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Orphic Lycidas wrote:The Jancso series is to consist of seven (7) films, although only "The Red and the White" and "Electra, My Love" seem to be officially confirmed for October. The November schedule isn't up yet.

The Round-Up and Winter Wind were announced in the latest issue of Film Comment. These should be on the November schedule when it's released.

Clavisfilms Commin Soon page says:

"Deuxième Coffret de Miklos Jancso", i don't know french but if im not wrong this means "Second Miklos Jancso boxset"?

anyone know anything about that?

Regarding Jancso at Walter Reade, they are showing seven films: Red Psalm, The Red and the White, Winter Wind, Electra, The Round-Up, God Walks Backwards and Lord's Lantern in Budapest. Winter Wind is the only one that is new to NYC.

Great. Many thanks. Hopefully the "Red Psalm" subtitles will be an improvement over what Clavis produced. "Winter Wind" seems like a must-see.

Barmy wrote:Regarding Jancso at Walter Reade, they are showing seven films: Red Psalm, The Red and the White, Winter Wind, Electra, The Round-Up, God Walks Backwards and Lord's Lantern in Budapest. Winter Wind is the only one that is new to NYC.

I wonder if those were the only ones they could round up in decent prints and with decent subs.

Red Psalm, R&W and The Round-Up are probably his most "popular" films, so they seem to be automatic choices for any Jancso sidebar. Winter Wind reportedly has 12 shots; I think Electra has 11.

When WR showed Red Psalm a few years ago it appeared to be a brand new print. Plenty of Jancso has shown in NYC over the years, usually subtitled but sometimes not. In particular, the work from, say, 1985-99 (some of which is quite good) should be available subtitled, although I'm not saying it is easy to find.

Just got some info: Richard Pena said that it was hell trying to find decent prints with subs and he had to beg the Hungarians for months to cough up a new print of The Round Up, which is apparently the only one that will look really good.

Maybe that's why the London screening of The Round-Up was so rubbish; bet the venue didn't even bother contacting Hungary.

Richard Pena is a tosser. As I said, the Red Psalm print from just a few years ago was new(ish). MoMA showed some recent Jancso in the 90's. They also show The Round Up periodically in a good print. Anthology did a retro of I would guess 15 films in the early 90s. And from time to time since then Anthology has shown more recent Jancso. These prints must exist somewhere, and since Jancso is screened so rarely I don't see how they could have degraded that much.

Happy to see Jancso in the news just a few hours ago on TV. Got his second Kossuth Prize (honorary award given to Hungarian overachievers in the Arts). Certainly not the maudlin hermit that I expected--he was positively beaming. Most Hungarians who get one Kossuth don't live long enough to snag a second.

I did a Google News search for Jancso, and turned up this opinionated, contrarian, rambling piece on Hungarian film.

The author clearly doesn't care for Hungarian film from the communist era (I guess he'd like to put that behind him), and goes on to say that Jancso was a collaborator with the regime, Szabo an informer to the secret police, and Tarr just made boring films (I guess he couldn't find anything to tar him with).

There is some interesting info, including his assertion that the two most popular Hungarian films of that era are:

1) The Witness, a satire on the Stalinist era made in 1969 by Peter Bacso

and

2) Szindbad (as in the Sailor), made in 1971 by Zoltan Huszarik.

I can't say I know too much of that era, and am only very familiar with Szabo, and have seen some Tarr and Jancso, and a little Karoly Maak. Straying off-topic -- and wondering if there is a Hungarian cinema thread somewhere -- I love Szabo's Mephisto, which has an amazing performance by Brandauer, and one of the best ending scenes in any film.

Lemmy Caution wrote:I did a Google News search for Jancso, and turned up this opinionated, contrarian, rambling piece on Hungarian film.

That's the same article I referred to above, printed in last weekend's Guardian Review. Tibor Fischer's attitude is typical of European emigrants to Britain; the son of Hungarian parents, he occupies a safe position in the bourgeois liberal literary establishment, whence he can wag the finger at the 'horrors of communism' (and the culture associated with it) in spectacularly smug language. No-one with any radical ideas ever heads for Britain, with the major exception of Karl Marx, and those that do are destined to be ignored (see Perry Anderson's brilliant 1968 essay, 'Components of the National Culture').

Barmy wrote:Richard Pena is a tosser. As I said, the Red Psalm print from just a few years ago was new(ish). MoMA showed some recent Jancso in the 90's. They also show The Round Up periodically in a good print. Anthology did a retro of I would guess 15 films in the early 90s. And from time to time since then Anthology has shown more recent Jancso. These prints must exist somewhere, and since Jancso is screened so rarely I don't see how they could have degraded that much.

