[Cz-L] Re: Andy Halmay's attitude to Czernowitz/Chernivtsi

We generally think that the buildings, mountains, gardens, we remember from
our childhood, were larger and more magnificent, than they actually were. As
children we had nothing to compare them with. My own memories of Czernowitz
sometimes exaggerate the beauty and size of buildings but at other times are
quite accurate. The small house on the Blumengasse, in which we lived in
1940-41, we called a villa, but it was actually a small shabby house when I
next saw it in 2002. From the Yandex map, I now learn that it has acquired a
second floor. The house next to it, in which lived the Landmann family,
still looks exactly as I remember it.

The Volksgarten, which set my standard for urban parks, is not central park
in New York, nor the Golden Gate park, but I still consider it a very
beautiful park and take a walk in it, every time I am in Czernowitz.
The theatre and the sunken garden in front of it, are still as beautiful as
they were in 1940.

When I navigate around Czernowitz on the Yandex map, I find some shabby
streets with shabby unkempt houses, but I also find well maintained, very
beautiful buildings and streets. The trolleybus, I loved as a child, still
functions and in our energy strapped era, this is something to be proud of.
When we lived there, Czernowitz had a population of about 100 000. Now the
population is about double that, but the old center of town has mostly been
well maintained and walking the streets of Czernowitz, whether on foot or by
navigating the Yandex map, is a pleasure.

I do not believe in "never go back". I want to know the truth, whether what
I remember, is really so, or a figment of my imagination.

As to the struggle to get the Popovici memorial plaque put up:
I am quite sure the objections raised by the city administration were due to
the fact that Popovici was Romanian and not due to Anti-Semitism. There are
in Chernivtsi today more memorial plaques to Jewish writers, scientists,
actors, etc. than in any other Ukrainian city. During the time, when I was
trying to get permission to have the plaque put up, there appeared on the
front page, in the local paper published by the Ukrainian association, an
article condemning the mayor for his attitude to Popovici.

Andy, any movie or documentary you make, is yours to decide about, but I, at
least, cannot imagine a movie about Popovici, which does not take place and
is filmed in Czernowitz. He was a product of Czernowitz, despite being born
in Fundu Moldavei.

Currently there is a considerable struggle going on, between the city
council and the mayor. You might say that the city council has fired the
mayor. Many people in Chernivtsi want to develop and enhance the city's
image, as a cultured progressive place. They now have poetry festivals and
encourage academic conferences.
I think they will encourage and be helpful to you, should you change your
mind and film the movie in Czernowitz.

Mimi

On 4/10/11 2:23 PM, "andy halmay" <andy_venivici_at_yahoo.com> wrote:

> HARDY -
>
> The gypsy music and vodka sounds good. Maybe some tzuica instead of the
> vodka but the mansion I had in the image of my mind I see now has pedestrian
> architecture and from the outside it looks half the size I recall (never mind
> the physical deterioration) The grand chestnut trees on what I recall to have
> been a boulevard, are gone. There is no boulevard, just a little strip of
> green,
> maybe a widened road.
>
> I bet if I went out to Tsetsinau today, the big mountains I recall from my kid
> height would be little hills or bumps. Was it Faulkner who said, "You can't
> go
> back?"
[snip]
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Received on 2011-04-11 09:00:28