By Alex Deleon, <filmfestivals.com>
25 films so far ... Not counting. Shorts!
Bergamo, Wed. day 5: Five films. Three Jancsos. one dismal Anna Karina, and one magnificent doc on Soviet Ballerina Maya Plisetskaya.
9:30 Jancsó, Magyar Rapszódia. Part I of Trilogy. 1978, RT. 103'
Parabola Liturgica surrealista, rievoca eventi della secondo decennio del XX secolo.Transformo spirituale di istvan Zsadani. Inspirata alla figura storico di Endre Baczy-Zsilinszky.
Magyar Rapszódia. Part I of Trilogy.
Cserhalmi György, (Istvan Zsadani)
Balázsovts Lajos (Zsadani Gabor)
Madaras József (Baksa András) -- very important character in all of Jancso's films.
Udo Kier (Poór), Butor Istvan, Takács Anna,
Ended at 11:08.
First name in end credits was Cserhalmi György. This was a Cserhalmi film all the way.
His Daughter was the blonde girl at the end.
Long first fight between Cserhalmi and little guy Madaras Jözsef near the end. No clear victor. Heavy duty.
Ends under the same outdoor wooden canopy where it began.
With 13 people seated at long table recalling the Last Supper of Christ.
Very Windy last section.
Badacsany Dance Chorus staged the mass group dances.
Began with bugle calls then mass dancing and celebration under the outdoor canopy. Whole first section is march musical then seques to Blue Danube Waltz.
Opens actually with many horses and a parade heading screen outward. . Drunken party where Cserhalmi is disgusted by father's drunkenness and leads him off after complaining to mother.
Then seques into a not very coherent series of set pieces, or skits. . Frontally nude women appear in the big outdoor celebration.. The entire film is, in fact shot outdoors. In one scene we also see nude soldiers in the background, lots of group dancing and March music. The familiar Rakoczy march is always heard in these films.
The Film is mostly composed of large crowd scenes alternating with skits involving Cserhalmi and one or two other people.
Another Set is the white wooden house with rectangular wooden columns. This is used as the setting for secret entrances whereupon those who enter are violently thrown out. In one early scene Cserhsalmi, a military commander demands of a soldier to shoot him with a pistol. It doesn't matter whether the pistol was loaded or not -- the point is that orders must be followed even if you are ordered to shoot your superior officer!
Followed by, Oldás és Kötés, 1963. (Untying and tying up)
(AKA, Cantata)
Pic is about successful a surgeon age 32 whose life is empty and he cannot return the love of women who desire him.
Latinovits, (as surgeon, Jambor Ambrus)
Opens on hospital grounds. b/w
Go to heart operation graphically filmed with the surgeons fingers groping around in the open thorax. Seventy year old surgeon of the old school is a doubtful choice for this operation -- heart stops. Latinovits intercedes and brings patient around. Go to jazz club and screening for intellectuals. Hot jazz. Latinovits can't relate to femme who wants him ~ drives out to father's village. We plant at night he is tokd by a farmer. He is very much at home there. Father turns fien iffer leave with him. Back to city in his fancy car. Picks up young hitchhiker in the rain. . Bartok on radio with Cantata music.
Very young Latinovits. Straightforward story is Janco's most accessible film.
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Third Jancso of the day was "Rhapsody 2" -- earlier seen at cinemateque in Paris, in Decembrr 2014 where I met jancso fanatic Paolo Lipari.
Another Horse Opera starring Cserhalmi. Opens and closes with a little red car. Lots of fogged out scenes. Many scenes at sunset against a red sun by a big lake.
Arbitrary explosions in lake, then all over the place. Same characters as Rapdody One with another heavy duty fight scene between Cserhalmi and Little muscular Madaras József. No Winner.
Cserhalmi's daughter is arrested as a communist but he demands her to be set free.
She shows up again later. Cserhalmi with head on breast of nude woman near the end. It's a Cserhalmi film all the way, but Big Butor is also in there . Many horse and four levels of happenings on a single screen is Jancso at his most Jancsoistic. Old father from previous Rapsody film. Lots of lecturing. Arbitrary shootings -- horses, horses, and more horses.
Layered action going on simultaneously is a Jancso trademark
In between I slept through the dumb film directed by Karina.
Nous Sommes Tous Ensemble. Her single attempt atbdirection is a fiasco from beginning to end. In her interview she saudbshe made this film "just to see it I could do it". Nice try -- No cigar.
Best thing about it was the colorful generique. Embarassingly bad.
Day ended with Magnigicent documentary on Svetlana Plisetsksya. What amazing body control -- and movement itself as an art form. She talks of the importance of the arms in the dance -- many clips from her stage performance are shown. Some are simply amazing. One was Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliette which I saw once in Paris at the Garnier opera house -- ticket from Fraitag's fiancée.
Russian narration, with Italian subtitles -- Absolutely amazing all the way. A great way to end the day. And the funny thing is that I once met Plisetskaya at a reception in the Hollywood Hills when the Bolshoi came to town and I was working as a voluntary student Russian interpreter -- the year was 1961.
