Tamás Banovich

Concerning the Mátyás era in Hungarian history, during the reign of Matthias Corvinus (1443–1490), the film focuses on three eras of the king's life: the young Mátyás fights for the throne, the older Mátyás as king, and the fate of the royal crown and the royal heir after his death.

Reconstructions of unrealized Hungarian films in cooperation with the greatest Hungarian film directors.

After her husband's death, Hanna Szendroy, the former primadonna, portrayed by Maya Komorowska is caught in the claws of the real estate mafia. She looses her lavish home and ends up homeless at the Keleti train station. When she returns to her house, now full of homeless people moved in by the real estate mafia, an unexpected relationship brings hope into her life again.

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.

By the notes of Fiáth Pompeiusz, the one-time friend of Kapa and Pepe, Professor Szirtes has solved the secret of the time machine, and he realizes the invention relying on "special" H2O. Kapa and Pepe shall return by it into the past in order to set time right, which is out of joint, that is, to correct history, to save King Louis II, and prevent the Mohács Disaster. Pepe yields to the not too tender persuasion to enter upon the great journey through time, dies and revives, and they arrive at the battlefield of Mohács in time. Kapa films the events. The Turks win and cut off the king’s, Pepe’s, head, still the Hungarians dictate the peace treaty. Kapa and Pepe want to return, they fill the time machine up with water from the well, yet it won’t start. Even so Kapa and Pepe hover over Budapest and quarrel.

This time, Kapa and Pepe are first of all prisoners of war – and convicts taken to forced labor service, Jews, Hungarian soldiers, German soldiers. Once they are to be executed, then again they are to perform executions. The film tells in spectacular episodes about the fact that in the past more than one century and a half we kept marching from war to war; occupation and liberation turned out to be indifferent, and why couldn’t the Jews execute the SS-guys? Our heroes hover about dilapidated barracks, then again on the bridges of the capital they guess whose satellites or eternal friends for all times we might be just now. In the cupboard, among the preserved fruit bottles, Stalin is still hiding. The authors of the film are cited before court, then in a showcase hospital they are waiting for the end to come. A Soviet soldier-maid closes the film with a Péter Nádas-quote.

Waiters’ competition at Heroes’ Square in the late thirties. Dressed as waiters, Kapa and Pepe awake in the bronze chariot of the millennial sculpture group. They drive along the Danube promenade, and on the concrete reinforcement of the demolished Budapest rondella hotel they get involved in a showdown of political background. In the burnt-down Sports Hall the waiters train for a last supper, Pepe and Kapa run around the big laid table with trays in their hands. While doing so, Pepe keeps crying out: "I am the best one, I am the most beautiful one, I am the king, I am the god..." Sitting in a boat on the Danube, a ship goes past them, and the Niagara falls, majestic and breathtaking, resound in their ears. On each passing away something new will come to life – as rapped by Sub Bass Monster.

Kapa, Pepe and Mesi would like to buy a scrapyard of trains, to start a nostalgia train and earn a lot of money. The capital to start with they want to get from grandpa, who has come home from America with a suitcase full of money. Everybody wants Mesi to approach the old man, because she is the only one he would speak to. But Mesi is more concerned with the idea that she wants a child, by now from anyone, while Pepe is jealous. Kapa’s alleged son emerges, with the mafia behind him: they, too, are eager to get grandpa’s money. After threats and blackmailing, poisoned apples are sent, with only one side of them poisonous. Those dead, by the way, are resurrected by the sound of a song. At last, nobody manages to get the money, but it wouldn’t make sense anyway: it’s all fake. The Statue of Liberty, however, turns out to be blind.

In the Kerepesi Street cemetery, three grave diggers contemplate the fate of the world, then they step out of this role and in a sequence of episodes they play the typical figures of contemporary Hungarian reality, the fat cat, the swashbuckler, the victim, underworld chieftains, and present little absurd dramas of love, marriage, friendship, public order and legal safety. The author and the film director walk among them all the time, contemplating, laughing at their plays. The stories starting from the graveyard and returning there warn of the inevitability of death. The author and the director (Gyula Hernádi and Miklós Jancsó) wisely make friends with death.

