Own Death

Péter Forgács is the widely known Hungarian master who makes installations and films from found footage from the period between 1930 and 1950. Thanks to these films, he has marvellously, and in his own specific and poetical way (with music, sound and voice-over), given a new take on many historical happenings in the last century as seen from the point of view of people living then.
This latest film of his has taken a slightly different direction, as this is the first time he has made a fiction film. The film is based on a short novel by the Hungarian writer Péter Nádas. Found footage is used here as well, but not very much. The rest is black-and-white modern footage. Dutch film maker Peter Delpeut sees this work as follows: ‘Dying is a tough job, especially when one has to urgently finish some galley proofs.’ Péter Nádas brought this across brilliantly in his short novel Own Death. And it now has a brilliant equivalent in the imagery Péter Forgács designed for it. Only seldom since Marguerite Duras’ India Song has the collaboration between the literary and the cinematic been so successful as in this Forgács film of the Nádas story. (LC)

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