JÁNOS KENDE

JÁNOS KENDE HSC

Born: 22 September 1941, Marseille, France.

Education: Színház- és Filmmûvészeti Fõiskola/Academy of Drama and Film, Budapest [1961-65; one of his teachers was doph György Illés].

Career: Ph commercials.

Is head [and prod of a number of student films] of the Camera Department of the Színház- és Filmmûvészeti Fõiskola.

President of the HSC since ?.

His sister Júlia is a film editor.

Appeared in the doc 'Simó Sándor' [2002, Ibolya Fekete].

Awards: Patrick Pouget Prize for Camera Work [1972] for 'Még kér a nép'; Hungarian Film Week 'Best Cinematographer' [1973] for 'Petöfi '73'; Béla Balázs Prize [1975]; Merited Artist [1984]; Honoured Artist [1990]; Kossuth Prize [1994].

János Kende: 'In my time, between 1961 and 1965, directors and cameramen were trained separately. The training was very good and very thorough and each student received a lot of personal attention. [György] Illés tried to get each student to develop his own personal style as a cameraman, and I developed a very close personal relationship with him. We were perhaps the last group to receive such close attention and we were also perhaps the last group not to receive any separate training in electronics and television work. While I was still at school, I began to work with Tamás Vámos, a director who now lives in Canada, and with Sándor Sára. I missed quite a few classes as a result, but Illés felt that I was learning as much through working with Sára as I would through attending school.

On the whole, I've always put the emphasis on playing a subordinate role, for the real responsibility for the film lies with the director. Naturally, I always try to put something of my own personality into the film, but my primary concern lies with what the director wants. So if there is a difference of opinion between the director and myself, and if I can't persuade him to accept my point of view, then I will just do as he wants. Naturally, if there are too many disagreements of this kind, they will lead to a point where we stop working together. What I require from a director is that he should see the world in much the same way as I do, that we should have some ideas in common.

I'm simply interested in making good and successful films, and the methods involved don't really matter. I'm happy making films, whether they're simple or sophisticated. I enjoy improvisation and I also enjoy making films that involve long and careful planning.

One of my favorite artists is Alexander Calder, who made mobiles: they move, yet in every phase of their movement they create a perfect composition. That's something you find in [Miklós] Jancsó too, the same combination of movement and composition. I don't really approach films from a technical viewpoint, although I realize that you have to be able to understand that aspect and be able to work with it. Unlike some of my colleagues, I've never been excited about any particular tool of filmmaking, a special kind of film stock or lens or anything like that; what interests me is what you can achieve by using that particular tool. However, I've always been happy when I could find the solution to a particular technical problem.

The way Jancsó makes his films is usually that, two or three months beforehand, he and his scriptwriter have long discussions about the film. I often take part in these discussions myself and, almost of its own accord, a certain idea of what the film will be like develops out of this. It was rather different, however, with the most recent film I made with Jancsó which is my tenth with him overall, 'A zsarnok szíve'. Here, for the first time, Jancsó recorded the rehearsals, and then he and I looked at them on a TV monitor and discussed things and decided what changes to make in the various shots. In the earlier films, however, as I was the one who was actually operating the camera and controlling the zoom, it was really up to me to decide how to frame the shots and Jancsó saw the results for the first time when the rushes were shown.' [From interview with Graham Petrie, 1985.]