From the film-shooting in the Buda Castle Marci and his friend go to a well-paying job. The scene is a big castle in the middle of a huge park. They enjoy the company of the Kid and the beautiful naked French girl, Nathalie. Their job is to watch the monitors on which they can see the Moscow coup détat. By the time Gorbachev is executed the Communist and the Nationalists have taken turns in occupying the castle and the park.

Zoltai is a Hungarian professor who returns home after a visit to the United States. Following a television interview, he commits suicide and leaves a note for his longtime friend Dr. Bardocz. The doctor and Zoltai's colleague Komindi join the police in investigating what drove the man to suicide.

Zoltai is a Hungarian professor who returns home after a visit to the United States. Following a television interview, he commits suicide and leaves a note for his longtime friend Dr. Bardocz. The doctor and Zoltai's colleague Komindi join the police in investigating what drove the man to suicide.

Three generations live side by side. The wilful, jack-in-all-pots grandmother blackmails the family with fake faintings, while grandpa suffers from cerebral sclerosis. Mother manages a fashionable hotel, she needs to look smart and unyielding, even when their weird uncle drives into the restaurant drunk. Father is an introverted, solitary teacher, who from time to time turns the home inside out in pursuit of his hobby, i.e. topography, and his mental balance. Suddenly unexpected things come to light about their teen-age daughter, Juli.

The Hungarian Maria's Day is set in that most fateful of years, 1848. The incredible changes and reverses in European politics and culture exert a potent influence on one aristocratic Hungarian family. Losing virtually everything in the way of creature comforts, the family tries to keep up appearances. Eventually every member of the clan falls victim to illness, syphilis and their own headstrong foolishness. The parallels drawn by director Judith Elek between the dissipation of 19th century Hungarian aristocracy and the corruption of Communist ideology in modern times are inescapable.

A historical drama set in the 1400s, a young man sent to Italy but is forced back after his father's mysterious death.

Film by Judit Elek.

Misu is spending his summer holiday in an old block of flats in Budapest. The caretaker of the house, Poldi, a park attendant by occupation, is going to retire in a few days and he is afraid to think ahead of the years to come without grass and trees. An idea comes to Misu to spend the summer in an active way. He organises a working party to sod the inner court of the block of flats they live in. To achieve his plan, he has to make alliances with some people and to win the opponent to the idea, namely Kamilla, an insurance consultant. Their assistants in this mission will be the dustman and the coal deliverer and Piroska, a girl spending her holyday at Kamilla's.

Zsadányi flees from the authorities with his goddaughter, Bankós Mari, and they escape into the forest. The film then skips ahead thirty-fold years: Zsadány and Mari are now lovers, with the sound of war in the background halting their romance. The old friends of Zsadányi have joined with the Nazis, and the landowner living with his peasants in a socialist community grows distant from them. Zsadányi is held responsible for political problems in the country, and will pay with his life.

Balog Mihály, the Gypsy man from Szabolcs works in Budapest. That is where he is notified that his young wife died. Again he behaves differently from his fellow-men in the Koportos Gypsy settlement: he wants to give a beautiful, rich burial ceremony to his wife.

On his return from America, András simply cannot find his place: he has lost his wife, friends and job, and he cannot even find his way back to his former great love. Eventually, as a surrogate father, he takes in a wild young girl (Zsuzsa Czinkóczi) and a particularly strong bond is formed between these two rootless people. Márta Mészáros’s remarkable movie starring Jan Nowicki and Anna Karina is about displacement, loneliness and attachment.

Procurando um lugar seguro para viver depois de ser assediada por seu marido, um homem depressivo e violento, Juli fica em um abrigo para mulheres dirigido por Mária.

A aldeã Juli Kovács chega à cidade para trabalhar em uma fábrica. O supervisor János Bodnár fica de olho nela, que inicialmente recusa os seus avanços.

An unsentimental Hungarian film about the edgy relationship between a middle-aged woman and her young, restless daughter-in-law when the son-husband goes to sea for six months.