I guess we'll see....

Cantata appears to be the next Clavis Jancso.

The prints at the Walter Reade series have been acceptable. Winter Wind's print was stunning. The Round Up looked great in a fresh print--one of the best USES of black and white cinematography ever.

Cantata appears to be the next Clavis Jancso.

sounds nice, do you got any more info about that?

No. This is what appears on their website. Hopefully it will also be available separately.

Prochainement
Deuxième Coffret de Miklos Jancso

Cantate
Les sans-espoir
Rouges et blancs

Also recently in Hungary, Silence And Cry, The Round Up, Cantata and The Confrontation have been released on DVD. I'd like to get The Confrontation but have not been able to navigate through any Hungarian DVD retailer's website. DreamQuest is claiming that The Confrontation is on their slate, but that's been the case for years.

Barmy wrote:DreamQuest is claiming that The Confrontation is on their slate, but that's been the case for years.

I don't think DreamQuest has released any DVD in close to two years -- possibly longer. To be honest, if they've gone belly-up, I don't think it's a major loss. I still find their release of Silence and Cry OK for the price, despite the criticisms Ugetsu leveled at it, but it's certainly nothing to write home about. But their release of A Witness was downright awful.

Based on everything I've heard, the Clavis releases have been the best, so maybe they'll get around to The Confrontation sooner or later.

Any Hungarian web retailers you can point to? I'm usually ok at navigating these things.

Barmy wrote:Also recently in Hungary, Silence And Cry, The Round Up, Cantata and The Confrontation have been released on DVD. I'd like to get The Confrontation but have not been able to navigate through any Hungarian DVD retailer's website. DreamQuest is claiming that The Confrontation is on their slate, but that's been the case for years.

Yup, discs came out here...without English subs. Good news is that Szindbad as well as The Corporal and the Others have been released with English subs. They're finally getting around to the good stuff.

skuhn8 wrote:Good news is that Szindbad as well as The Corporal and the Others have been released with English subs. They're finally getting around to the good stuff.

This is fantastic news! I've been dying to see Szindbad. How is the transfer? Any advice on where this is available?

fred wrote:

skuhn8 wrote:Good news is that Szindbad as well as The Corporal and the Others have been released with English subs. They're finally getting around to the good stuff.

This is fantastic news! I've been dying to see Szindbad. How is the transfer? Any advice on where this is available?

Haven't picked one up yet but trust that it's good as it's Mokep, the largest production house here. I can pick you up a copy and trade you if you're interested. You can find me on the DVD Trades page

Nothing: I tried port.hu, netpiac.hu and filmzona.hu.

Skuhn8: are there any English-friendly Hungarian retailers that you could recommend where I might buy "The Confrontation"? Many thanks!

Regarding DreamQuest, I go there every few months and it does look like they update the "coming soon" (lol) message periodically. I certainly am not holding my breath.

Dreamquest is releasing post 1990 films (mostly documentaries) until the rights issues clear up. Now they say early 2007 but they've been saying that kind of shit for the past three years. I used to contact them once a month to see how Corporal and the Others is progressing but now that's available here. For those seriously interested in Hungarian cinema Fabri Zoltan is a name to keep in mind. His films are fabulous, the Jean Renoir of Hungarian cinema.
I buy my dvds at the store here. Have never ordered online within Hungary so can't help there. Trade?

Thanks skuhn8.

I managed to find a Hungarian retailer with English ordering instructions. However, the site looked a bit dodgy. I ordered "The Confrontation" using a credit card that I maintain precisely for this kind of situation. I will report back as to the results. I may end up finding out that a gazillion forints have been charged to my card.

eDIT: I received "The Confrontation" DVD. The transfer is vibrant--excellent in every respect. Looking at it you would never guess the film is almost 40 years old.

I ordered it from www.folio.hu. It is the only Hungarian etailer I could find with an English-friendly checkout system. However, their website is extremely clunky and their prices seemed much higher than other Hungarian shops. Also, they did not have "The Confrontation" in stock and had to special order it. However, they did send personalized and friendly emails confirming my order and the shipping date, written in passable English.

fred wrote:

skuhn8 wrote:Good news is that Szindbad as well as The Corporal and the Others have been released with English subs. They're finally getting around to the good stuff.

This is fantastic news! I've been dying to see Szindbad. How is the transfer? Any advice on where this is available?

I ordered the Szindbad DVD from VE-JO. I emailed several online Hungarian retailers and VE-JO were the only ones who would ship outside of Hungary. Came to €21 in total (including shipping).

I received the DVD this week, haven't watched it yet but had a brief preview and it looks great. It also has Huszarik's short film Elégia among the extras. I'll post some screen-grabs when I get round to it.