Involved in the communist party, he took part in the agricultural reform and he depicted his experience in Sparkling Winds (Fényes szelek, 1968). Before his feature debut, he made dozens of documentaries. He earned international fame with The Round-Up (Szegénylegények, 1965) and The Red and the White (Csillagosok, katonák, 1967) where he developed the original poetics of long shots, sophisticated motion of actors and expressive cinematography (in those times, his closest collaborator was the cinematographer Tamás Somló). The themes he explored included a philosophical analysis of history, displaying a weak human suffering humiliation from the anonymous system. He guarded his aesthetical originality also in his later films, many of which were made in Italy: The Pacifist (La pacifista, 1970), La tecnica e il rito (Technique and rite 1971). He was very successful both with films exploring contemporary issues and history: depictions of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in Silence and Cry (Csend és kiáltás, 1968) and Agnus dei (Égi bárány, 1970). Metaphors of his subsequent films became more and more allegorical, like folk stories, myths and para-theatrical performance. He is still active; lately, critics liked his Season of Monsters (Szörnyek évadja, 1986), Anyád! A szúnyogok (Damn You! The Mosquitoes (2000), Last Supper at the Arabian Gray Horse (Utolsó vacsora az Arabs Szürkénél, 2001), Wake Up, Mate, Don't You Sleep (Kelj fel, komám, ne aludjál, 2003). In 1979 he obtained the life's work award at the festival in Cannes, and a similar prize in Venice in 1987. He is still regarded as one of the most original filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s; he has also influenced such directors as Theo Angelopoulos and Béla Tarr.
Selected filmography:
1958 A harangok Rómába mentek / The Bells Have Gone to Rome
1965 Így jöttem / My Way Home
1966 Szegénylegények / The Round-Up
1966 Közelröl: a vér / Close Up: The Blood
1967 Csillagosok, katonák / The Red and the White
1967 Csend és kiáltás / Silence and Cry
1969 Fényes szelek / Sparkling Winds
1969 Sirokkó / Winter Wind
1970 Égi bárány / Agnus dei
1970 La pacifista / The Pacifist
1972 Még kér a nép / Red Psalm
1974 Szerelmem, Elektra / Electra, My Love
1974 Roma rivuole Cesare / Rome Wants Another Caesar
1976 Vizi privati, pubbliche virtù / Vices and Pleasures
1979 Magyar rapszódia / Hungarian Rhapsody
1981 A zsarnok szíve, avagy Boccaccio Magyarországon / The Tyrant’s Heart
1985 L’aube / Dawn
1987 Szörnyek évadja / Season of Monsters
1988 Jézus Krisztus horoszkópja / Jesus Christ’s Horoscope
1991 Isten hátrafelé megy / God Walks Backwards
1992 Kék Duna keringö / Blue Danube Waltz
1996 Szeressük egymást, gyerekek!
1999 Nekem lámpást adott kezembe az Úr, Pesten / Lord’s Lantern in Budapest
2001 Utolsó vacsora az Arabs Szürkénél / Last Supper at the Arabian Gray Horse
2002 Kelj fel, komám, ne aludjál / Wake Up, Mate, Don’t You Sleep
2006 Ede megevé ebédem
2009 Oda az igazság
