Inhabitants of Castles in Hungary in 1966 + How Long Does a Man Live?
Hungarian filmmaker Judit Elek’s youth was profoundly shaped by the events of the 20th Century (childhood in a ghetto during the Holocaust, the Budapest uprising of 1956, and later, the events of 1968). This intimate connection to History is inseparable from the cinema she created. Drawing from pioneering direct cinema techniques in the early part of her career, she never ceased – even in her fictional work – to confront reality head-on, while imbuing it with a poetic dimension and asserting her freedom of vision. Tirelessly questioning social tensions and historical traumas, her films demonstrate a unique attention to the complexity of human interactions and the solitary emotions of individuals.
Winner of the Special Prize of the Jury, 1968 Locarno Film Festival
The structure of the lyrical documentary, made at the Balázs Béla Studio, is based on the timeless elegance of lute music. Festetich Castle in Keszthely is a museum. A noble couple, elderly people, poets and writers, children – the inhabitants of the castles of Szécsény, Gödöllő, Szigliget and Hédervár in the 1960s. (NFI Hungary)
The story of two workers, the end and the beginning. Uncle Pista has been a lathe operator in Csepel for 40 years. He is tired and sickly, but when he has to work, he always gets better. As he retires, they emphasise in a fine speech that they count on him and his experience. He is replaced by another man, relationships are broken. The old man can’t find his place. In the small village on the banks of the Tisza, Pista and his sister are raised alone by their mother, and their alcoholic father has not been seen for years. Pista becomes an industrial apprentice in Pest. In their first class they learn to hammer. (NFI Hungary)
Judit Elek
Born in Budapest in 1937, Judit Elek is a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. A graduate of the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, she emerged as one of the most important pioneers of cinéma direct, a documentary-inspired approach that she first experimented with at the Béla Balázs Studio, then at Istenmezeje. Her first experience with cinéma direct came in 1963 with Encounter (Találkozás). In her early work, she saw direct cinema “as a specific mode of expression, capable of grasping the true nature of people and things with a depth that traditional cinema in Hungary, then in the midst of transformation, could not achieve.” Her first feature film, The Lady from Constantinople (Sziget a szárazföldön), was released in 1969. It portrays a lonely old woman forced to give up her apartment, which has become too expensive. After A Commonplace Story (Egyszerű történet) in 1975, she abandoned cinéma direct, feeling she had exhausted its potential—but above all, out of ethical concerns, fearing that the camera’s intrusion into people’s lives could ultimately become dangerous. In 1984, she directed Maria’s Day (Mária-nap), a vibrant exploration of one of the most significant figures in Hungarian history, poet and patriot Sándor Petőfi. The film was selected for the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. In 2024, the Cinémathèque française dedicated a retrospective to her work.
Explore
Judit Elek, les fantômes et les éveillés
À partir des années 1960, Judit Elek a constitué une œuvre à la fois rigoureuse et délicate, qui s’est imposée comme l’une des plus remarquables du cinéma hongrois de son temps (aux côtés de Szabó, Jancsó ou Mészáros), et que les restaurations récentes de l’Institut national du film de Hongrie permettent de redécouvrir dans les meilleures dispositions possibles.
.jpg){kind=link}