If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.
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A trent'anni, dopo aver studiato canto e danza popolare, Miklos Jancso (Hungary, 1921)
had been shooting short films and documentaries ever since his graduation from the Film Academy in 1950
Dopo alcune opache prove nel cortometraggio e nel documentario,
influenced by the novels of Zsigmond Moricz and by Brecht's theater,
conscio del fardello
storico nazionale e del suo retaggio culturale, musicale in special modo, inizia a dirigere lungometraggi:
A Harangok Romaba Mentek/ The Bells have gone to Rome (1958),
starring Miklos Gabor,
segnalava già l'intenzione di aggirare l'imperante
realismo socialista con astratte aperture simboliste ed espressioniste:
during the war,
children try to rescue bells that must be melted as metal to make guns
Oldas es Kotes/ To Untie and Retie/ Cantata (1963) fu uno
dei film che segnarono l'inizio del rinnovamento del cinema Ungherese dopo la repressione del 1956,
ispirato dallo stile di Antonioni e dalla "Cantata Profana" di Bartok:
an ambitious young city doctor unsuccessfully tries to reconnect with his peasant father. It's a simple story told via a complex script.
But after this film he abandoned the urban setting.
Igy Sottem/ My Way Home (1964), his first collaboration with screenwriter Gyula Hernadi,
conferma il tono privato, e non pubblico, con cui Jancso guarda alla storia del suo Paese; il film, lirico e
picaresco, introduce i due motivi ricorrenti della sua opera: figure che vagano, da sole o in gruppo, in
paesaggi sterminati e l'incomunicabilità, derivata da Antonioni e resa attraverso un testo
estremamente ridotto; in questo caso uno studente taciturno incontra diversi abitanti delle pianure,
personaggi misteriosi che non si sa chi sono, da dove vengono e dove vanno; l'azione si svolge durante
l'ultimo anno di guerra, e lo studente fa amicizia con un prigioniero russo, ma senza mai diventarne
veramente intimo, finchè questi si ferisce e, nonostante i suoi tentativi disperati di aiutarlo,
muore.
Szegenylegenyek/ The Round-up (1965),
again written by Hernadi, and photographed by Tamas Somlo,.
approfondisce il motivo della degradazione della
guerra già presente nel precedente. Qui Jancso porta a maturazione il suo stile di regia lento
essenziale puro rigoroso, basato sull'uso intensivo del piano sequenza. Il filma apre anche una trilogia
della repressione da parte del potere (in questo caso gli austriaci nel 1848). In un forte vengono rinchiusi
centinaia di uomini, sospettati di aver aderito alla causa dell'indipendenza; i carcerieri tentano in ogni
modo di sapere quali sono i ribelli; cercano di isolarli, di metterli l'uno contro l'altro, li sottopongono a
torture morali; visto che tutti i metodi si rivelano infruttuosi, gli austriaci escogitano uno stratagemma: li
costringono ad arruolarsi e poi fignono che il capo della ribellione, Sandor, sia stato graziato; i vecchi
ribelli intonano canti di vittoria e i soldati li fucilano sul posto. Un ossessivo rituale dell'oppressione,
l'atmosfera misteriosa che regna sul carcere, il pessimismo esistenziale, la lenta angosciosa attesa che il
destino si compia.
Purezza di stile, concentrazione paranoica, trama elettrica, esotismo dei
luoghi.
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Csillagosok Katonak/ The Red and the White (1967), the third part of
a trilogy, designed as a grandiose and choral "revolutionary anthem" a`
la Eisenstein.
Contrary to Ejzenstein's enthusiastic vision of an unstoppable progress towards
the ideal world, Jancso subscribes to an anemic historical pessimism: death,
humiliation, annihilation, and moral ambiguity (there is no difference between
the victim and the executioner). It is typical that the very prisoners who are
about to be executed don't even display the instinct of survival:
they have become accustomed to the idea of dying, and perhaps look forward to it.
History is just a monotonous sadomasochistic ritual that permeates the desperate
lives of his characters.
The drawback is that the film suffers from an inconsistent script, that seems to
proceed by discrete jumps rather than continuous flow, and from
confused scenes, in which it is not clear who is whom. (The rule of thumb is
that anyone depicted as a cruel monster is a White and any character who
recurs and develops a bit of psychological depth is a Red).
It doesn't help that, according with the dogmas of socialist art, there is
no protagonist: the people are the only protagonist.
In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, the Whites and the Reds
(Communists) are fighting for control of the country.
A group of Hungarian volunteers is fighting along the Reds.
The action takes place in the countryside.
Horsemen charging down a hill chased a group of fighters on foot until they
capture one who just crossed a river.
