film

Aréna

Hungary | 1970 | 23’

  • Director: János Tóth
  • Script: János Tóth
  • Cinematography: János Tóth, János Vadász, Ferenc Neményi
  • Editing: János Tóth
  • Sound: György Pintér
  • Music: Péter Eötvös
  • Production: Béla Balázs Studio
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  • DCP: National Film Institute (Hungary)

János Tóth stood out from the first days of BBS as one of its most innovative cinematographers. He also directed an extremely important corpus of experimental films. Aréna is a film which is both highly stylised and highly political. Tóth connects with the structural film of his time and rolls out his metaphysical fascination for cinema. The documentary metamorphoses into the creator’s interior monologue, into a lyrical meditation: the modern conflict between the advance of civilisation and the timeless immutability of being takes the form of a poem of free associations on mass hysteria. (Federico Rossin)