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Mari Törőcsik, one of Hungary’s most prominent actors who won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and starred in two Oscar-nominated films, died on Friday in Budapest after a long illness. She was 85.

Törőcsik’s first international appearance was at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival where she starred in Palme d’Or contender Körhinta (Merry-Go-Round), from director Zoltán Fábri. In that film, she played a young farmer girl who falls in love with a peasant boy against her father’s wishes.

Francois Truffaut, who was then a journalist with the weekly Arts, said he would have given her the Best Actress Award and French poet Jean Cocteau also praised her talent. Truffaut wrote: “without the twenty-year-old artist knowing it, she was the biggest star of the festival.”

Over the past half century, she played more than 100 roles. She worked with Fábri as well as Miklós Jancsó, Márta Mészáros and Károly Makk on multiple occasions.

Mari Törőcsik, one of Hungary’s leading actors, died on Friday, at the age of 85, in Budapest after a long illness. She won best actress at the Cannes Film Festival, and appeared in two Oscar nominated films.

Törőcsik’s first international appearance was in 1956 at Cannes, where she starred in Zoltán Fábri’s Palme d’Or competitor “Körhinta” (Merry-Go-Round), playing a country girl in love with a peasant boy, battling against the opposition of her father to the relationship.

During the festival, Francois Truffaut, who was then a journalist with the weekly Arts, said he would have given her the best actress award, and Jean Cocteau also praised her performance. Truffaut wrote: “Without the 20-year-old artist knowing it, she was the biggest star of the festival.”

Since then she has played more than 100 roles. She worked with directors Fábri, Miklós Jancsó, Márta Mészáros and Károly Makk on multiple occasions.

Several...

For the fifth year running, Lyon’s Lumière Festival will honor Hungarian cinema and invite guests of the Hungarian National Film Fund to present two classic Hungarian films from important national filmmakers, Márta Mészáros’ “Ők ketten” (“Women”) and Zoltán Fábri’s “Fifth Seal.”

Both films will be presented by Lumière Festival special guest Marina Vlady on Oct 18.

It’s a treat for the Hungarian National Film Fund, coming just one month after hosting their own retrospective film festival, the Budapest Classics Film Marathon. This year’s event saw 100 films screen over seven days with more than 17,000 spectators attending.

1977’s “Women” stars popular Hungarian actors Lili Monori and Golden Globe-nominated Marina Vlady (“The Conjugal Bed”) with an appearance from Vladimir Visotski (“The Duel”). The story turns on two women, Juli and Mari, who are each experiencing marital crisis. Their problems bring the two together in an attempt to help one another put their lives back together.

Award-winning Hungarian director whose best films demonstrate how state oppression damages love and fidelity but cannot kill the human spirit

The glory days of the Hungarian cinema from the mid-1960s to the mid-70s came about mainly because of the relative liberalisation of the communist regime under the Soviet loyalist János Kádár. Károly Makk, who has died aged 91, was among leading Hungarian directors such as Miklós Jancsó, Márta Mészáros, István Szabó, Zoltán Fábri and István Gaál whose films were beginning to be shown and acclaimed more and more in the west.

Because of problems with censorship under the previous, Stalinist puppet regime, Makk, who had been making films since 1955, had to wait until 1971 to gain international recognition with his simply titled masterpiece, Love. “I asked every year for six years for permission to make it. The political elite finally gave in because it was part of a rejection of the Stalin years.

The Festival de Cannes has announced the lineup for the official selection, including the Competition and Un Certain Regard sections, as well as special screenings, for the 69th edition of the festival:COMPETITIONOpening Night: Café Society (Woody Allen) [Out of Competition]Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)Julieta (Pedro Almodóvar)American Honey (Andrea Arnold)Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas)La Fille Inconnue (Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne)Juste La Fin du Monde (Xavier Dolan)Ma Loute (Bruno Dumont)Paterson (Jim Jarmusch)Rester Vertical (Alain Guiraudie)Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho)Mal de Pierres (Nicole Garcia)I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach)Ma' Rosa (Brillante Mendoza)Bacalaureat (Cristian Mungiu)Loving (Jeff Nichols)Agassi (Park Chan-Wook)The Last Face (Sean Penn)Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu)Elle (Paul Verhoeven)The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding-Refn)The Salesman (Asgha Farhadi)Un Certain REGARDOpening Film: Clash (Mohamed Diab)Varoonegi (Behnam Behzadi)Apprentice (Boo Junfeng)Voir du Pays (Delphine Coulin & Muriel Coulin)La Danseuse (Stéphanie Di Giusto)La...

Section to include world premiere of Bertrand Tavernier doc; a cinema masterclass with William Friedkin and a tribute to documentary giants Raymond Depardon and Frederick Wiseman.

Bertrand Tavernier’s documentary about French cinema Voyage à Travers le Cinéma Français will receive a world premiere at the Cannes Classic section of the Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22).

