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Red Psalm
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Wikipedia article
'Red Psalm' is a 1972 Hungarian film by Mikls Jancs. The literal translation of the title is "'And the People Still Ask'", a quote from a poem by Sndor Petfi.
Plot
'Red Psalm' centers around a small peasants' revolt in 1890. It draws inspiration from the Hungarian revolutionary movements of the 19th century, including the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, of which Sndor Petfi, the poet whose work the film's Hungarian title references, was a participant.
Background
Like most of Jancs's best-known works, 'Red Psalm' is loosely based on events from Hungarian history. Shot in very long, carefully choreographed takes, the film features only 26 shots. Unlike Jancs's previous films, which used music only sparsely, almost every scene in 'Red Psalm' features music, usually performed by the on-screen characters. The songs include Hungarian folk music and songs in Russian and English, most famously "Charlie Is My Darling" (a variation on a Scots song later adopted during the American Civil War as the pro-Union "Johnny Is My Darling"). Due to this large number of songs and dances, the movie is sometimes described as a musical.[http://www.cinematheque.bc.ca/four-mikl%C3%B3s-jancs%C3%B3/red-psalm Pacific Cinematheque: Red Psalm][http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/16759_RED_PSALM Chicago Reader: Red Psalm]
Critical reputation
Writing for the 'Chicago Reader', film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum argues that 'Red Psalm' "may well be the greatest Hungarian film of the 60s and 70s." The 'Time Out Film Guide' sees the film as an improvement over Jancs's "opaque and difficult"[http://www.timeout.com/film/newyork/reviews/76518/red-psalm.html Time Out: Red Psalm] 'Agnus Dei', praising 'Red Psalm' as "crystal clear and involving: looking for a language in ['Agnus Dei'], he found it here and uses it with dazzling precision." Writing for the Chicago-based website 'Cine-File', Ignatiy Vishnevetsky describes the film as "an inversion of Jancs's earlier work and his most beautiful film."[http://cine-file.info/list-archive/2009/JAN-09-4.htm CINE-FILE Chicago: Friday, JAN. 23 Thursday, JAN. 29]
Taking a contrary position, Roger Greenspun wrote in his 1972 'New York Times' review that "it is difficult to pinpoint the reasons for the incredible monotony of so much vigorous activity, but surely one reason is that nothing happens in 'Red Psalm' except for the benefit of the camera...Nothing could be further, say, from the great fluid camera movements of a Max Ophuls than the elaborate cycles and epicycles of the Jancs world, where everybody open fields notwithstanding is imprisoned within rigid limits of the director's rage for abstract patterns."[https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D0CEFDF153DEF34BC4A53DFB6678389669EDE New York Times: Jancso's "Red Psalm" Screened]
Awards
'Red Psalm' won Jancs the Best Director prize at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival and is considered one of his major works. Several critics, most notably the American Jonathan Rosenbaum, consider it his best film.
References
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