (Murder), another literary piece by Kosztolányi (Golden Kite), Géza Ottlik’s novel (School on the border), William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and movies directed by Peter Brook, Zoltán Fábri, László Ranódy and finally by the Péter Gárdos. The Joke is not only an adaptation of Kosztolányi’s short story. This movie is also a “joke” about twentieth-century classic literature and cinema. It raises questions about the limits of authenticity and originality, probing the borders of literary education of recipients, and also those of their knowledge in the field of history of Hungarian or world cinema. The ambivalent attitude to this movie stems from the fact that most viewers and even critics treat it primarily as a “faithful” adaptation of a literary work, not as a synthesis of cultural values existing in the collective consciousness at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The director, who relied on the above sources of inspiration, openly questions the authenticity of Kosztolányi’s text.