Jancsó’s 1980s films drew accusations of “self-parody” from critics at the time of their release. Graham Petrie reassesses four features made in this period of “punctuated equilibrium.”

In his now half-century long career Miklós Jancsó’s films have evolved in what might seem at first to be unpredictable and even incompatible ways, yet with an underlying logic both in theme and style. Setting aside the “Stalinist” doumentaries of the 1950s and the “false starts” of his first two features, A harangok Rómában mentek (The Bells Have Gone to Rome, 1959) and Oldás és kötés (Cantata, 1963), his films from the partly autobiographical Igy jöttem (My Way Home, 1964) onwards have?despite apparently wildly diverging thematic material and visual styles?a continuity that derives from a willingness to constantly re-examine previous intellectual and political positions and ruthlessly discard those that no longer seem relevant or feasible.

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