The revered French filmmaker has described his latest work as an expression of “gratitude to all the filmmakers, writers, actors and musicians that have appeared suddenly in my life.”

Voyage à Travers le Cinéma Français is a Little Bear-Gaumont-Pathé co-production and was made in participation with Canal+, Cine+ and the Sacem, with the support of Région Ile-de-France and Cnc. Gaumont will handle international sales and Pathé have distribution in France. The film will be released in theaters in October 2016.

As in previous years, Cannes Classic will also feature nine documentaries about cinema and restored prints of 20 international classics including rare gems...

Section to include a cinema masterclass with William Friedkin, the 70th anniversary of the Fipresci prize, a tribute to documentary giants Raymond Depardon and Frederick Wiseman and the double Palme d’Or of 1966.

Bertrand Tavernier’s documentary about French cinema Voyage à Travers le Cinéma Français will receive a world premiere at the Cannes Classic section of the Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22).

The legendary French filmmaker has described his latest work as an expression of “gratitude to all the filmmakers, writers, actors and musicians that have appeared suddenly in my life.”

Voyage à Travers le Cinéma Français is a Little Bear-Gaumont-Pathé co-production and was made in participation with Canal+, Cine+ and the Sacem, with the support of Région Ile-de-France and Cnc. Gaumont will handle international sales and Pathé have distribution in France. The film will be released in theaters in October 2016.

As in previous years, Cannes Classic will also feature nine documentaries about cinema and restored...

Now that most of the Cannes Film Festival 2016 line-up has been settled when it comes to new premieres, their Cannes Classics sidebar of restored films is not only a treat for those attending, but a hint at what we can expect to arrive at repertory theaters and labels like Criterion in the coming years.

Today they’ve unveiled their line-up, which is toplined by Bertrand Tavernier‘s new 3-hour and 15-minute documentary about French cinema, Voyage à travers le cinéma français. They will also be screening William Friedkin‘s Sorcerer following his masterclass. Along with various documentaries, both classics in the genre and ones about films, they will also premiere new restorations of Andrei Tarkovsky‘s Solaris, Jean-Luc Godard‘s Masculin féminin, two episodes of Krzysztof Kieślowski‘s The Decalogue, as well as films from Kenji Mizoguchi, Marlon Brando, Jacques Becker, Mario Bava, and more.

Check out the line-up below.

Luise Rainer dies at age 104: Rainer was first consecutive Oscar winner, first two-time winner in acting categories and oldest surviving winner (photo: MGM star Luise Rainer in the mid-'30s.) The first consecutive Academy Award winner, the first two-time winner in the acting categories, and, at age 104, the oldest surviving Oscar winner as well, Luise Rainer (Best Actress for The Great Ziegfeld, 1936, and The Good Earth, 1937) died at her London apartment on December 30 -- nearly two weeks before her 105th birthday. Below is an article originally posted in January 2014, at the time Rainer turned 104. I'll be sharing more Luise Rainer news later on Tuesday. January 17, 2014: Inevitably, the Transformers movies' director Michael Bay (who recently had an on-camera "meltdown" after a teleprompter stopped working at the Consumer Electronics Show) and the Transformers movies' star Shia Labeouf (who was recently accused of plagiarism) were mentioned -- or rather, blasted, in...

Oldest person in movies? (Photo: Manoel de Oliveira) Following the recent passing of 1931 Dracula actress Carla Laemmle at age 104, there is one less movie centenarian still around. So, in mid-June 2014, who is the oldest person in movies? Manoel de Oliveira Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira will turn 106 next December 11; he’s surely the oldest person — at least the oldest well-known person — in movies today. De Oliveira’s film credits include the autobiographical docudrama Memories and Confessions / Visita ou Memórias e Confissões (1982), with de Oliveira as himself, and reportedly to be screened publicly only after his death; The Cannibals / Os Canibais (1988); The Convent / O Convento (1995); Porto of My Childhood / Porto da Minha Infância (2001); The Fifth Empire / O Quinto Império - Ontem Como Hoje (2004); and, currently in production, O Velho do Restelo ("The Old Man of Restelo"). Among the international stars who have been directed by de Oliveira are Catherine Deneuve, Pilar López de Ayala,...

Profound Desires Of The Gods

Eureka, Blu-Ray

With most films you can guess when they were made, to within five years, just by looking at them. Some films, however, are so locked into their own little world, so perfectly and unwaveringly delivered, that you'd be hard-pressed to date them with any accuracy. This near-forgotten classic from Shohei Imamura (better known for Pigs & Battleships and the incredible 1979 serial killer film Vengeance Is Mine) slides easily into the latter category. Released to mass bafflement and public indifference in 1968 after an indulgent 18-month production schedule, it looks and feels as if it could have been made any time within the past five decades. Set on a fictional island near Okinawa, the tale concerns a Tokyo engineer sent to oversee the construction of a well for a sugar mill. His encounters with a shamed local family provide a story that touches on both farce and allegory.