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Person wrote:I can't wait to see this film. It sounds fucking awesome.

Black and White,'Scope,Deep Focus.... Right up your strasse Gordon !
Get yoursel' doon to Embra man.

foggy eyes wrote:For those who can't make it, I'll post some notes on the Lord's Lantern in Budapest Q&A after the event too.

Thanks... looking forward to it!

My copy should arrive here in Australia next week. This is the first time I've seen this film in over 15 years. I first saw it on SBS-TV in 1985 [pan-&-scan] and it started me on the road to being a fanatic follower of 1960s Easern European Cinema. (CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS came next and I was hooked.)

I have vague recollections of this film but the thing that impressed me and still sticks in my mind is the way Jancso focusses (with great subtlety)upon the cold, hard world of power and politics. He keeps the film firmly placed within the lives of the characters who are as strange to us as they would be if we were in that particular situation. Even those with the power over others are to be pitied. It will be interesting to finally see this in wide screen.

SILENCE AND CRY is currently my favorite Hungarian film but the 4:3 (2.35:1) transfer from Canada leaves much to be desired. I wonder if SR intend to release this as well. I seem to recall that they announced the release of all of the master's 'sixties work.

I was another lucky enough to enjoy Friday’s Round-Up event at Curzon Mayfair (and unlucky enough to have family commitments keeping me away from the rest of the weekend!) and agree with all said above (although I had put down minor problems with focus to not yet being used to my multifocals).

I’d seen The Round-Up in the 70s and then again about five years ago during the Jancso season at The Riverside Studios, if I remember right, in a triple bill with My Way Home and The Red and the White. How nice it was to see again the good old fashioned X certificate followed by the rotating circles of the Contemporary Films logo, and then to see the film again on what seemed such a huge screen.

But the real treat was to see and hear Jancso himself. It was a pity that the Q&A couldn’t have been longer since Jancso clearly has his ideas well sorted out and puts them over very effectively. It seemed to me that he could easily have launched into an ex tempore lecture, given the brief but thought-provoking remarks he was able to make about point of view, styles of acting, limits on complexity, the importance of cinema that “puts the viewer to sleep in the first 10 minutes”, never mind on censorship and the making of films under an oppressive regime. I especially liked his report of the savvy reply he, as someone who claims rarely to watch his own films (having last seen The Round-Up in 1981 and then only because some of his children insisted), made when asked by “the authorities” why so many of his films end unhappily: “I don’t know, but if, like me, you don’t like unhappy endings, don’t watch my films.”

Just as an aside, to give a bit more of a flavour of the event, I heard the following exchange in the aisle as I left the cinema:
Tony Rayns: “Hello, I’ve just bought a ticket for your Pere Ubu thing next month. Is it going to be any good?”
Timothy Quay: “I don’t know!”

I sat down in the cinema too early, and then realised to my regret that I may have missed a chance to meet Michael and Nick and other participants in this forum. Anyway, many thanks to Second Run and Curzon Cinemas.

brunosh wrote:I sat down in the cinema too early, and then realised to my regret that I may have missed a chance to meet Michael and Nick and other participants in this forum.

Well, I've already booked tickets for the Katyn premiere and Andrzej Wajda Q&A (BFI Southbank, April 22), the panel discussion on Censorship as a Creative Force with Wajda, István Szabó and Jiří Menzel (Barbican, April 25), plus Menzel introducing I Served the King of England (ditto, April 27) - anyone else going?

I've got tickets for the two Barbican events, and will try to think of a non-embarrassing way of identifying myself to you!

As promised, here is a belated round-up of the weekend's other two Jancsó events.

Firstly, the John Cunningham talk on Saturday turned out to be little more than a condensed tour of Jancsó's work, offering little new for anyone who is familiar with the films or read a bit of relevant literature. Although I would have appreciated a more rigorous analysis, it was still an entertaining hour. John began by placing Jancsó in the context of a post-war European cinema that fused modernist experimentation (specifically the notion of "de-dramatisation") with radical political agenda, then whirled through a series of clips from My Way Home, The Round-Up, the Hungarian DVDs of Silence and Cry and The Confrontation (the former looked a bit soft and washed out, but the transfer on the second was great - and as noted in the other Jancsó on DVD thread, neither had subs nor appeared to be anamorphic), a horrendous ratty VHS of Red Psalm (I forgot to tell John afterwards that he really should pick up the Clavis release), two from the Kapa and Pepe comedies, and finally three loosely related snippets from Black God, White Devil, The Weeping Meadow & Werckmeister Harmonies.

I must say that absolutely none of this prepared me for Lord's Lantern in Budapest, which is utterly bonkers and nothing short of a world away from The Round-Up (for the sake of a Second Run-themed comparison, it's like following up Apichatpong's Blissfully Yours with The Adventure of Iron Pussy). Although the film is breathlessly energetic and occasionally very funny, I must admit that its manic and abrasive zaniness really began to test my patience at times. Nevertheless, it's remarkable that Jancsó possesses the vivacity at his age for even one film like this, let alone six!

