Anna’s first editing assignment ‘Family Nest’, was also the first feature film to be directed by Béla Tarr, whose own thoughts about the medium are included in this book. As you will read the strongest influence on Anna was that of Gábor Bódy who only made three feature films before his early death. His particular passion for the medium of cinema clearly left a deep impression on Anna.
I was born in Budapest. My father was a director of shorts and educational films and my mother was the financial executive of a film studio. When I was a kid we had no TV (or video like nowadays). The visual culture consisted of father telling a tale every evening with a special slide strip-film. It was very popular in Hungary. Each strip had fifteen to twenty frames illustrating well-known tales or novels. I read books all the time and everywhere – most often history and fiction. My love and understanding of literature have certainly helped me as an editor, if not in a direct way, certainly in the background. It is as much a part of education as music and art, and all this together adds up to what forms the taste of somebody.
I had no special skill in the arts, but I had a very good teacher of art history. She showed us how to ‘see’ paintings and sculpture, and how to benefit from visiting museums. It became very important in time. Later cinema became part of my cultural interest like literature. In secondary school I had season tickets for different series and I saw many films which are essential in film culture, old silent movies, American films from the 1950s, English films from the 1960s and many others. I remember when I was fifteen- or sixteen-year old, going with my father to see ‘Blow-Up’.1 I wore big sunglasses because I was afraid I wouldn’t be let in as I was under eighteen.
Afterwards my father asked me whether I liked it or not. I liked it very much and my father asked why. I couldn’t tell, but I felt it was something for adults – a new way to express things which we want to know or explain.
Editing wasn’t my first choice as a career. I came upon it through both accidental and obvious reasons. Due to the Hungarian higher educational system – I failed my university entrance exam in Hungarian and English – I had to work for a year before I could try again. It was obvious to work at my father’s place as an assistant editor – and it was love at first sight. Then I spent three years from 1981 to 1984 in the School of Drama and Cinema in Budapest on the film-editing course and received the diploma.
I learnt editing in the beginning from every man who moved in the editing room. I followed with attention what the director, editor, cameraman and everyone else said, and why and what would be the consequence of all this for the film. It was very edifying. But the great and real lesson was when I made the first steps alone. The greatest part of learning editing was the practice for me.
I recall something which made a special impression on me. In the late 1970s I worked on films by István Dárday and Györgyi Szalay.2 They worked together, their speciality was a feature film in documentary style. They didn’t use actors, they wrote the story and then hunted for the right person for the role. When they found the right persons, they didn’t give them lines, they only outlined the situation for them and it was an improvisation and very lifelike. I like these films very much, because they were very close to me and the world in which I live. My favourite was a very long film (three hours and a half) entitled ‘A Film Novel –Three Sisters’, but I could mention their other movie ‘The Prize Trip’.3 Béla Tarr also started his career in this vein. I don’t know whether this style is still viable, but I like it very much.
The first big experience was the first film of Béla Tarr. ‘Family Nest’4 was the very first for both of us. As regards myself I didn’t know much about how to edit or cut film. I wanted to prove that I was able to do this thing. Both of us tried to persuade the other, but in the end we asked somebody with more experience. What I did wad impulsive – not conscious – even now it is important to me to ‘feel’ the film and not have an ideological approach.
In the first scenes of the film Iren, the main character is going to work early in the morning and she is moving away from us becoming smaller and smaller (Tarr said this was the kind of film beginning others used for an ending). This is similar to what we can see in his later films.
As I see it his way of film-making is very logical from the documentary style with some improvised elements added to the precisely composed images, where every movement, step or dialogue has a special meaning. One has a close connection with the other, that is the reason you feel he is denying the function of the cut. As I see it he wants to make his films in one sequence, therefore he tries not to separate two things with a cut but to combine them. Whereas in Jancsó’s5 films the long scenes were more formal than functional.
My greatest lesson (and the greatest absence) till now was Gábor Bódy.6 He was a man with special talents, with great curiosity about new things and he was a ‘naughty boy’. He gave me tasks but many things he did alone at the editing table: good ideas came to him when he touched the film. When we made ‘Narcissus and Psyche’7 I was in one editing room and he was in another. I cut the traditional scenes and he cut the experimental ones. Then we put the whole thing together. He was a very autonomous man in his films and in his work methods too. We worked several times at night or at weekends when good ideas came to him, but he was very open to suggestion in spite of all this.
I learnt another point of view about the world. It was especially interesting on ‘The Dog’s Night Song’.8 Before the shooting I asked what kind of film it would be. He answered that it would be a ‘Dárday’ film in ‘Bódy’ style. Dárday worked with documentary elements and described a piece of Hungarian reality. Bódy also showed us Hungarian realities but with a special point of view. This sentence, Dárday film in Bódy style, was a cue for me to understand what he wanted. I started to learn the ‘Bódy language’ and this lesson is not finished. This is the reason and his particular personality why I, and others, miss him.