Operária fabril solteira, Kata, 43, quer ter uma criança com o seu amante secreto de há muito tempo, um homem casado chamado Joska. Ele não gosta da ideia. Kata faz amizade com a adolescente Anna, abandonada por seus pais aos seis anos de idade. Anna foge da casa de acolhimento e muda-se para casa de Kata para que ela possa continuara estar com o namorado Sanyi. Kata vai ver os pais de Anna e persuade-os a dar aos jovens amantes permissão para casar. Através de Anna, Kata torna-se interessada em crianças negligenciadas e decide adotar um bebê da casa de acolhimento.

The royal summary court sentences Sallai Imre and Fürst Sándor to death on charges of attempting to uproot the state and the social order. The film, the story of which takes place in 1932, enlarges the moment of delivering the death-sentence. Sallai, preparing for his death, envisions the people and the events that have been decisive for his life.

Dery is a grande dame actress of the Sarah Bernhardt school of big-gesture theater. Her beauty and popularity is fading, and a new school of acting which involves the use of one's own emotions (a-la Eleanora Duse) is emerging in the person of her younger Viennese rival. She thinks of retiring from the stage, and reunites briefly with her estranged husband in a newly-built manor in the country. Finding that life there is boring, she returns to town, the theater, and her old friends.

Reminiscente dos últimos trabalhos de Bela Tarr, "Electra, Meu Amor" de Miklós Jancsó é constituída por uma série de extremamente lentos e extremamente longos planos (há apenas oito tomas principais, cada uma com duração de uma bobine inteira de filme). Mais vídeo de música contemplativa do que filme convencional, "Electra, Meu Amor" é baseado em "Oresteia", um mito grego escrito por Ésquilo, um dramaturgo trágico antigo. O filme é protagonizado por Marie Toriocsik como Electra, uma mulher torturada que serve como uma espécie de metáfora para o povo da Hungria e seu sofrimento histórico. Ela percorre a paisagem de Jancso com uma cara melancólica, com raiva de Aegisztosz por conspirar com sua mãe para matar Agamenon, seu pai.

Set in the 1890s on the Hungarian plains, a group of farm workers go on strike in which they face harsh reprisals and the reality of revolt, oppression, morality and violence.

Alegory of the suppression of the 1919 revolution and the advent of fascism in Hungary; in the countryside, a unit of the revolutionary army spares the life of father Vargha, a fanatical priest. He comes back and leads massacres. A new force, represented by Feher, apparently avanges the people, but only to impose a different, more refined and effective kind of repression.

After his divorce, Bóna Péter, a beginner film director needs a bigger amount of money to settle his financial problems with his ex-wife. He travels to Pécs to see Sárika, an old veteran. He has not seen his aunt for a long time, and she receives him very friendly, but she flatly refuses to lend him any money.

Um grupo de fãs de música beat se diverte em shows e festas depois dos turnos entediantes na fábrica. Juli, noiva de um dos rapazes do grupo, se apaixona por um músico e viaja com ele para um show. Juntamente com seus amigos, o noivo ciumento vai atrás deles, e Juli deve tomar uma decisão.

It is the story of Bálint Balassi , the poet and warrior. The scene is Hungary at the end of the 16th century. The soldiers stationed at the castles of Hungary's border defence-system spend their days with anti-Turkish raids, hunting and womanising.

It is the story of Bálint Balassi , the poet and warrior. The scene is Hungary at the end of the 16th century. The soldiers stationed at the castles of Hungary's border defence-system spend their days with anti-Turkish raids, hunting and womanising.

Kalán Imre, the district doctor lives in a small village surrounded by mountains. One day he is visited by two young relatives of his and their friend, a doctor at the beginning of his career. The name of the doctor is Király András, and he happens to be the great love of Kalán's young wife from her unmarried years. The orthodox Stalinist Kalán's entire life is filled with his great passion, hunting. The suffocating, narrow lives of the prominent people in the area are slowly revealed to András.

The preparation, in Hungary, of the assassination in Marseilles of King Alexander of Yugoslavia in 1934.

The preparation, in Hungary, of the assassination in Marseilles of King Alexander of Yugoslavia in 1934.

Persuaded by the janitor's wife, a lively, but lonesome old woman, who is only attached to the world through her cherished objects and memories, decides to exchange her two-room apartment for a smaller one. For a little while her everyday life is changed. She meets and entertains new people every day.

