Réka Divinyi

Not an artist, a professional

filmhu: According to imdb.com your first scriptwriting job was with Barátok közt. How does one become a soap opera writer overnight?

Réka Divinyi: I was studying at university when someone told me that there was a new daily series starting. It turned out that a team of English writers was going to choose three applicants and teach them how to write soap operas to a professional standard.

filmhu: As far as I know there is not much crossing over between TV and cinema. But you succeeded.

RD: Thanks to Krisztina Goda. (It is 2001—filmhu) Kriszta had already been working with Gábor Heller on 'Just sex' but she gave me the then current version of the script. After I told her my opinion of it she asked me to get involved in writing it.

Whose which? Just sex...

filmhu: After 'Just sex' how difficult was it to end up in a boy's story (Young dumb anf fool of love)?

RD: It doesn't matter if it's a boy's or a girl's story. I tried to find the points that would interest me,  the things that are important to me. If there are no problems in a story to touch me, I can't write it....

filmhu: I've heard that with 'Children of glory' you cut Joe Esterhas's book to less than half.

RD: I didn't cut it, Éva Gárdos did. Esterhas's book goes up to the current day, and Éva snipped out a piece of it, which became the backbone of the film. I got into it to bring the story closer to the youth. Both in content and in language. It wasn't easy to imagine how people—like the water polo players—used to talk fifty years ago and all this in a way that would be enjoyable to young people. Therefore several versions were born. Kriszta Goda, the director also asked for quite a few changes and Andy (Andrew G. Vajna–filmhu) also had very concrete ideas about the script. So I rewrote it several times, sometimes even during shooting, until they were satisfied with the script.

filmhu: What research did you need to do to write the script?

RD: I read a lot, and of course we watched films.

filmhu: Do you always carry out such research?

RD: With Just sex I knew the theatrical environment but I familiarised myself with romantic comedy. I studied ’teen sex comedies’ with Young dumb anf fool of love and now with Lora I spoke to blind people and watched several movies with a similar feel.

filmhu: What other parts are there  to your method?

RD: Unfortunately I'm not as disciplined as Thomas Mann was. I put off writing as long as I can and only when the deadline looms can I get started on it. But then it's 24/7, until I'm finished. Before you ask, I only work on computers.

Waterpolo from a lexicon Children of glory

I don't like writing treatments. There is a synopsis, of course, a rather detailed one, but I never make it to the treatment. However, the moment I start writing the script itself I can visualise the story more intensely. The smaller details will work themselves out along the way. Characters are the same—first they only exist as outlines but then they become more detailed.

filmhu: You have only written on demand so far. Do you have any scripts of your own lying in a drawer somewhere?

RD: Now that you mention it, I do have one. I wrote it long ago but realised along the way that it wasn't my film really. Maybe I should give it to someone who has more to do with the topic. And of course there are lots of ideas and plans...

You have to keep up with the times... Young dumb anf fool of love

RD: I don't like writing treatments. There is a synopsis, of course, a rather detailed one, but I never make it to the treatment. However, the moment I start writing the script itself I can visualise the story more intensely. The smaller details will work themselves out along the way. Characters are the same—first they only exist as outlines but then they become more detailed.

filmhu: You have only written on demand so far. Do you have any scripts of your own lying in a drawer somewhere?

RD: Now that you mention it, I do have one. I wrote it long ago but realised along the way that it wasn't my film really. Maybe I should give it to someone who has more to do with the topic. And of course there are lots of ideas and plans...