The captain of the horsemen orders him to run back
in the river and then coldly shoots him in the back. Another man was hiding
in the vegetation and witnessed the whole scene.
The Reds are based in an abandoned monastery. One of the Hungarians takes
a group of prisoners outside the monastery, makes them undress and then tells
them to run. His friend, a middle-aged Hungarian, is disgusted by those methods.
When they go back to the monastery, they find that the Whites have seized it.
The Hungarian who made the prisoners strip is now the one who has to strip, but
he prefers to jump from the upper story of the building to his death.
The Whites are ruled by a cold brutal officer who makes the prisoners strip
(and this time they are Reds), tells them to run, but then shoots them.
The only one who is spared is the middle-aged Hungarian, who is told "this is
not your war".
The bulk of the other prisoners are told to take their shirts off and then
given 15 minutes to leave the monastery. They start running frantically but
soon find out that it's just a cruel joke: the gates is locked. At the end
of the 15 minutes they are exterminated. A few manage to escape and are
chased by the horsemen. The middle-aged Hungarian is one of them. He runs
through the fields to an isolated farm, but is finally captured and executed.
The only people in the farm are three women, who refuse to say a word.
The youngest is a teenager. The Cossack in charge of the White patrol likes her.
He tells the other two women (presumably older relatives) to strip her naked
for him. She is saved when a higher officer arrives and has the Cossack
arrested and executed. The Cossack hardly cares: he stares at the sky while
the soldiers shoot him. The other horsemen are still chasing the half-naked
Reds who escaped and who are trying to cross the river. Those who succeed
take shelter in a hospital staffed only with female nurses.
The women help the wounded Reds but soon the Whites arrive and coldly
execute the wonded who are lying on the ground. Some Reds survive though
and hide in the hospital.
Later most of the women are loaded by another White patrol into a carriage
and taken to a forest where they are asked to dance for the soldiers.
An airplane attacks a group of soldiers riding in the fields. The soldiers
run for their lives like gazelles in the savannah. When the plane is gone,
a captain gets mad at them for running away, some of them unarmed. A few are
singled out for being shot for their cowardice but then suddenly another
officer throws his gun to the ground and joins the line of soldiers to be
executed. That act saves them. The group reforms and follows the new leader.
An airplane flies over the hospital, greeted by both the female nurses
and a column of White horsemen that is passing by. Inside the escaped Hungarians
are still treated like patients by the nurses. One is sent to alert the Red
cavalry that they are trapped behind enemy lines. Another one romances one
of the nurses without uttering a word. She seems even more sex-starved than
him and tells him he doesn't have to pretend he loves her.
However, just then the Whites find him and capture him. She is made to stand
naked while they interrogate the kid. Then he is killed in front of her.
The Whites search the hospital for Reds and demand that the nurses point out
which of the patients are Reds. Initially the nurses refuse but then, to
avoid a massacre, one of the nurses complies
(the same nurse who fell in love with the Hungarian kid).
The White officer begins to
shoot the Reds, who are dying on the ground, but the patrol of Reds arrives
just in time to kill him, capture the others of his patrol and free the
surviving Whites. One of the White officers asks to join the Reds with his men.
The Red commander has the betraying nurse executred (she also betrayed
medicine's code of conduct). His triumph is brief: they are attacked by
a vastly more numerous White army. Nonetheless, they sing their revolutionary
anthem in unison and march down the hill towards certain death.
They are exterminated in a few seconds but, in a finale reminiscent of the
old Far Western movies of John Ford, the Red cavalry arrives with trumpets
and all to claim victory. The Hungarian kid who has led them there walks
in the tall grass and pays his respect to the dead bodies of his comrades.
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If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.
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Csand es Kialtas/ Silence and Cry (1968) lo conferma, con gli asceti Ozu e Bresson, fra i
maestri del "cinema da camera". Durante la repressione del 1916, i seguaci di Béla
Khùn sono perseguitati da pattuglie accanite. Un ribelle trova asilo, grazie alla tacita
omertà di un funzionario di polizia suo amico d'infanzia, nella fattoria di un uomo succube della
moglie e della cognata. Le donne sono morbosamente attratte dal soldato e stanno avvelenando il padrone
di casa a piccole dosi. Quando il soldato se ne accorge non esita a denunciarle alla polizia, anche se
così facendo si consegna ai propri persecutori; l'amico, che ora non può più
difenderlo, gli offre la propria pistola per suicidarsi, ma lui gliela punta contro e fa fuoco. Al termine della
trilogia l'eroe di Jancso accetta quindi stoicamente il proprio destino di perseguitato. L'intreccio torbido
dei personaggi viene risolto con impassibile astrazione, ignorando realismo e psicologismo.
