Synopsis

the life of Mária Gánóczy painter and film-maker

Péter Forgács is an internationally renowned film director and media artist whose latest work is a time travel that spans 200 years of Hungarian history and the aspects of its complex, interweaving art and existence with the substantive comments of art historian Géza Perneczky conducting us through different ages and concepts of painting. The monumental saga, which merges fine arts and filmmaking as well as private and public life, is the story of four generations throughout different epochs of Hungarian artistic life.

The protagonist of Picturesque Epochs is Mária Gánóczy (1927-), a painter and a film aficionado who comes from a family of female artists as far back as her great-grandparents. She brought up nine children with her husband József Breznay (1916-2012), a fellow painter. Gánóczy's films and paintings immortalised the checkered history of Central Europe.

Forgács’s works see representative personal and historical layering by using the most varying film tools and textures: paintings, faded photos, 8-mm film footages, news sections, handwritten documents and radio archives, as well as present-day HD interview recordings.
Picturesque Epochs combines art, family papers and the distinctive features and iconic turns of different eras in this intimate yet extensive saga.

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