The Q&A began with a similar anecdote to the one Jancsó recounted before The Round-Up (this time about a standing ovation he received in Montreal for endorsing French as his lingua franca rather than English), then progressed to a question about the severe contrast between the fragmented style of Lord's Lantern and that of his previous work. Unexpectedly, Jancsó responded by railing against consumerism, expressing his regret that contemporary media prevents people from thinking by not allowing the space for individual or ambiguous conclusions - essentially the antithesis of his earlier long take style. A little later, he offered boredom as a reason for the shift in technique, first worrying that long takes could become tedious or soporific then revealing that he merely wanted to try something new. Jancsó also suggested that he felt the vital historical narratives of The Round-Up and The Red and the White could only have been presented in such a unique manner, whereas the absurdist comedies have been concerned far less with narrativity as a result of his desire to transform experience into humour - as an old man, what is left to do but laugh?

When asked about major influences on his style, Jancsó answered that one is not only a disciple but a thief, and again cited Hitchcock and Antonioni as his "masters". This led to the fascinating revelation that Jóska and Kolya's brush with the low-flying aeroplane in My Way Home was directly inspired by the crop duster scene in North by Northwest - even though he had only seen stills of Hitchcock's film at the time! He also confirmed that he had not seen Rope or Under Capricorn when developing his own long take style during the 1960s, and furthermore suggested that even though he had read about Hitchcock's work at the time it is always possible for filmmakers to invent such similar techniques and devices independently.

Other choice moments included his endorsement of No Country for Old Men (which "would never have won the Oscar if it was Hungarian"), a comparison between the experience of revisiting The Round-Up and a jar of preserve ("a film remains as it is until it goes mouldy"), and finally a bizarre anecdote about unwittingly fooling a female student into learning Chinese when teaching at Harvard. As with Friday's post-screening Q&A, I was left with the feeling that the event was wrapped up just as soon as Jancsó was getting into his stride (I'm quite sure he could have continued for hours).

MichaelB wrote:I've already booked tickets for the Katyn premiere and Andrzej Wajda Q&A (BFI Southbank, April 22), the panel discussion on Censorship as a Creative Force with Wajda, István Szabó and Jiří Menzel (Barbican, April 25), plus Menzel introducing I Served the King of England (ditto, April 27) - anyone else going?

Definitely planning to attend the first two.

brunosh wrote:I've got tickets for the two Barbican events, and will try to think of a non-embarrassing way of identifying myself to you!

Ditto. It was great to put some faces to names this weekend, and hats off to Second Run and everybody who organised the event.

Just a short note on last night's (Wednesday) showing in Edinburgh. In what has become the norm for these events, Jancso was on fine form, and could no doubt have spoken for hours, if given the opportunity. He covered a wide array of subjects, lambasting MTV-style cutting and the advertising industry in equal measure, while dismissing the Nazis as "dumb" and stating outright that 'The Round-up' is literally a comment on the '56 uprising disguised as a re-telling of the events of 1848.

Unfortunately, the film aside (justifiably impressive, even given the occasional glitches in the decades-old print), the night was brought down a little for me by Jancso's son, there in the role of translator. I know no Hungarian, but I'm convinced he either wrongly translated the questions from the audience or wrongly translated his father's replies, as the majority of the answers bore no relation to what had been asked! Added to this was the son's apparent lifelessness - the lowered head, the mumbling, the scratching of the scalp, the looks askance while answering. It was in marked contrast to his father - a real live-wire if ever there was one.

Highlight of the night (as perverse as it may seem): the 21 year-old Edinburgh film student who told Jansco he didn't like the film because it made him think, although he did like the shape of the prisoners' hoods! A trenchant, penetrating critique of the film, perhaps? Or a damning indictment of modern film students? You decide ...

Overall, Jancso once again stole the show. You almost feel like learning Hungarian just to be able to listen to what must be an over-abundance of stories, personal recollections, and opinions held in that brain of his. But what came over the most was his genuineness, and his niceness. And the fact that he's still working at the grand ol' age of 86 is frankly astonishing, and not a little daunting for the younger filmmaker.

Sorry I haven't mentioned much about the film itself, but I figured it's been covered enough here. And it's only my 2nd Jancso, so I'm still processing its content, although I was fascinated by some of the parallels with today's culture - the hooded, Guantanamo-esque prisoners, and the tower jumpers with their eachoes of 9/11, in particular. And of course, the sequence shots are beautifully conceived and choreographed, and more than lived up to my expectations.

Lastly (I said this was going to be short - I lied), thanks and congratulations to Second Run for a well-organised event. I think the seat to the left of me was the only empty seat in the house, although I think that may have had more to do with my cold than any dissing of Jancso!

All in all, a memorable night.

Thanks for those - and I'm sorry to hear about the Edinburgh translation: it just goes to show how important these things can be.

