Nyika Jancsó

Movies

Judgment & Grace
Cinematography
The story takes place at the time of the defeat of the Hungarian War of Independence, when Csákberény came under the terror of the imperial soldiers. Two priests from the village are arrested overnight for reading the Hungarian Declaration of Independence. Although the Austrian soldiers enjoy their power, they are unable to identify with the repression. The purpose of the trial of a military imprisonment court is to obtain a confession, to prove that a violation of sovereignty has been committed.
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet
Director of Photography
Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet” has inspired generations of artists to adaptations like scarcely any other work. In his colorful, passionate music, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev brilliantly captured the clash of love and hatred, and the proximity of tenderness and violence. Inspired by Prokofiev’s vivid music and the timeless quality of Shakespeare’s tragedy, choreographer Christian Spuck and the Ballett Zürich narrate the most famous love story in world literature using strong images that are full of enthralling theatricality and touching emotion. Michail Jurowski, a true Prokofiev expert, is at the rostrum of the Philharmonia Zürich. Recorded live at Opernhaus Zürich June 2019.
Los versos salvados
Director of Photography
Each year Celina crosses the Argentinean Pampa in her car to visit her daughter Fernanda. Among hundreds of disappearances, they were the only two who made it out alive from the dictatorship’s delivery room. For mother and daughter the only possible truth and justice is to move forward with their lives.
Adam's Passion
Cinematography
Adam’s Passion is the moving first collaboration between two “masters of slow motion who harmonize perfectly with each other” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). In the spectacular setting of a former submarine factory, American director and universal artist Robert Wilson creates a poetic visual world in which the mystical musical language of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt can cast its meditative spell. Three of Pärt’s major works – Adam’s Lament, Tabula rasa, and Miserere, as well as Sequentia, a new work composed especially for this production – are brought together here using light, space, and movement to create a tightly-woven Gesamtkunstwerk in which the artistic visions of these two great artists mirror each other.
My Mother's Letters to Stalin
Cinematography
Márta Mészáros' father, the sculptor László Mészáros, was executed during the Stalinist purges of the Soviet Union. The director addressed her father's fate in many of her earlier films, but this time, she focuses on her mother, Vilma Kovács.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
"C" Camera Operator
Hellboy, his pyrokinetic girlfriend, Liz, and aquatic empath, Abe Sapien, face their biggest battle when an underworld elven prince plans to reclaim Earth for his magical kindred. Tired of living in the shadow of humans, Prince Nuada tries to awaken an ancient force of killing machines, the all-powerful Golden Army, to clear the way for fantasy creatures to roam free. Only Hellboy can stop the dark prince and prevent humanity's annihilation.
Ed's Eaten Elevenses
Director of Photography
Jancsó’s farce, similar to the previous ones, is about our time and about death. Pepe marries into a family of mafiosi, with the father-in-law rolling in money. In a joint venture they establish the first Hungarian Prison Limited company, where there is a menu, the prisoners are residents, and they furnish the place of execution for those volunteering to execute themselves. It turns out that the first voluntary hanging should be demonstrated on Pepe. In 180 AD Emperor Marcus Aurelius is dying in Vindobona, being fed with blades of hay by uncle Miki himself, and his son Kornél Mundruczó. Kapa provides for communication: he insists on telling lies, lies and again lies. Furthermore, there are several to die and to revive, to win and to lose, and Melancholy Béla is still alive.
A Christmas Carol
"A" Camera Operator
Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.
The Unburied Man
Director of Photography
One of the doyennes of Hungarian film deals with a dark period of national history: the Soviet regime in Hungary. She portrays it through the fate of the former prime minister and national hero, Imre Nagy. The script is based on the diary written by Imre Nagy, and the memories of his daughter, Erzsébet Nagy, as well as authentic documents and records.
Chico
Director of Photography
The adventures of a young man as he moves from the Latin-American revolutions in the sixties and seventies, through Hungary in the eighties, to the Croatian war in 1991.
Little Vilma: The Last Diary
Director of Photography
The movie is inspired by writer-director Márta Mészáros' own childhood. The film is a grim reminder of horrible days under Stalinist period when several innocent people were persecuted for no fault. A good film which allow people to know how people in Europe were tortured before second world war by dictators and authoritarian regimes.
The Prince and the Pauper
Camera Operator
An adaptation of the classic, "The Prince and the Pauper" is the retelling of Edward Tudor and young Thomas Canty, two amazing look-alikes caught up in imperial intrigue and scandal. In fleeing from his violent father, Tom stumbles into the palace courtyard, and is seen by young Prince Edward, who takes him in. Each desiring to see what the other's life is like, the boys impulsively switch identities... little knowing what disaster lies ahead at this fault of thought. And soon Thomas becomes a pawn in the hands of Edward's malicious and greedy uncle, who would have the kingdom for himself.
