Gábor Bódy
1946 - 1985Bódy was born in Budapest, in an urban middle-class family. He studied history and philosophy at Loránd Eötvös University and later filmmaking at the Academy for Theater and Film Arts. During his university days he became an influential member of the Béla Balázs Stúdió (BBS). He made his first film A Harmadik (The Third) (a documentary about students preparing an adaptation of Faust on stage) in 1971. He established various experimental and avantgarde projects at BBS including the Film Language Series in 1973 and the K/3 experimental film group in 1976, reshaping the postwar Hungarian avantgarde film's path.
In 1975 he completed his debut feature at BBS, which was also his graduation thesis film at the university. Amerikai Anzix (American Torso) won the Grand Prize for best new filmmaker at International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg and the Hungarian Film Critics prize for best first film. The film which depicts the lives of Hungarian 1848 Revolution veterans in the American Civil War features Bódy's experimentalism at the fullest. The whole film was re-edited using his own method called "light editing" in order to make it resemble a wracked silent film from the late 19th century.
His next feature Nárcisz és Psyché was the largest-scale Hungarian production of its era. This epic production based on Sándor Weöres's poetic work Psyché starred Patricia Adriani, Udo Kier and György Cserhalmi and exists in three versions: an original 210min two part version, a 136min version for foreign distribution and a 270min three part television version. In 1980 Bódy began to work on the first international video magazine INFERMENTAL and managed to publish the first of 10 issues (plus one special issue) while on a residency at DAAD Berliner Küunstlerprogram in 1982. The series published featured a range of guest editors and in total included work from over 1500 artists from 36 countries and was published up to 1991.
After many frustrated projects Bódy managed to complete what was to become his final feature film Kutya éji dala (Dog's Night Song). Bódy cast himself as the lead in this ambitious and influential feature which incorporated Super8 and video footage as well as a range of Hungarian underground punk bands (Galloping Coroners, Trabant) of the time in order to a film "deeply rooted in the fundamentals of today's reality."
In 1985 Bódy died under sketchy circumstances. A later published information (2001) hints his earlier collaboration (1973–1983) with the Hungarian Secret Police, the III/III. Authorities of the time (Hungary was then considered a 'satellite' country of the Soviet Union) stated that he had killed himself. His widow instead preferred a charge of murder against certain unidentified parties. No official investigation followed and Bódy's fate remains a mystery to this day.
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Nárcisz és Psyché
Gábor Bódy
Patricia Adriani, Udo Kier
Narcisus and Psyche is based on a novel by Sandor Weores which was adapted by Vilmos Csaplar and director Gabor Body for a feature-length film. Borrowing the character of Psyche from mythology and placing her in Europe in the 19th century, the authors give her a "modern" life. She is an attractive young woman - and remains so throughout the film, in spite of one hardship after another. Psyche is libidinous, and her prurient interests shock her staid contemporaries.
Narcissus and Psyche
Kutya éji dala
Gábor Bódy
Gábor Bódy, Marietta Méhes
A priest arrives in a village and give advice and comfort to different people. He meets a wheelchair-bound former representative of the Communist party, a woman who is dying of tuberculosis and an astronomer who sings in a punk band.
Dog's Night Song
Agitátorok
Dezsö Magyar
Gábor Bódy, László Bertalan
After the World War I, enthusiastic young people found the intellectual group of Hungarian Communist Party. Their aim is to propagate the communist ideology to the people and get the workers on their side. They have fierce discussions on the new ideas, though their movement is not very successful. They clash with their opposition, attempt to lead people to the Red Army, but without success.
The Agitators
Amerikai anzix
Gábor Bódy
Sándor Csutoros, György Cserhalmi
The film depicts the lives of veterans of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution in the American Civil War, based in part on an Ambrose Bierce story. The whole film was re-edited using his own method called "light editing" in order to make it resemble a damaged silent film from the late 1800s.
American Torso
Novalis - Walzer
Gábor Bódy
There is also dancing in this tape but this time it's about the lyric dance of youth and is depicted by Bódy in an unconventional way. Walzer is a poem written by Novalis, the German romantic poet (1772-1801) to mark the premature death of his fiancée Sophie von Kühn. The text of Walzer is recited and appears in a spiral - the spiral of life? Lyric-Clip reflects the transience of youth as borne out by the macabre, dancing skeleton that appears on screen.
Novalis - Walzer
Either/Or In Chinatown
Gábor Bódy
Zoltán Lipics, Deborah Fong
Either/Or in Chinatown was commissioned by Video Inn and shot in part at the Western Front during Bódy’s 1984 residency. Based on Danish philosopher Søren Kierkega’s Diary of a Seducer, Either/Or in Chinatown speaks to the impossibility of choice as it follows the narrator’s through days spent in attempts to attain the love of ‘Cordelia’.
Either/Or In Chinatown
Egy bagatell
Gábor Bódy
Bódy Gábor made his experimental film-language series Négy bagatell (Four bagatelles) between 1972 and 1975. Egy bagatell (One bagatelle) is the third part of this series which is a unique experiment to show the film frame's meaning-altering nature. The etude can be divided into two parts. In the first part, we see the dance of a drunk man. The second shows a sociologist's lecture.
Egy bagatell