Edit levava uma vida confortável até ficar viúva e confrontar o passado. Seu filho István acredita que sua intenção de abandonar uma vida de luxo se deve à histeria, então pede que sua noiva Kati cuide dela. Embora seja muito fraca para mudar, Kati se espanta com a brutalidade de István.

Silêncio e Grito de Miklós Jancsó é ambientado durante uma era turbulenta de inquietação, medo, perseguição e terror, que permeia todos os cantos da sociedade pós-Primeira Guerra Mundial húngara. Em 1919, depois de poucos meses de governo comunista, a República Húngara dos Concílios foi vítima de uma contra-revolução nacionalista. O Almirante Horthy, líder do movimento nacionalista de extrema direita, torna-se o auto-proclamado regente da Hungria, e assume o poder como chefe de Estado legal. Soldados do efémero exército vermelho húngaro estão agora em fuga de implacáveis polícias secretos e unidades de patrulha da Guarda Real nacionalista. Se capturados, os ex-soldados do Exército Vermelho são executados sem piedade ou julgamento adequado. István Cserzi, um ex-soldado do Exército Vermelho fugiu para as Grandes Planícies Húngaras e refugiou-se numa fazenda, administrada por duas mulheres simpáticas. Devido à generosidade destas mulheres e um antigo amigo de infância...

Uma solitária garota da classe trabalhadora cresceu em um orfanato estadual húngaro. Ao receber uma carta da mãe, ela decide embarcar em uma viagem para visitá-la, mas acaba descobrindo que a mulher se casou e tenta fazer a filha se passar por sobrinha.

Laci is facing maturation and he wants to work, but his intellectual parents want him to be at the university. Laci feels lonely, because back home the centre is his younger brother and he also deceived in Zsuzsa, his class mate. The girl is already an accomplished pop singer, member of the Illés, and she only returns the love of Laci as a friend. But through Zsuzsa he can meet the members of the well-established group, whose members even lend him their instruments for the concert of the school group. They also play together and another brown girl cheers him already.

Laci is facing maturation and he wants to work, but his intellectual parents want him to be at the university. Laci feels lonely, because back home the centre is his younger brother and he also deceived in Zsuzsa, his class mate. The girl is already an accomplished pop singer, member of the Illés, and she only returns the love of Laci as a friend. But through Zsuzsa he can meet the members of the well-established group, whose members even lend him their instruments for the concert of the school group. They also play together and another brown girl cheers him already.

Laci is facing maturation and he wants to work, but his intellectual parents want him to be at the university. Laci feels lonely, because back home the centre is his younger brother and he also deceived in Zsuzsa, his class mate. The girl is already an accomplished pop singer, member of the Illés, and she only returns the love of Laci as a friend. But through Zsuzsa he can meet the members of the well-established group, whose members even lend him their instruments for the concert of the school group. They also play together and another brown girl cheers him already.

After the failure of the Kossuth's revolution of 1848, people suspected of supporting the revolution are sent to prison camps. Years later, partisans led by outlaw Sándor Rózsa still run rampant. Although the authorities do not know the identities of the partisans, they round up suspects and try to root them out by any means necessary.

Az Életbe táncoltatott leány is a 1964 Hungarian film directed by Tamás Banovich. It was entered into the 1965 Cannes Film Festival where it won a Technical Prize

Az Életbe táncoltatott leány is a 1964 Hungarian film directed by Tamás Banovich. It was entered into the 1965 Cannes Film Festival where it won a Technical Prize

Az Életbe táncoltatott leány is a 1964 Hungarian film directed by Tamás Banovich. It was entered into the 1965 Cannes Film Festival where it won a Technical Prize

The tyrannical king is afraid of his people. He can only find peace if everyone wishes him well when he sneezes. Catchpoles raid the country and give orders what the king wants.

The tyrannical king is afraid of his people. He can only find peace if everyone wishes him well when he sneezes. Catchpoles raid the country and give orders what the king wants.

Several gypsy dances performed by the Hungarian People's State Ensemble.

A female worker in Socialist Hungary gains the acceptance of her male colleagues.