Closer scrutiny of international classical documentaries (Nanook, Land without Bread, Spanish Earth, etc.) has put big question marks behind the traditional (or na?ve?) concepts of documentation and reality, as if any theorist looking for documentary could only find fi ction. On the other hand, the `non-existing’ documentary is ourishing, both in the commercial media and the art houses. Cinema-goers or TV-viewers (though not all of them) … Read more
Film history
Miklós Jancsó’s films from 1981 to 1991
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 … Read more
Stalinism in Hungarian cinema
The cinema of Hungary, like other Central European states, is recognised as carrying a strong tradition of both realism and social commentary. This has been shaped by the political events which swept the country after the Second World War: the authoritarian state led by Mátyás Rákosi and the Hungarian Communist Party and the struggle for liberation in 1956, which still … Read more
About Hungarian New Wave
Hungarian cinema rose to prominence in Western eyes on the back of the 1960s New Wave. Now, thirty years later, the term New Wave is being resuscitated to describe the Hungarian cinema of the 1990s. The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, in honour of some of this decade’s most recent films, organised a mini-retrospective of Hungarian New Waves … Read more
Studies in Eastern European Cinema
In the years since the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the political changes of 1989/90, there has been a growing interest in the cinemas of the former countries of the Eastern Bloc. There is a growing community of scholars, including a number of students working for post-graduate qualifications, who are engaged with film but also media, culture, and art … Read more
The History of Film in Hungary
Hungary has always loved film. Their history is long and varied. Film in Hungary started but a few short years after it did in the US. June 13, 1896 marked the first showing of a film in a converted hat-shop. One Arnold Sziklai hired a mechanic named Mamoussen to run the projector. So started film in Hungary. Sziklai and Mamoussen … Read more