Az igazi Mao
Camera Operator
Fetus
Director of Photography
This drama follows the dilemma of a young, unwillingly pregnant wife who gives her child up for adoption by a businesswoman. Anna doesn't need another mouth to feed. She can barely afford to care for the two she already has so when she discovers that she is six weeks pregnant she readily accepts the cash offer from Terez, her tough boss at the store where she works. If she will isolate herself throughout the pregnancy, secretly bear the child and immediately allow Terez to sign for it, Anna will receive $50,000. Most of the story then focuses upon Anna's emotional processes as she evaluates her choice. Included are dream segments and shots an unborn baby in the womb.
Broken Lullaby
Director of Photography
Rich Hungarian-born orphan Katya Davidov commissions Jordan Kirkland to research her past starting from a photograph, showing her as a child next to an elusive Fabergé music box. Luckily experienced Yankee-Hungarian treasure hunter and womanizer Nick Rostov gently forces his help upon her, although Jordan stubbornly risks dealing with his dodgy competitor Gudrun Kuper and her ruthless employer, count Borodin.
A Change of Place
Director of Photography
Kim Jameson is a university professor while Kate Jameson - also known as Dominique, Kim’s twin sister - is a troubled model working in Paris. Kate is a drunk, in desperate need of rehabilitation. Kim checks her twin sister into a rehab center, agreeing to fill in for Dominique during her absence, but by doing so takes on more than she bargained for.
A Kövek üzenete - Máramaros
Director of Photography
The second film in Miklós Jancsó's documentary series Message of Stones.
Diary for My Father and My Mother
Director of Photography
This story follows a young student, who is orphaned as she grows to adulthood in the shadow of the 1956 Hungarian uprising. Coming from the Communist intelligentsia, she sees her friends and family react differently. Her lover, a married factory manager, supports the patriots and later assists fellow workers in staging a strike. Meanwhile her sister and others express anger at being forced from their homes during the revolution and continue to express a hatred for the rebels afterwards. But in the end they realize that for all people, real life is not possible after the revolt and its brutal suppression by the Soviets and their collaborators.
Laurin
Director of Photography
In a small port town at the end of the 19th century children are disappearing. A mysterious man in black who stalks the town may be Death itself. And nine-year-old Laurin is suffering terrifying dreams and hallucinations of a man carrying a sack and frightened children calling for help from behind closed windows.
Streets of Yesterday
Cinematography
This is a story of a relationship between three men: Amin, a Palestinian nationalist; Joseph, an Israeli peacenik; and Colonel Shalit, a right-wing Israeli intelligence officer.
Diary for My Loves
Director of Photography
A continuation of "Diary for My Children," the film picks up in 1950, when Juli, the diarist, is 18 and determined to become a movie director.
The Right Man for a Delicate Mission
Director of Photography
In this somewhat uneven political satire, good revolutionaries have overthrown a totalitarian state riddled with corruption on all levels when a truly naive bureaucrat (Boguslaw Linda) is placed on a jury that will judge the results of a history competition. Once on the jury, the young bureaucrat starts looking into the past himself and gets embroiled in a labyrinth. The past may well be unclear because recent leaders have certain facts that need to be kept buried. Filmmaker Janos Kovacsi borrows characteristics from revolutions in the Eastern European block (1950s-1980s) to create this post-revolutionary society with an idealist commander (Ferenc Zenthe) meant to lead them. A clue as to what happens next lies in the opening scene -- the funeral of the commander who has given his life for his cause. Ironically, Kovacsi undoubtedly faced censorship on this film. That would not only account for some uneven narration, but it adds a dimension of reality to the topic at hand.
Diary for My Children
Director of Photography
A semi-autobiographical story of a young woman's life in Budapest under Stalin.
On Probation
Director of Photography
János Kitka Jr, first seen in Schiffer's documentary 'Black Train' a decade earlier, is now 17 and is just released from a youth detention centre. He returns to his village and is put in the care of a probation officer. However, his family doesn't seem to help his situation, but rather makes him run away from home.
Cha-Cha-Cha
Director of Photography
Gruber is a normal 16-year-old growing up in Budapest in 1962, but he has a problem -- how does he get to know the opposite sex? At the Sunday afternoon dance classes the young "ladies and gentlemen" hold each other while dancing, and that makes the lessons worth something. Otherwise, the pianist's attention wanders and the orchestra does not exactly play with a single-minded dedication. In fact, everybody seems to have other things on their minds, except for the enthusiastic dance instructor and his ever-smiling assistant.
Flirt: Hipnózis
Cinematography
The director of the film subjected herself to hypnosis with the assistance of a famous Hungarian doctor. The event was recorded by a fixed camera, placed earlier by the director. (BBS Catalog 1961-91)
Mistletoes
(as ifj. Jancsó Miklós)
Judit Ember returns to follow the life of Nóra Szabó, the heroine of her documentary film ????????????????????̈????????????́???????????? ("Instructive Story", 1975). The troubled young woman who formerly attempted to commit suicide by jumping off a fourth floor is now an unmarried and pregnant mother with two children. Her own mother also brought up her children in similar circumstances, in a closed community without men. But Jenő, the unflaggingly energetic labourer and father of Nóra’s third, as yet unborn child, brings change into their lives.