SCFZ poll: Miklos Jancso

[flip]

Polling the films of director Miklos Jancso.

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Jancso films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Friday, in seven days, whatever day that is

- if anyone is watching films for these polls, then i'll extend the deadline up to three days, if someone requests an extension

- next poll: whoever posts the first ballot in this thread is free to nominate the director we poll next, unless you've nominated in this round already (everyone should get a chance). Already nominated this round: greg x, umbugbene, roscoe, bure, greennui, wba, brian d, mesnalty, ofrene, st gloede, john ryan, holymanm, oscarwerner, liquidnature

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

one rule for nominees: at least 3 scfzers need to have seen 10+ of a nominee's films, or at least 4 scfzers need to have seen at least 8 of the nom's films, so if it isn't clear if that will be the case, we'll confirm that's true before moving forward

if 24 hours pass after a poll opens, and no one eligible to nominate has posted a ballot, then i'll nominate someone, and then we'll start over, and everyone will be able to nominate again

[flip]

not sure we need to, but i think we might use the 'new rules' for the jancso poll too:

New Rules

Because Jancso has fewer views than most directors we've polled, I'm changing some of the rules for this poll:

- if you have seen an odd number of his films, you can round up, when dividing by two, instead of down, to determine the length of your ballot. So if you have seen 7 his films, you can vote for 4 films (instead of 3). But please only vote for the additional film if you think it's deserving of a vote.

- if you have seen 11 or more of his films, your ballot can extend beyond 5 films -- if you have seen 13, say, you can vote for up to 7 films. I'll award 0.5, 0.3 and 0.1 points to 6th, 7th and 8th ranked films (and nothing to 9th or later ranked films). Those additional votes will help to get a complete top ten.

[flip]

Electra, My Love
The Red and the White

seen two, really should see several more though because electra is amazing - edit, seen three, watched the pacifist, didn't care for it

[St. Gloede]

Seen 8:

The Red and the White
My Way Home
Hungarian Rhapsody
Electra, My Love

[MrCarmady]

Seen 4, the top one is really great and will win deservedly.

The Red and the White
The Pacifist

[rischka]

well i have 5 so i'll list two

the red and the white
my way home

the round-up would be third if i could list 3

[Holymanm]

The Red and the White

Seen 2 (hated Red Psalm)

May or may not watch more; not much attention span these days for slow-moving black-and-white communist political allegories...

[mesnalty]

Seen 5:

1. Electra, My Love
2. The Red and the White
3. The Round-Up

[liquidnature]

Seen 4 (all were great)

1. The Red and the White
2. My Way Home

[brian d]

seen 27

red psalm
electra, my love
the lord's lantern in budapest
the battle of mohács
my way home
cantata
last supper at the arabian gray horse
the round-up

i wish sally would stop by to vote for all of the kapa and pepe films.

[rischka]

i tried to remind her to vote for DtC too. don't know if she will :\

[wba]

I love Jancso, such a fantastic filmmaker!

The first 2 are personal Top 100 material:

01. The Pacifist (1970)
02. Private Vices, Public Virtues (1976)
03. Cantata (1963)
04. The Red and the White (1967)
05. My Way Home (1965)
06. Winter Wind (1969)


Jancso seen: 11

[oscarwerner]

One of the most solid directors of a socialist Europe. This a reason i know him well and have seen most of his movies.
1.The Red and the White (1967)
2.My Way Home (1965)
3.Electra, My Love (1974)
4.Hungarian Rhapsody (1979)
5.Private Vices, Public Pleasures (1976)-sooo erotic:)

[St. Gloede]

Did you grow up in the east, Oscar?

[oscarwerner]

Yes. In Lithuania. In a former USSR. Under iron curtain it had it`s own very big cinema industry. Cinema studios-cinema theatres. It`s cinema production in each Soviet republic. And it`s own cinema distribution system. Interesting, that most films were financially viable:)

[Holymanm]

I've long wanted to visit Lithuania... better watch some of the classics from there beforehand, so they don't hate me. (I'm sure Karl's already seen every movie ever made there?)

[St. Gloede]

Yes. In Lithuania. In a former USSR. Under iron curtain it had it`s own very big cinema industry. Cinema studios-cinema theatres. It`s cinema production in each Soviet republic. And it`s own cinema distribution system. Interesting, that most films were financially viable:)

The Eastern Block cinema is without a doubt incredible, I'd say Czechoslovakia, in particular, does not get the credit it deserves/deserved and belongs with the greatest cinema countries as far as I'm concerned, and the USSR was obviously a juggernaut as well (though IMO elevated by Eisenstein and Tarkovsky), with Jansco's country Hungary also having quite the strong line up from the late 50s to the 80s.