FILMS
1964	Requiem [Lajos Fazekas] b&w; short/12m; student film
1965	Jelenlét/Presence [Miklós Jancsó] b&w; short/19m
1967	Üzenet/Message [Livia Gyarmathy] ?; doc/58m
1967	Csend és kiáltás/Silence and Cry [Miklós Jancsó] us/b&w; filmed 1967-68
1968	Olyan egyszerü [Marianne Szemes] b&w; short/8m; cph: Tamás Andor
1968	Holdudvar/Binding Sentiments [Márta Mészáros] b&w
1968	Sirokkó/Sirocco d'hiver/Winter Wind [Miklós Jancsó] as/c
1969	Egy örült éjszaka/A Crazy Night [Ferenc Kardos] b&w
1970	Meztelen vagy!/Legend About the Death and Resurrection of Two Young Men [Imre Gyöngyössy] c
1970	Mérsékelt égöv/Temperate Zone [Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács] as/b&w
1970	Égi bárány/Agnus Dei [Miklós Jancsó] c
1970	Szép magyar komédia/A Gallant Story [Tamás Banovich] c
1970	Szép lányok, ne sírjatok! [Márta Mészáros] b&w
1971	Még kér a nép/Red Psalm [Miklós Jancsó] c
1972	Petöfi '73 [Ferenc Kardos] c
1972	Jelbeszéd/Recovery [Mara (Mária) Luttor] c
1972	Romantika/Romanticism [Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács] c
1972	Utazás Jakabbal/Voyage with Jacob [Pál Gábor] c
1973	A locslókocsi/The Orange Watering Truck [Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács] c
1973	Roma rivuole Cesare/Rome Wants Another Caesar/Róma új Cézárt akar [Miklós Jancsó] c
1974	Szarvassá vált fiúk/Songs of Fire [Imre Gyöngyössy] c
1974	Hajdúk/Unruly Heyducks [Ferenc Kardos] c
1974	Várakozók [Imre Gyöngyössy] c
1974	Szerelmem, Elektra/Elektreia/Beloved Electra [Miklós Jancsó] c
1975	Ha megjön József/When Joseph Returns... [Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács] c
1976	Labirintus/Labyrinth [András Kovács] b&w
1976	Kilenc hónap/Nine Months [Márta Mészáros] c
1977	Ékezet/The Accent [Ferenc Kardos] c
1977	Fedõneve: Lukács/Code Name: Lukács [Sándor Köõ & Manos Zakarias] c
1977	Ök ketten/The Two of Them/Women [Márta Mészáros] c
1978	Második jelenlét [Miklós Jancsó] c; doc/12m
1978	Egyszeregy/Peter and Paul [Ferenc Kardos] c
1978	Magyar rapszódia/Hungarian Rhapsody [Miklós Jancsó] c
1978	Allegro barbaro: Magyar rapszódia 2/Hungarian Rhapsody - Allegro Barbaro [Miklós Jancsó] c
1981	A zsarnok szíve [, avagy Boccaccio magyarországon]/The Tyrant's Heart [, or Boccaccio in Hungary] [Miklós Jancsó] c
1981	A koncert/The Concert [Gábor Koltay] c; doc/97m; cph: Elemér Ragályi
1981	Fogadó az örök világossághoz [Róbert Bán] c
1981	Visszaesök/Forbidden Relations [Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács] c
1983	Boszorkányszombat/Witches' Sabbath [János Rózsa] c
1984	Sortüz egy fekete bivalyért/A Volley for a Black Buffalo [László Szabó] c
1984	István, a király/István, the King [Gábor Koltay] c; addph; ph: Tamás Andor; filmed perf of a rock opera
1985	A rejtözködö/Absent [Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács] c
1986	La sposa era bellissima/A menyasszony gyönyörü volt/The Bride Was Beautiful [Pál Gábor] c
1986	Irány hollandia/Trein naar Holland [Hilde van Oostrum] 16mm/c; doc/75m
1986	Harmadik jelenlét [Miklós Jancsó] c; doc/10m
1986	Szörnyek évadja/Season of Monsters [Miklós Jancsó] c
1987	Szerelem második vérig [György Dobray] c; co-co-cinematographer; ph: Tamás Andor
1987	Kiáltás és kiáltás/Cry and Cry Again [Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács] c
1988	Jézus Krisztus horoszkópja/Jesus Christ's Horoscope [Miklós Jancsó] c
1989	Szürkület/Twilight [György Fehér] b&w; cph: Peter Benya & Miklós Gurbán
1990	Isten hátrafelé megy/God Walks Backwards [Miklós Jancsó] c
1991	Kék Duna keringö/Wiener Walzer/Blue Danube Waltz [Miklós Jancsó] c
1992	Az utolsó nyáron.../The Last Summer [Ferenc András] c
1992	Jona che visse nella balena/Jonah Who Lived in the Whale/Look to the Sky [Roberto Faenza] c
1993	Maradékok - Gheorge és Mendel [Miklós Jancsó] 16mm/c; doc/15m
1993	A kövek üzenete/The Message of Stones [Miklós Jancsó] v/c; 5-part doc series; cph: Nyika Jancsó, István Kozma, Tamás Nyerges & Péter Vékás
1994	A szeressük egymást, gyerekek!/Love Each Other [seg (30m) 'A nagy agyhalál/The Great Brain Death' dir by Miklós Jancsó] c; 3 seg; other ph: Tamás Sas & Gábor Medvigy
1995	A három testör Afrikában/Three Bodyguards in Africa [István Bujtor] c; cph: Buda Gulyás
1995	Elmondták-e? [Miklós Jancsó] v/c; doc/48m; cph: Nyika Jancsó, István Kozma, Tamás Nyerges & Péter Vékás
1996	Wesselényi utca 13/Stories of the House [Sándor Simó] c; doc/44m
1996	A világ legkisebb alapítványa/The World's Smallest Foundation [Ferenc Kardos] c
1996	Franciska vasárnapjai/Franciska's Sundays/Every Sunday [Sándor Simó] c
1996	Az én kis növérem/My Little Sister [András Sipos] c
1996	In memoriam Gyöngyössy Imre [Barna Kabay & Katalin Petényi] b&w-c; dram doc/84m; cph: Péter Jankura, Sándor Sára, Michael Teutsch, a.o.
1997	Je suis vivante et je vous aime/I'm Alive and I Love You [Roger Kahane] c; ph France: Dragan Stamenkovich
1998	Ça boum [Agnès Soral] c; short/5m
1998	Ámbár tanár úr/Professor Albeit [Róbert Koltai] c
2001	Papà Rua Alguem 5555/My Father - Rua Alguem 5555 [Egidio Eronico] b&w-c
2006	Báthory, egy legenda arcai [Juraj Jakubisko] c; cph: Ján Duris & Frantisek A. Brabec