In my opinion Hungarian cinema is not a reaction to Hollywood, rather it is a result of the specific social, cultural and historical background of our country. Money is also a big problem. Hungarian directors also have ideas, which involve many extras, nice costumes, big sets or want to use the new technologies, but the possibilities are very limited and this is constricting. For such a little country like Hungary, in my opinion, the only course must be not to imitate American cinema but to continue the old traditions and values.
In my opinion the editor has a very special place in film-making. He or she is inside and outside at the same time. I mean we get the scenario, we can give ideas but it isn’t our story. We have a view of the film but it is a little bit different. The editor’s work is to support the director’s ideas. I can’t show examples because every film is different, every film requires a proper style, which is not mine, but I try to follow that and this is the core of my work. It is important to try many ideas, including those that seem at first to be bad, because who knows what will help the final structure in the end.
Non-linear digital technology made many things different in the process of editing, which is good and bad at the same time. Everything is quicker we can try more things but it isn’t always good. There is no time to think after the influence of many ideas and it is easy to lose the way among the experiments. It is very important to see the film on the big screen because it can be very different from what we see on the monitor. But the computer is not absolutely bad and this is the new way for editing. For me it is not easy because I learnt the traditional method and my system works well in that way. My hands know the task on the traditional editing table and my brain is ready for the film itself. The computer uses a big part of my brain and the film gets less.
Every film and every director demands another system and ‘humour’. The editing room is a very special place – we spend so much time together there and can develop something which can be a ritual. We often quote words, sentences or actions from the film and this is part of editing. When I’m not working my life changes radically. At first it is not easy to switch to another rhythm. Editing is a very intensive thing, which needs much energy and power. When it stops from one day to another it leaves a big void. Often I can’t use my time well, but I need this inactivity.
The editor must have patience, diligence and submission to the profession – a good character and personality. It is important to learn many things: literature, music, arts and needs good taste. Much depends on luck – the right people in the right place at the right time. I mean who you meet – can you understand each other – are you free at that time. Who is a great editor? The film needs good specialists who like the film and not the career.
I don’t choose the film, the film, namely the director chooses me. There are some directors who are my old customers, with whom I have worked together for a long time. And sometimes others come. The Hungarian film industry is not too big – we know each other more or less.
If I get a script I read it but I don’t annotate it. I await the rushes with curiosity, because there are always different from my preconception. My imagination starts working after seeing the rushes.
Every attempt at a cut is meant to be a commitment, but ten minutes later it can be clear that it wasn’t a good idea and we start from the beginning again and again – changing the choice of shot, cut out, put back – as long as it doesn’t look good. This is the way of editing for me, but it varies from film to film. Sound is an internal part of the film and I consider it of equal importance to picture. Sometimes the image is more important, sometimes the sound (e.g. sound effects). The image and the sound together make the film complete – only their proportion can be different.
Music is a very important part of the film. The music and the image together can give something that can’t be expressed in words. But it can be very dangerous when the two don’t meet: the result can be ridiculous or boring. The film has a proper style which includes the music, but sometimes it is worth making experiments with something else, because we can get very interesting results.
I miss my good ‘old’ assistant. I could leave many things to her. She knew my taste; she could follow my ideas. With the computer I have become acquainted with others who are doing the digitising. Generally young people who are very enthusiastic and they help me very much with the new technology.
I can’t change my attitudes. I started with film and this determined my editing system. However sometimes the computer needs something else and the new technology can have its effects on my methods. This is the time for me to learn something else, but I want to keep the old method as far as possible.
Why do I like being an editor – because it is a mode of expression for me. I never wanted to be a director (I was asked about this many times), but at the editing table watching the reels my imagination starts to work and I feel that I am creating something. Not many people are given the opportunity to earn money by doing something they actually like to do so I count myself fortunate.
Notes
1. Blow-Up – Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966.
2. István Dárday and Györgi Szalay – Have made six films together including the intriguing: ‘East from the West or the Discreet Charm of the Media’ and most recently ‘Reflections’,1998.
3. A Film Novel – Three Sisters (1974) and The Prize Trip (1974) – Dárday and Szalay.
4. Family Nest – Béla Tarr, 1979.
5. Miklós Jancsó – Director born in 1921. Co-incidentally Béla Tarr’s partner and editor, Ágnes Hranitsky, was assistant editor on Jancsó’s film ‘The Round-up’, 1965. See also Roberto Perpignani interview.
6. Gábor Bódy (1946–85) – Committed suicide – he had made three major films each of which won prizes – yet another special film-maker who is hardly known outside of his country.
7. ‘Narcissus and Psyche’ – Bódy, 1980.
8. ‘The Dog’s Night Song’ – Bódy, 1983.