I have to admit though, I have seen extremely few films from Lithuania, what would you recommend?

[Joks Trois]

Yes!

Seen 20.

1.The Red and The White
2.Red Psalm (which grew on me)
3.Electra My Love
4.The Confrontation
5.Silence and Cry
6.Private Vices and Public Virtues
7.The Round Up

Can anyone help me access the following Jansco films: Agnus dei, Allegro Barbaro, Jesus Christ's Horoscope and The Lord's Lantern in Budapest? I'd be really grateful just to see one of them.

[oscarwerner]

Yes. In Lithuania. In a former USSR. Under iron curtain it had it`s own very big cinema industry. Cinema studios-cinema theatres. It`s cinema production in each Soviet republic. And it`s own cinema distribution system. Interesting, that most films were financially viable:)

The Eastern Block cinema is without a doubt incredible, I'd say Czechoslovakia, in particular, does not get the credit it deserves/deserved and belongs with the greatest cinema countries as far as I'm concerned, and the USSR was obviously a juggernaut as well (though IMO elevated by Eisenstein and Tarkovsky), with Jansco's country Hungary also having quite the strong line up from the late 50s to the 80s.

I have to admit though, I have seen extremely few films from Lithuania, what would you recommend?

I will take some time to prepare a detailed list. Second stage will be much more difficult-to find out, what films and where are available to see:)

[ralch]

Seen 4:

1. The Red and the White
2. My Way Home

[oscarwerner]

I have created a separate post about Lithuanian cinema,
so we can discuss it here.
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=504
----------------------------------
St. Gloede,
Dear colleagues,
I will leave Šarūnas Bartas and Jonas Mekas aside. They worked not only in Lithuania, but in other countries. Their works are well known , available in various cinemateques.
I picked a list of various more local Lithuanian movies, which reflect the history of lithuanian cinema and routes of a modern lithuanian cinema. I present only films of a higher quality from 1960-ies. Earlier lithuanian films due to unstabile political situations lacked that simple quality and practically lithuanian cinema was born in 1960-ies.
I picked various genres. I believe if one will see all my list, he/she will have good knowledge of a lithuanian cinema:)
Lietuvos Vaidybiniai filmai
Lithuanian Feature Films

1. Paskutinė atostogų diena/
The Girl and the Echo
1964, Rež. Arūnas Žebriūnas

2. Niekas nenorėjo mirti/
Nobody wanted to die
1965, Rež. Vytautas Žalakevičius

3. Jausmai/
Feelings
1968, Rež. Algirdas Dausa, Almantas Grikevičius

4. Gražuolė/
The Beauty
1969, Rež. Arūnas Žebriūnas

5. Birželis, vasaros pradžia/
June, Beginning of summer
1969, rež. Raimondas Vabalas

6. Maža išpažintis/
A Little Confession
1971, rež. Algirdas Araminas

7. Velnio nuotaka/
The Devil`s Bride
1974, rež. Arūnas Žebriūnas

8. Mano vaikystės ruduo/
The autumn of my childhood
1977, rež.Gytis Lukšas

9. Riešutų duona/
Bread of Hazelnuts
1977, rež.Arūnas Žebriūnas

--------
10. Faktas/
Fact
1980, rež. Almantas Grikevičius

11. Moteris ir keturi jos vyrai/
A Woman and her four men
1983, rež. Algimantas Puipa

12. Mano mažytė žmona/
My little wife
1984, rež. Raimundas Banionis

13. Amžinoji šviesa/
An eternal light
1987, rež. Algimantas Puipa

14. Savaitgalis pragare/
The Weekend in hell
1987, rež. Vytautas Žalakevičius

15. Žuvies diena/
The fish day
1989, rež. Algimantas Puipa

16. Vilko dantų karoliai/
The Necklace of wolf`s teeth
1997, rež. Algimantas Puipa

17. Elzė iš Gildijos/
Elsie`s Life
1999, rež. Algimantas Puipa

18. Lengvai ir Saldžiai/
Easily and Sweetly
2004, Rež. Ignas Miškinis

19. Kolekcionierė /
The Collectress
2008, Rež. Kristina Buožytė
20. Duburys/
Vortex
2009, Rež. Gytis Lukšas

21. Balkonas/
Balcony
2008, Rež. Giedrė Beinoriūtė

22. Ekskursantė/
The Excursionist
2013, rež. Audrius Juzėnas

23. Šventasis/
The Saint
2016, rež.Andrius Blaževičius

24. Gimtinė/
Motherland
2019, rež. Tomas Vengris

25. Purpurinis rūkas/
The Purple mist
2019, rež. Raimundas Banionis

[St. Gloede]

Thank you Oscar, and what a coincidence, I actually have the first 3 Arūnas Žebriūnas films listed, I just haven't seen them yet. I did see his much less regarded The Little Prince somehow, which I didn't care for too much, but if I recall correctly it had a lot of promise.

