Pál Czirják:
Loosened Theses: Debates through the 1960s about Jancsó’s Films

From the perspective of canon formation, the essay analyzes debates about Miklós Jancsó’s films that emerged in the Hungarian press during the 1960s. The analysis centers around tracing the assessment mechanisms carried out based on pairs of opposites: ignorance-selection, and rejection-acceptance. The critical battles concerning the various works, artistic tendencies, were an integral part of the cultural politics of the socialist era. The debates in the press at once made clear the boundaries and provided opportunities—in their own highly controlled ways—for clashing views, discussing conflicts. They were capable of demonstrating the presence of pluralism and at once kept within tighter bounds critical opinions, and offered a chance for a reassuring resolution. While professionalism and assessment remained crucial considerations, the majority of the published written pieces actually hid a political-ideological position behind aesthetic judgments—sometimes in a just barely covert manner. Occasionally, the contributions responding to one another would open up meta levels as well: the debate tradition (and through this, covertly, access by the public) were placed in the focal point of opinions and counteropinions. On other occasions, the debate over tastes which was thoroughly politicized to begin with, would turn into a discussion of purely social, historical, ideological questions. At the same time, the latter would have an impact on the aesthetic assessment of the films, providing considerations during the classification process as well.

The essay highlights three of the debates in connection with Jancsó’s films: Cantata (1963), The Round-Up (1965), and The Confrontation (1968). Based on these, he draws up the most important stages of the extremely branched out process that emerged within Hungary from the critical reception and processing of Jancsó’s work during the 1960s.