Miklos Jancso (1921-2014) was the first Hungarian director to garner universal fame without disbursing from his own country. From 1951 he was a documentarian and worked with news organizations. He would direct his first feature film in 1958, The Bells Have Gone To Rome needless to say that was much to Jansco's chagrin. The film that showed more gravitas was what he considered his first proper feature Oldas es kotes (Cantata,1952) which centered on an introspective surgeon seeking his soul.
Jancso's transition from the private to the panoramic from psychology to history can be traced in 1964's My Way Home, a story of a young Hungarian soldier taken prisoner by the Soviet army at the end of the second World War. Jancso's screenplays in the aftermath were written in collaboration with Gyula Hernadi in Hungary and Giovanna Gagliardo in Italy. With The Round-Up (Szegenylegenyek,1965) Jancso revealed the full originality of his talent. Still shot in black and white, with the sharpest possible contrasts of sunshine and shadow. The Round-Up introduced many of the stylistic features which are characteristic of Jancso including long takes and sweeping camera movements.
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| From the all you can eat buffet at Jancsos' four-star Diner - The Round Up (1965) |
A Jancso film could be deconstructed as an analysis of oppression, revolution, counter-revolution and even the contentious idea of permanent revolution. Oppression is often shown as the outcome of a counter-revolution. In The Round-Trip, the main mechanism of oppression is treachery. In Silence and Cry (1968) it is commingled with the complicity of a demoralized peasantry.
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| No you won't fool the children of the permanent revolution from Elektra My Love,1965 |
Jancso's idea of permanent revolution infuses Szerelmem Electra (Elektra My Love,1975), in which Orestes coaxes his sister Elektra into shooting him. But he springs up from his bier, resurrected m expounding that a Redeemer can never die. As Jancso's films became increasingly more stylized, moving from epic story-telling to choreographed ritual, his films became more poetic and decidedly more ambiguous.