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.

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.]

1964        Requiem [Lajos Fazekas] ?; short/12m; student film

1965        Jelenlét/Presence [Miklós Jancsó] b&w; short/19m

1967        Csend és kiáltás/Silence and Cry [Miklós Jancsó] us/b&w

1968        Olyan egyszerü [Marianne Szemes] ?; 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        Ca 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] c

2006        Báthory, egy legenda arcai [Juraj Jakubisko] c; cph: Ján Duris & Frantisek A. Brabec