Faustus - Part 5

Dr. Faustus recounts the life of Gyorgy Szabados in this program. Focusing on the years 1944 to 1973, Szabado’s life is a full of twists and turns as Hungary’s political development. Son of a middle-class family, Szabados joins the Communist movement and becomes a journalist. Because of his connections with an out-of-favor Communist official, he is imprisoned for four years. When released, he becomes the manager of a printing company and, along with the rest of Hungary, suffers through the 1956 revolution. In the late sixties, family problems create a conflict between him and his daughter. Aged and exhausted, he escapes to a country town, but even here he knows an essential part of his spirit is missing. Finally, he dies in an accident during a summer storm. The program is part of a serial of 9 pieces. Hungary’s top film director Miklós Jancsó decided to venture into television for the first time: this is his version for electronic cameras of Lazsló Gyurkó’s novel dealing with Hungary in the crucial post Second World War period. How does a film director characterize by vast open spaces in his films, try to catch the essence of a novel in the closed world of a television studio? Are electronic cameras and cameramen able to create a “closed-circuit vision” of a novel?