Julius Potocsny

Julius Potocsny was born in Slovakia in 1929. He had a movie-making education in the University of Art in Budapest and the Hunnia Film Studio, the largest and most significant sound film studio in Hungary until its nationalization in 1948. Potocsny came to the US by way of the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Potocsny made a prize-winning documentary and was working on another when the Hungarian Revolution broke out in Budapest. Although Potocsny had no active part in the Revolution, his name showed up on a list of people to be arrested, and he fled to Austria. Shortly after, he smuggled himself back into Hungary disguised as a member of a German soccer team to remove his wife and 6-month-old daughter. In 1957 Potocsny took a job in Ohio as a chemist. He worked with test tubes in the day and studied English at night. In 1959 he started Continental Productions, a motion picture studio that merged with Cinecraft Productions, a sponsored film studio, three years later. Potocsny's films had a very distinct style influenced by the energy first found consistently in the movie of the French New Wave of the late 1950s. Techniques from French New Wave cinema later had a significant influence on American cinema. Rapid editing, exaggerated camera angles, fast zooms and pans, and non-traditional soundtracks, especially in the use of music, are all techniques found in avant-garde films that we now find commonplace. Potocsny directed three award-winning sponsored films while he was in Cleveland, partnering with script writer Frank Siedel on all three. "Steel by Stopwatch (1960)," a color, 27-minute film he directed for Jones & Laughlin Steel Company. The film tells the story of steel making by the oxygen lance process in almost poetic form. The film won a top award in the documentary field at the Venice and Edinburgh Film Festivals. In 1964 it was also awarded a "Golden Eagle" award in the Business, Education, and Medicine category at the CINE (Committee for International Nontheatrical Events) meeting in Washington, DC. Musicians from the Cleveland Philharmonic orchestra recorded the film's background music. At the time, Potocsny was President of Continental Films. "Search (1964)," a color, 21-minute film he directed for Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company while at Cinecraft. The film explores steel production's research and development side, specifically the scientific experiments and creative thinking that allowed Youngstown to manufacture cutting-edge steel products. Zoltan Rozsnyai wrote the scores played by members of the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra. Alexander Scourby narrated the film. The film won a CINE "Golden Eagle Award" in 1964 and was selected for entry in international film festivals. "Search" premiered at the Allen Theatre in Cleveland and was entered in the Venice and Edinburgh (Scotland) film Festivals. "Invitation to Ohio (1965)," a color, 30-minute film produced by Cinecraft for the Ohio Bell Telephone Company in cooperation with the Ohio Development Department. The movie was designed to attract new industries to Ohio and to encourage existing industries to expand. About 400 scenes from all over the state appear in the film. The film starred two Hollywood actors: Wally Cox (Mr. Peepers) and John Dehner. Musicians from the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra recorded the film's background music. An article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1972, "Film Makers' Thanks to the City," noted that "Potocsny's reach always exceeded his grasp and after quite a few successful if fairly costly pictures (including one documentary in which he wrapped a camera in asbestos and poked it right into a steel furnace so the audience could watch it seethe), he and Cleveland parted company amicably." The article states Potocsny was in Cleveland for the Allen Theatre showing of "Adrift," a film he produced. Adrift was an adaptation of Hungarian novelist and playwright Lajos Zilahy's book, Something Is Adrift in the Water. The film tells the story of a happily married fisherman who becomes obsessed with an amnesic girl he rescues from a river. Potocsny also worked as the cinematographer for "Four Men and a Coffin" (1996) and cinematographer and director for "Talk to Me" (1982). He died in Houston, Texas, on 7 Oct. 2002.