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Little Valentino

1979 film directed by András Jeles

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ97198885 ↗
Source-derived summary

Little Valentino (Hungarian: A kis Valentinó), also known as The Little Valentino, is a 1979 Hungarian drama film written and directed by András Jeles, in his directorial debut.

Plot

Cast

János Opoczki as László

István Iványi as Józsikám

József Farkas as Idõ's taxi driver

Dénes Ladányi as Dénes

Belane Szekacs as Amál

Ferencné Lévai as Irén

Sándorné Árpa as László's mother

Iván Molnár as Sr. Frész

Oszkár Ipacs as Quiosquer

Release

The film was screened at the 36th Venice International Film Festival, in the Officina Veneziana sidebar.

Reception

A contemporary Variety review described the film as 'nicely acted, well handled but essentially playoff actioner', a film that 'at first [is] full of sharp observation', but 'finally drifts into aimlessness'.

In a retrospective review for Chicago Reader, Pat Graham described the film as 'an aggressively experimental film, elliptical in the manner of the old New Wave', paired it to Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise, and remarked that 'it’s hard not to be impressed by its on-the-edge assurance'.

The BFI Companion to Eastern European and Russian Cinema noted that the film 'provoked both scandal and an enthusiastic reception', particularly for its use of docu-fiction style, pushed in 'an absurd-surrealist direction, constructing by the film's end a gloomy atmosphere of reality'.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Little Valentino” as 1979 film directed by András Jeles. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1979—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1979-11-08. The account is most persuasive where Little, Valentino and film can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1979 film directed by András Jeles. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q97198885. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1979.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Little Valentino”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Little Valentino primary sources, Little Valentino archive and Little research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Little Valentino”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Little Valentino” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.