TELEVISION
1971	La tecnica e il rito/Il Giovane Attila/The Technique and the Rite/Technika és ritus [Miklós Jancsó] tvm
1979	Mathias Sandorf/Sándor Mátyás [Jean-Pierre Decourt] 6–part miniseries
1982	Liszt Ferenc/Franz Liszt [Miklós Szinetár] 16-part series
1982	Budapest - Muzsika [Miklós Jancsó] doc/54m
1984	Suomi - Filmjegyzetek [Miklós Jancsó] doc/?m; cph: Nyika Jancsó
1984	Postarablók/Mail Robbers [Ferenc András] tvm
1985	Ember és árnyék [Pál Gábor] tvm; cph: András Szalai
1991	Nostoi visszatérés [Miklós Jancsó] 3-part series (73m, 62m & 69m)
1992	Le jardin des plantes/Párisi állatkert/The Greenhouse [Philippe de Broca] tvm
1994	Royce [Rod Holcomb] tvm; 2uc; ph: Thomas Del Ruth
2000	József és testvérei [András Jeles & Iván Markó] tvm
2006	Kádár János utolsó beszéde [András Sólyom] b&w-c; doc/50m; cph: László Reich

MISCELLANEOUS
1966	Apa [- egy hit naplója]/Father [: Diary of One Week] [István Szabó] c.op; ph: Sándor Sára
1967	Ünnepnapok/Red Letter Days [Ferenc Kardos] c.asst; ph: Sándor Sára
1967	Csillagosok, katonák/Zvyozdy i soldaty/The Red and the White [Miklós Jancsó] c.asst; ph: Tamás Sómló
1968	Feldobott kö/The Thrown-Up Stone [Sándor Sára] c.asst; ph: S. Sára
1986	Varázslat - Queen Budapesten/Queen - Live in Budapest [János Zsombolyai; concert film] co-c.op; ph: Elemér Ragályi
1989	Cyrano de Bergerac [Jean-Paul Rappeneau] co-c.op; ph: Pierre Lhomme
1991	Désenchantée [Laurent Boutonnat; mus video/10m (a: Mylène Farmer)] c.op; ph: Jean-Pierre Sauvaire
1998	Woyzeck [dir] dance film/62m/BetaSP
2005	A vírus/The Virus [Ágnes Kocsis; student short/28m] co-prod; ph: Máté Herbai