News

It’s a big month for Prime Video and Amazon Freevee which are both gearing up for an exciting September of releases. The biggest premiere is the long-awaited The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debut which kicks off an unseen chapter in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. And if horror is your thing, don’t miss Naomi Watts in the buzzy film Goodnight Mommy in which she stars alongside The Boys‘ Cameron Crovetti and his real-life twin brother and former Big Little Lies costar Nicholas Crovetti. Other titles to look out for include Jungle, Flight/Risk, and more. Below, see the full list of offerings heading to Prime Video and Amazon Freevee. Available for Streaming on Prime Video: September 1 American Ninja Warrior S12-S13 Friday Night Lights S1-S5 Texicanas Wags Miami S1-S2 21 Grams 23:59 A Family Thing The Adjustment Bureau The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The...

Film director who used powerful symbolism to depict the fight for Hungarian socialism and independence

At the 1966 Cannes film festival, a movie whose title sounded like a western – but was actually Hungarian – caused a sensation and launched its director into the international cinematic scene, where he was to remain for a decade. The film of hypnotic beauty and daring technique was The Round-Up (Szegénylegények, literally translated as The Outlaws) and the director was Miklós Jancsó, who has died aged 92.

Jancsó's highly personal style had blossomed in this, his fifth feature. The Round-Up is set on a bleak Hungarian plain in 1868, when Austro‑Hungarian troops tried to break the unity of the Hungarian partisans by torture, interrogations and killings. There is little dialogue as horsemen drive the people to and fro, with power continually changing hands. Jancsó's ritualistic style manages to make the particular Hungarian situation into a universal parable of evil,...

Hungarian director Miklós Jancsó Hungarian film director Miklós Jancsó has died at the age of 92 after a long illness.

Jancsó's films included My Way Home (Így jöttem, 1964), The Round-Up (Szegénylegények, 1965), The Red And The White (Csillagosok, katonák, 1967), Silence and Cry (Csend és kiáltás, 1968) The Confrontation (Fényes szelek, 1968) and Red Psalm (Még kér a nép, 1971) - for which was awarded the Best Director prize at Cannes in 1972. He was at the forefront of the revival of Hungarian cinema and was known the starkness of his themes and a distinctive visual style that influenced filmmakers as diverse as Sergio Leone and Béla Tarr.

He received lifetime achievement awards in Cannes in 1979, Venice in 1990 and Budapest in 1994.

Fellow Hungarian director István Szabó said: “Jancsó occupies a unique place in Hungarian culture. If he hadn't made such films as The Round-Up, My Way Home,...

★★★★☆ Hungarian auteur, Miklós Jancsó, made a name for himself in the mid 1960s with a loose trilogy of monochrome meditations on the corrupting nature of power. Even in these early pictures, his controlled visuals were noteworthy but in Second Run-released The Confrontation (Fényes szelek, 1969), the tone was set for the rest of his career. His first colour picture, it is a reaction to the student revolts in France in 1968, with Jancsó using his own post-war experiences to examine the underlying aims and beliefs of revolution. Whilst it's not necessarily the easiest of watches, it is film that presents lingering ideas.

Read more »...