I'm half-dreading the 'Censorship as a Creative Force' debate at the Barbican, as I know for a fact (having interviewed him) that Wajda doesn't speak English and I don't know about Menzel or Szabo - so they could conceivably need a quadrilingual interpreter who can handle Polish, Czech, Hungarian and English!

One of these days I'll watch the rest of Lord's Lantern - I attempted a late night viewing a few weeks ago before deciding that my brain just wasn't up to processing it in a state of total exhaustion. That was my DVD you were watching at the Curzon, by the way - I'll probably review it properly when I get it back.

Having been sadly unable to attend any of the Jancso events over the last week (a drawback of being thousands of miles away), I was so excited at yesterday's arrival of my ROUND UP DVD that I immediately watched it.

Kudos to SR for putting out this fantastic, albeit sometimes difficult, film in such a good transfer. The image quality is pretty good - the occasional scratch and bit of dirt, but for the most part the stunning black-and-white cinematography comes across beautifully. Even more impressive is the audio track. The complex and subtle sound design is crystal clear.

Best of all is the interview with Jancso himself. I can only add to the general amazement reflected by those who saw him speak in person last week. The guy has the personality and energy of a man half his age. Just wonderful.

I would have loved to have seen this movie on the big screen. Any chance of a Jancso/SR US tour, Bikey?

My copy arrived yesterday, and I watched it immediately.

As far as the technical stuff goes, I'm less discerning than many posters on this board, but I had no problems with the image. It helps that almost all of the shots are outdoors on a sun-blasted plain, but detail was good and certainly does justice to Jansco's wide panoramic shots.

The film itself is terrific! I love Jansco's use of space, including the area outside the already-wide frame of his shots, to create a claustrophobic atmosphere in the unlikeliest space imaginable, especially when we recall that the Hungarian rebels fled into the countryside precisely in order to live to fight another day. Power, it seems, is able to change our relationship to space, and that's truly frightening.

Kudos to SR for putting this out; it definitely ranks up there with their best releases.

Has anyone else noticed the persistant hum on the audio track throughout the film? The same thing occurs on the MY WAY HOME DVD but much at a much lower volume. Is this inherent in the source audio or is it a mastering fault? Apart from this problem the audio is clearer than on THE RED AND THE WHITE.

I just turned it up loud to check, and there's no hum on my copy. Strange.

rs98762001 wrote:I just turned it up loud to check, and there's no hum on my copy. Strange.

Or on mine - it's one of the best Jancsó DVD soundtracks I've come across.

It is possible that it's making your dvd player hum, as some experienced with the My Way Home dvd? (See that thread for more details.)

Miklós Jancsó interviewed on Radio 4

The interview with Miklós Jancsó, conducted by Radio 4's Film Show, was aired on Friday. You can access it at the below address.

The latest Moviemail podcast by Graeme Hobbs is on My Way Home, The Round Up and The Red and The White.

Always worth listening to.

MichaelB wrote:Well, I've already booked tickets for the Katyn premiere and Andrzej Wajda Q&A (BFI Southbank, April 22), the panel discussion on Censorship as a Creative Force with Wajda, István Szabó and Jiří Menzel (Barbican, April 25), plus Menzel introducing I Served the King of England (ditto, April 27) - anyone else going?

Briefly off-topic, but I'm so jealous. I haven't heard anything about Katyn premiering stateside, and although SonyClassics has picked up I Served the King of England, the American theatrical release is scheduled for August 22.

Back on-topic: watched Round-Up a second time, and I think it rewards multiple viewings. At the very least, it's easier to follow. Still not sure what to make of those images at the very beginning... anybody care to comment?

jbeall wrote:Briefly off-topic, but I'm so jealous. I haven't heard anything about Katyn premiering stateside...

It's playing at the upcoming Polish Film Festival in LA.

The Round-Up at the Barbican - Monday 28th April

We are happy to announce that the Barbican will be screening The Round-Up as part of their Censorship as a Creative Force season. It will be the cinemascope 35mm print that was used at our recent UK screenings.

Barbican (Cinema 3), London - Monday 28th April at 9pm (21.00)
For details of the whole season and to book tickets, please go to barbican.org.uk.

a.khan wrote:

jbeall wrote:Briefly off-topic, but I'm so jealous. I haven't heard anything about Katyn premiering stateside...

It's playing at the upcoming Polish Film Festival in LA.

Also at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Film Festival in April, info here.

M wrote:

a.khan wrote:

jbeall wrote:Briefly off-topic, but I'm so jealous. I haven't heard anything about Katyn premiering stateside...

It's playing at the upcoming Polish Film Festival in LA.

Also at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Film Festival in April, info here.

Well, nothing doing here in central Jersey (although it'll probably play in NYC sooner or later, but it's a little expensive to go to NYC just to see a movie). Amusingly enough, I have a layover in Minneapolis on my way to LA next week, but it's not long enough for me to leave the airport, catch the film, and get back in time for my flight. Damn!

To stray further off-topic, see it at the Tribeca Fest.

Glenn Kenny on the film.

Bright Lights article