The alliance and the Ministry of Education and Culture expressed their deepest regrets over the loss.
Bacsó directed 32 feature films during his career, launching the last on his 80th birthday. In January of this year, he was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the Hungarian Film Week. At the award ceremony, Bacsó said all he ever wanted to do was to make films, it never entered his mind to "fuss over" a body of life works.
Péter Bacsó was born on January 6, 1928 in Kosice, in present-day Slovakia, the son of the writer Boris Palotai. The family moved to Budapest in the 1940s, and Bacsó received his director's diploma from the Theatre and Film Academy in 1950. He started to work at the National Film Production Company, which was later renamed Hunnia Film Studios.
Bacsó became part of the rebirth of Hungarian cinema as a screenplay writer, scripting the very successful Zoltán Fábri film Sweet Anna (Édes Anna) in 1958. He made his directorial debut with It's Easier in Summer (Nyáron egyszerű), a film about the life of young people at the time, in 1963. He followed up with films that shared the same theme, among them Bicyclists in Love (Szerelmes biciklisták) in 1965 and Summer on the Hill (Nyár a hegyen) in 1967.
Bacsó made his most famous film, The Witness (A tanú), a tragicomedy about a dike keeper from the countryside who refuses to participate in a show trial, in 1969. The film which parodied the Stalinist regime, was shown only at closed screenings for many years, but found enormous success and remains a cult classic to this day. The Witness was finally shown in Cannes in 1981, also to great acclaim. Bacsó followed up his masterpiece with Witness Again (Megint tanú) in 1994. The film revisits the dike keeper, but this time after the fall of Communism.
Bacsó continued to make films that addressed the political questions of the times in the 70s, releasing Breakout (Kitörés) in 1970, Present (Jelenidő) in 1971 and The Third Flying Leap (Harmadik nekifutás) in 1973. He continued in the satirical vein with Feel My Beard (Ereszd el a szakálaamat) in 1975 and Who's Talking About Love Here? (Ki beszél itt szerelemről) in 1979. He also satirized the cult of personality of several figures in the 50s with Oh Bloody Life (Te rongyos élet) in 1983, Titania, Titania in 1988 and The Bride of Stalin (Sztálin menyasszonya) in 1990.
Bacsó's films reflected the chaotic conditions in Hungary in the 90s with Gulls and Gangsters (Balekok és banditák) in 1997 and Smouldering Cigarette (Hamvadó cigarettavég) in 2001.
The last film which Bacsó directed and also wrote, Virtually a Virgin (Majdnem Szűz, showed at this year's Film Week. Júlia Ubrankovics took the prize for Best Actress at the festival for her role in the film.
Bacsó was presented the Kossuth Prize, the country's highest award for artists, in 1985. He received the Middle Cross of the Hungarian Republic in 1998. In 2004, he was named Master of Hungarian Cinema, and he received the Pro Renovanda Cultura Hungariae Foundation main prize in 2008.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Photo: MTI