Only seen Nobody wanted to die from that list (I think), and it was great. Will try the 3 Žebriūnas films first and then come back to the list.

[Umbugbene]

Seen 3 and liked them all about equally. It probably doesn't make sense to vote; I'll leave it to the experts. Hope to get a chance to see more though.

A reminder while we're on the subject: The Hungarian National Film Institute has put a bunch of restored Hungarian classics, including Jancsó's The Round-Up, online for free viewing during the covid pandemic. They're playing on Vimeo, but links are here: https://filmarchiv.hu/en/news/hungarian ... e-to-watch

I've already watched ten in the past week.

[MrCarmady]

Just watched The Pacifist and added it to my list. Silly, flimsy, and badly dubbed, but beautifully shot, with a good runtime, and my first encounter with Vitti outside of Antonioni proving that she has enough charm to power through pretty much anything. Will try to watch Private Vices, Public Virtues before the deadline as well.

[oscarwerner]

Thank you Oscar, and what a coincidence, I actually have the first 3 Arūnas Žebriūnas films listed, I just haven't seen them yet. I did see his much less regarded The Little Prince somehow, which I didn't care for too much, but if I recall correctly it had a lot of promise.

Only seen Nobody wanted to die from that list (I think), and it was great. Will try the 3 Žebriūnas films first and then come back to the list.

I invite everybody to a separate forum about Lithuanian cinema. Don`t want to disturb directors voting:)
I`m very glad if you see "Nobody wanted to die" and main Arūnas Žebriūnas films.
To say it in a very short way-Lithuania has always had strong visual photographers and cameramen. Arūnas Žebriūnas used that school creating cinema poetry. He also used children very often in his movies. As a result we got some unique style -something between Albert Lamorisse and Aleksandr Petrovič Dovženko. The Beauty (Arunas Zebriunas, 1969) is named among the best lithuanian films ever. Walnut Bread (Arunas Zebriunas, 1977) is more modern with comedy mix. Devil's Bride (Arunas Zebriunas, 1974) is an experiment to create pure lithunian musicle. Based on our older traditions. Vytautas Žalakevičius was a different type. First he was the strongest script writer ever and perhaps during all the history of lithuanian cinema. He wrote many scripts for himself and also for other lithuanian film directors. Almantas Grikevičius and Algimantas Puipa directed their best movies based on Vytautas Žalakevičius scripts. Vytautas Žalakevičius liked strong characters, strong emotions, like in his main picture "Nobody wanted to die", directed by himself. He also liked politics, war dramas, because of that his own directed films were often stoped , forbidden or damaged by soviet censorship. A.Žebriūnas survived as many other, because his films about children were supposed to be not dangerous for politicians:):)

[MrCarmady]

Watched Private Vices, Public Virtues, which I probably wouldn't have done were it not for this poll, so I'm glad, but it's really repetitive and has no narrative, emotional, or symbolic heft, so while it's sexy, pretty, and occasionally quite funny, I think I'm keeping my top 2 as is.

[john ryan]

Seen 9

1. The Red and the White
2. My Way Home
3. The Round-Up
4. Red Psalm
5. Electra, My Love

[flip]

Seen 4

mrcarmady, you can pick the director we poll next if you like!

i'll leave the jancso poll open one more day, because i started it late

[MrCarmady]

Seen 4

mrcarmady, you can pick the director we poll next if you like!

i'll leave the jancso poll open one more day, because i started it late

How about Park Chan-wook? He's got over 10 films if you count shorts, I've seen 5 of them and wouldn't mind an excuse to catch up with some of the others.

[St. Gloede]

Seen 4

mrcarmady, you can pick the director we poll next if you like!

i'll leave the jancso poll open one more day, because i started it late

How about Park Chan-wook? He's got over 10 films if you count shorts, I've seen 5 of them and wouldn't mind an excuse to catch up with some of the others.

You don't actually need to count the shorts, he has 12 full-length films if you count his recent mini-series (and 14 if you count two features he provided segments for).

I have seen 8,