This paper analyses the film entitled The Prize Trap (Jutalomutazás) directed by István Dárday, which counts as one of the most emblematic examples of the so-called docu-features in Hungary. The The Prize Trap represents an exciting and idiosyncratic symbiosis of documentary and feature cinema, and as such, it may offer useful insights into the nature of reality and fiction as … Read more
Film Criticism
About classical Hungarian documentaries
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
Portrait of András Jeles
The paper discusses the perpetuation of unconventional stylistic features of the modern fi lm, as well as its possibilities of introducing a new, existential meaning in the Hungarian fi lm production of the 1970s and 1980s. New-narrative fi lms experimenting with narrative forms display an ambition of the filmic medium to join other, extraneous formations (such as music, literature, theatre), ful lling thus the modernist ideal that the fi lm as … Read more
Portrait of Béla Tarr
Rather than in terms of fiction or reality, Béla Tarr’s cinema can be perceived as a creative exploration that is neither realistic nor non-realistic, but the sum-total of our dealings with the world around. The absence of a storyline, non professional actors, found locations and long shots uninterrupted by editing, carefully thought through and choreographed at the same time, are the effect of this exploration. The … Read more
Analysis of the films by Benedek Fliegauf
In this article the author analyses Benedek Fiegauf ‘s latest feature film, the Milky Way (Tejút, 2007) in view of Abbas Kiarostami’s Five (2003) and the works of the Canadian artist, Mark Lewis. Fliegauf’s aforementioned feature film is also a contemporary work of art, which was fi rst exhibited in Hungary, in the Ludwig Museum in Budapest. The work is thus on the more and more … Read more
Portrait of Gábor Bódy
The article deals with the question of indexicality and the nature of cinematic signi cation drawing upon the terms of Gábor Bódy’s film theory. The trace-like character of cinema is investigated through the medium-speci c possibilities of the moving image and the gap inscribed between human perception and the inhumanity of the medium. Both the photographic and the cinematic trace are subject to in nite interpretation due to the … Read more
Acta Universitatis Sapientiae
The International Scientific Journal of Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Cluj-M.Ciuc-Tg Mures (Romania), publishes original papers in English in several areas of sciences. The series can be choosen from the left side menu. The series are included in the open access Electronic Journals Library (Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek EZB ? Karlsruhe Institute of Technology). Film and Media Studies publishes papers in English in various fields of … Read more
Order and chaos in the art of Miklós Jancsó
From 1981 onwards, Jancsó’s films are characterised by a loss of structure. Gábor Gelencsér examines the order and chaos in Jancsó’s art and how it affects the meaning of these works. The present is neither a beginning nor a conclusion: if there is such a thing as catastrophe, this is it. Mihály Kornis: A krízis és a divatja (Crisis and … Read more
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
Realism and symbolism in the films of Miklós Jancsó
Despite being commonly read as allegorical works, Jancsó’s early films are noticeable for their extreme realism. Iván Forgács examines how these two sit side by side as the director uses physical space to define the spiritual. Miklós Jancsó’s first film The Bells Have Gone to Rome (A harangok Rómába mentek, 1958) has remained almost unnoticed as a fluid piece of … Read more
