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Hungary for more
Shane Danielson, the artistic director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival listens to
the wise words of MIKLOS JANSCO.
had heard from a mutual friend
that the great Hungarian filmmaker
Miklos Jancso had been ill — yet meeting him in Budapest. he seemed more robust. more passionate and engaged than I had seen him in years. At 83. Jancso is very rnrrch the grand old man ol‘ his nation‘s film industry - a beloved figure who. unlike his contemporaries (notably. lstvan S/abol. never abandoned his
homeland for the lure ol’ the west. He greets a steady stream of
well-wishers with a gracious. slightly regal. air. at once friendly and dignified. To younger filmmakers he is both a mentor and an idol.
At one point. near the end of our discussion. he fixes me with a hard. glittering eye. ‘You're a dangerous man.‘ he says. What does he mean‘.’ “You're an aesthete. They're always dangerous.‘
But how can one not speak of his work without evoking aesthetics? For those who have never seen a Miklos Jancso film — and that is. by some margin. the vast majority or the population — their impact is hard to describe. L'sually set outdoors. on the vast perspectives of the Hungarian plains. they are characterised by long. incredibly choreographed single
40 THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE ‘4—2‘ Aug. .2355
shots. ol'ten involving vast armies ol‘ people. moving like figures in a dance: l’ew filmmakers have used the long take to such breathtaking effect. He has certain visual motil's which l‘eatrrrc prominently throughout his work: horses. candles. l‘emale nudity lsy'mbolising not eroticism. btrt powerlessness and humiliationl. The resulting films are beautil'rrl. mysterious and. at their best. spectacular almost beyond the power ol' langtrage to describe.
Jansco hit his stride with My Hirv Home in NOS. A string ol‘ international hits l'ollowed: 7711’ Round-l 'p l mom. The Ru! and [lit' \Wlilt' (l‘)(17l. Tllt’ (‘rili/i'rwluliml and .S‘I'I'rrt'r‘u lbnlh Wbb’l. For a time. in the mid-1960s and 1970s. he was regarded as one ol‘ the leading arthouse filmmakers in the world. ‘At the time. there was a son ol‘ intellectual rigorrr to film cultrrre which has largely gone now.‘ he says. without a trace ol‘ bitterness. ‘There was a kind of New Wave for us in Europe - not just in France. but in my country. in Poland. in Yugoslavia. But the world changed. It‘s interesting. I think. that this energy has shil’ted. now. to countries like Iran. Turkey. Brazil: countries which still have to struggle. Without that struggle. truly great work is not born.‘
It‘s a very Marxist belief. this one: a dialectic of historical l'orces. Jancso was. for many years. a loyal communist: a young member ol‘ the Party. who believed wholeheartedly in the achievements of Stalinism. But he gradually became