Cinema antipsicologico, senza spiegazioni razionali, ermetico, del fallimento e
del potere.
Csend es Kialtas/ Silence and Cry (1968),
starring Andras Kozak, set during the uprising of 1919, the first collaboration with cinematographer Janos Kende and again written by Gyula Hernadi,
Fenyes Szelek/ The Confrontation (1968),
his first film in color, includes singing and dancing.
Il film riprende il tema della violenza rivoluzionaria, in
tutto eguale a quella della repressione, in un tripudio cromatico e sonoro. Gli studenti di una scuola
rivoluzionaria fanno propaganda presso quelli di una scuola cattolica, ma presto si trasformano in
persecutori, e alla fine vengono puniti dai loro stessi capi.
Sirokko/ Winter Wind (1969) ritorna all'ambiguità di
Silenzio e Grido: si situa negli anni '30, quando il governo magiaro dava asilo ai nazionalisti
croati, e racconta la missione di un anarchico, devoto alla causa fino al punto da addestrare i terroristi
croati e a liberarsi di ogni ostacolo con fredda determinazione, che però sa di rappresentare un
elemento scomodo anche per i suoi; e infatti verrà liquidato dagli stessi che lo esalteranno poi
come martire. Film girato in soli dodici piani-sequenza, accentua il clima astratto e fumoso, rasentando il
manierismo.
Egi Barany/ Agnus Dei (1971) racconta la repressione fascista durante il
1919 e il martirio di un sacerdote che si pone alla testa della rivolta contro
Bela Khun,
trionfa facendo leva sui pregiudizi dei contadini, ma viene eliminato dai fascisti stessi che ha aiutati a
vincere;
e` ancora un apologo sulla violenza rivoluzionaria.
Dopo due film Italiani, La Pacifista (1970) e La Tecnica e il Rito
(1971), Meg Ker A Nep/ Red Psalm (1972) è una patetica cantata rivoluzionaria: i
contadini che scioperano contro il latifondo non si piegano né alle minacce né alle
promesse e il loro trionfo ha un sapore quasi sacro, laddove l'intera simbologia cristiana viene trasfigurata
in metafora sull'avvento del socialismo.
Szerelmem Elektra/ Electra My Love (1974), which consists of just 12 long shots,
si serve del balletto e della pantomima per cantare le lodi della rivoluzione permanente.
Another Italian film,
Vizi Privati e Pubbliche Virtu`/ Private Vices Public Pleasures (1975), prende lo spunto dalla
tragica fine dell'erede al trono d'Austria che si suicidò alla fine dell'Ottocento per fornire un
allucinante spaccato di miserie morali, orgia etico-politica.
Dal connubio fra coreografia/musica/balletto e storia nascono
Magyar Rapszodia/ Hungarian Rhapsody (1978), set in the 1920s,
e
Allegro Barbaro (1978), set during World War II,
che esplorano ancora le lotte per la liberta` e la
stoica sopportazione di un destino tragico.
These two films, the most expensive produced in Hungary yet, were supposed to be the first two films of the "Vitam et Sanguinem" trilogy.
They are even more cryptic than his early films and employ a further
disorienting technique of long shots in which the camera moves from one scene in the present to another scene set in the future (within the same shot).
A Zsarnok Szive/ The Tyrant's Heart (1981) e` un'angosciosa allegoria
sull'autodistruzione insita nel concetto di potere: un giovane principe viene richiamato in patria per
ereditare il trono, ma subito si scatena una spietata sete di potere che stermina l'intera corte.
A Hajnal/ L'Aube/ Dawn (1985),
based on a book by Elie Wiesel,
dramma di un terrorista sionista incaricato di uccidere un
soldato inglese per rappresaglia; ossessivamente verboso.
His philosophy is centered on the relationship between the dominance of power and the dignity of the individual. History is the broadest setting in which this eternal struggle can be set. Jancso is the poet of the defeated, first identified individually and then considered in their totality as a sort of social class. With no more myths and heroes, Jancso's cinema becomes a chorus of laments. His landscapes are always huge spaces and his essential style sculpts every gesture in this flat universe of silences.
The surrealistic Szornyek Evadja/ Season of Monsters (1986) was his first "urban" film in more than 20 years.
After the fall of communism he made:
Isten Hatrafele Megy/ God Walks Backwards (1990),
Kek Duna Keringo/ Blue Danube Waltz (1991),
Nekem Lampast Adott Kezembe az Úr Pesten/ The Lord's Lantern in Budapest (1999), photographed by Ferenc Grunwalsky, which had five sequels,
etc.
Jancso died in 2014 at the age of 93.
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