Mumbai: The documentary No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo and Vilmos will premiere as an official selection of Cannes Classics at the 61st Annual Cannes International Film Festival on 22 May. It tracks the 50-year journey of Laszlo Kovacs (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Paper Moon, Frances, etc.) and Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Deer Hunter, The River, etc.), beginning with their arrival in the United States as political refugees from Hungary in February 1957.

"There is poetic justice in this film premiering at Cannes," says producer-director James Chressanthis. "Laszlo shot Easy Rider, an ultra-low budget, counterculture film that was a favorite with critics and fans at Cannes in 1969. That was the film which finally opened doors for Laszlo in Hollywood. I am overjoyed that our film will screen at Cannes. It is a perfect return to the place that launched the career of Laszlo Kovacs and then, in turn, his artistic brother Vilmos Zsigmond. They became legends in their own time."

Kovacs’ body of work also includes such memorable films as That Cold Day in the Park, The King of Marvin Gardens, Shampoo, Ghostbusters, and Mask. Zsigmond earned an Oscar for Close Encounters, and additional nominations for The Deer Hunter, The River and The Black Dahlia, as well as an Emmy for Stalin. His other credits include McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Rose, Deliverance and the upcoming birth-of-jazz film Bolden!

No Subtitles Necessary includes excerpts from more than 50 hours of interviews with Kovacs, Zsigmond and some 70 individuals whose lives they
touched, including industry-heavyweights Karen Black, Peter Bogdanovich,
Sandra Bullock, Richard Donner, Dennis Hopper, Tatum O’Neal, Bob Rafelson, Barbra Streisand, John Williams, Peter Fonda, Jon Voight, Irwin Winkler, Ellen Kuras, Owen Roizman and Haskell Wexler.

"Their brotherhood and how they struggled and triumphed is the heart of the story," says Chressanthis.