The Films of Hungarian Master Miklós Jancsó

Jan 14 – 20 at the Metrograph in NYC

 

 

맨해튼 로어이스트사이드의 예술영화관 메트로그라프(Metrograph)에서 1월 14일부터 20일까지 헝가리 거장 미클로시 얀초(Miklós Jancsó, 1921-2014) 회고전을 연다. 

 

미클로시 얀초 감독은 1921년 헝가리계 아버지, 루마니아계 어머니 사이 바크에서 태어나 루마니아에서 법학을 전공하면서 미술사와 종족학도 공부했다. 졸업 후 제 2차 세계대전에 참전했다가 전쟁포로가 됐다가 풀려났다. 전후 부다페스트의 연극영화예술아카데미에서 영화연출을 전공한 후 뉴스영화를 연출했다. 

 

1958년 데뷔한 후  '검거/ Szeg ylegenyek'(1966), '적과 백/Csillagosoak, Katon '(1967), '대결/ F yes Szelek'(1969), '붉은 시편/ Meg k a N'(1972)등 역사적 사건을 배경으로 권력욕과 역사의 무상함을 보여주었다. 

 

얀초의 두번째 부인(1958-68)이었던 헝가리 거장 감독 마르타 메자로슈(Márta Mészáros)의 회고전 'THE FILMS OF MÁRTA MÉSZÁROS'는 1월 21일부터 26일까지 링컨센터 필름소사이어티에서 열린다.

 

 

The Films of Hungarian Master Miklós Jancsó

Jan 14 – 20 at the Metrograph in NYC

 

Kino Lorber presents new 4K restorations from the original camera negatives by the Hungarian National Film Archive

 

"The greatest Hungarian film director of all time." – Béla Tarr

"The master of the long shot." – Martin Scorsese

 

Long before Béla Tarr established himself as the Hungarian master of the long take, there was Miklós Jancsó, whose epic 1965 historical drama The Round-Up Tarr counts among his favorite films of all-time. Jancsó, whose directing career began in the 1950s, became an international arthouse sensation in the ’60s, renowned at home and abroad for works like The Red and the White (1967) and Red Psalm (1971), which combine a breadth of scale to rival Visconti, a keen eye for the telling historical detail, and an unbelievably intricate, arabesque choreography of bodies in motion. Jancsó’s films have been less screened in recent years, owing to the paucity of decent materials, but this selection of six new restorations brings them roaring back in all of their broad-shouldered splendor, emotional impact, and epic scope. Films that have to be seen—and preferably seen big—to be believed. This retrospective runs January 14-20, 2022 at the Metrograph in NYC, both in theater and at home. https://nyc.metrograph.com

 

 

THE ROUND-UP

 1965 I 87 min

In Competition – Cannes Film Festival, FIPRESCI Prize – Locarno Film Festival

Miklós Jancsó's breakout film is a spellbinding drama set in the aftermath of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution. After the Hapsburg monarchy succeeds in suppressing Lajos Kossuth’s nationalist uprising, the army sets about arresting suspected guerillas, who are subjected to torture in an effort to extract information about outlaw highwayman Sándor Rózsa’s band of partisans, still waging armed struggle against the Hapsburgs on the outside. Jancsó’s camera stays in constant, hypnotic motion, taking in the developing dynamics and antagonisms between the prisoners and their captors, meditating upon and exalting its characters’ resistance and perseverance in the face of brutal, authoritarian repression.

 

"I have never really been exposed to such a sensibility in the camera movements before… and the ending of The Round-Up is one of the greatest summations of a picture ever created.” – Martin Scorsese, Cannes Film Festival 2010

 

 

THE RED AND THE WHITE

1967 I 87 min

Official Selection – Cannes Film Festival

The film takes place in 1918 on Soviet territory and reveals the murderous clashes between Red troops and the overwhelming White guards. The commander of the Hungarian volunteers stationed in the monastery at Ipatyev prepares for the execution of White prisoners, but in a few minutes, it is the Whites who begin a terrible slaughter over his corpse. Only a couple of Hungarians escape. This beautiful black and white film by Jancsó dissects with surgical precision the mechanisms at work behind every war. The film was commissioned by the Soviet Union for the 50th anniversary of the 1917 revolution but Jancsó’s version has never been screened in Russian movie theatres. It was listed to compete in Cannes, but the festival was canceled due to the events of May 1968 in Paris.

 

"If you've never encountered Jancsó's work, you shouldn't miss this. He may well be the key Hungarian filmmaker of the sound era, and certain later figures such as Bela Tarr would be inconceivable without him." – Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

 

 

THE CONFRONTATION

1968 I 78 min

In Competition – Cannes Film Festival

Set in 1947, the Communist Party has just taken power in Hungary. Young communist students at a People’s College have a debate with Catholic seminary students, but worry it will escalate into a fight. Jancsó’s first color film raises questions of democracy and power.

 

"As always with Jancsó, one feels the terrifying presence of some invisible power pulling the strings... I would hazard that this might be his best film since The Round-Up." – Tom Milne, The Observer

 

 

WINTER WIND

1969 I 71 min

In Competition – Cannes Directors' Fortnight

1934. Croatian separatists, supported by Hungary, seek Croatia’s independence from Yugoslavia. Shortly before the assassination of Yugoslavia’s King Alexander in Marseilles, Marko Lazar is among a band of these separatists. Marko’s youth is dissolving into his mortality, his idealism marking him for his end. The film consists largely of fluid long takes amongst twelve shots. With the sweeping motion of its camera, Jancsó manages to communicate the abstract conflict between the idealists and reality.

 

 

RED PSALM

1971 I 74 min

Best Director – Cannes Film Festival

The film honors the agrarian Socialist movements of the end of the last century, at the same time conveying a historical and philosophical critique of the Socialist ideas. Stylized dance with collective choreography depicts the fight of those answering terror with violence: the fight between oppressors and the downtrodden. Harvesters are going on strike. The bailiff sets fire to wheat sacks to intimidate them. The new-come armed units conquer the harvesters in gunfire.

 

"May well be the greatest Hungarian film of the 60s and 70s." – Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

 

 

ELECTRA, MY LOVE

1974 I 91 min

In Competition – Cannes Film Festival

A two-thousand-year-old Greek myth resonates inescapably in twentieth-century Hungary. Electra is oppressed by Aegisthus, the tyrant who fifteen years earlier murdered her father, Agamemnon. The stylized and symbolic world of the Greek drama proved effective for Jancsó to draw a parallel between the figure of Aegisthus and János Kádár, leader of the Hungarian Communist Party. The film seeks opportunities for resistance and is highly critical of those forms of behavior through which the majority comes to terms with the tyrant. A cinematic tour de force: the entire 70-minute duration is covered by just twelve takes.

 

"A tour-de-force... Jancsó has mastered his form." – Gene Moskowitz, Variety