KÁROLY MAKK

(22 December 1925 - 30 August 2017)

Although the Hungarian screenwriter and director Károly Makk, who has died at the age of 91, was part of the new wave of Hungarian directors in the 1960s and 1970s, he had in fact been making films since 1951 but was often hampered by the thought police of the Communist government. Only a few of his nearly 50 films reached the UK, but he will be particularly remembered for Love (1971), in which a political prisoner’s wife tells her mother-in-law that her son is directing a movie in New York. The film won three awards at Cannes. Makk’s Oscar-nominated Cat’s Play (1975) was about two sisters who recall their younger days through letters. A Very Moral Night (1977) dealt with sexual politics, while Another Way (1982) was about the murder of a female journalist by her husband because of her lesbian relationship. Its Oscar nomination was withdrawn by the Hungarian authorities, although it won awards at Cannes and elsewhere. Lily in Love (1984), an adaptation of Molnár’s play The Guardsman, had Maggie Smith as a playwright and Christopher Plummer as her egotistical actor husband. Makk also made The Last Manuscript, Hungarian Requiem, and The Gambler, about Dostoyevsky, with Michael Gambon, Jodhi May and Luise Rainer, along with many other features and television productions. His last film was As You Are in 2010. Károly Makk was married three times and had a daughter, Lily.

MICHAEL DARVELL