The Round-Up & The Red and the White (Two Films by Miklós Jancsó) (BLU-RAY)

Screenwriter and director Miklós Jancsó was the creator of a unique film language centered around his mastery of the tracking shot. The first internationally recognized representative of modern Hungarian filmmaking, in his works he examined oppressive authority and the mechanics of power. 

The Round-Up (1966) depicts a prison camp in the aftermath of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution. After the Hapsburg monarchy succeeds in suppressing a nationalist uprising, the army sets about arresting suspected guerillas, who are subject to torture. Jancsó’s camera stays in constant, hypnotic motion, meditating upon and exalting its characters’ resistance and perseverance in the face of brutal, authoritarian repression. A true classic of world cinema. Restored in 4K from its original 35mm camera negative by National Film Institute Hungary – Film Archive. 

The Red and the White (1967) is a haunting, powerful film about the absurdity and evil of war. Set in Central Russia during the Civil War of 1918, it details the murderous entanglements between Russia’s Red soldiers and the counter-revolutionary Whites in the hills along the Volga. The epic conflict moves with skillful speed from a deserted monastery to a riverbank hospital to a final, unforgettable hillside massacre. With his brilliant use of exceptionally long takes, vast and unchanging landscapes and Tamás Somló ‘s hypnotic black and white photography, Jancsó gives the film the quality of a surreal nightmare. In the director’s uncompromising world, people lose all sense of identity and become hopeless pawns in the ultimate game of chance. Restored in 4K from its original 35mm camera negative by National Film Institute Hungary – Film Archive.

DISC 1:

• THE ROUND-UP audio commentary by film historian Michael Brooke
• Short films by Miklós Jancsó: Red Indian Story (1961), Presence (1965), Second Presence (1978), Third Presence (1986)

DISC 2:

• THE RED AND THE WHITE audio commentary by film historian Jonathan Owen
• Short films by Miklós Jancsó: Autumn in Badacsony (1954), Harvest in Orosháza (1953), With a Camera in Kostroma (1967)