An irregular artist who defies categorization. A pioneer of the visual language of Hungarian film, a devotee of the long shot, a virtuoso of light, who can tame any type of new technology or material. A true professional, though he does not like to be called one. When you watch his films, you cannot stop noticing how many so called bravura takes they include. You feel that he will know exactly what is in the picture even if he does not look into the viewfinder – wrote film critic György Báron about him.
He is a contemporary of Elemér Ragályi, Gyula Maár, György Szomjas, and worked as a DoP on all of Szomjas’ films. Between 1970 and 1974 he was a prominent figure at the Béla Balázs Studio. A friend and colleague of Miklós Jancsó, the DoP of most of the director’s later films.
At the end of the 1960s, he was one of the signatories of the so-called “Sociological manifesto”, in which the importance of a deeper visual representation that also reflects the human drama was emphasized over the sheer technical recording of the image. In Grunwalsky’s words, they wanted to show “the visual face of reality”, and back then their initiative was considered to be similar to a social movement.
Ferenc Grunwalsky, a Kossuth- and a Béla Balázs Award winning artist, has made 73 films. “I couldn’t truly say which is my main field: directing, cinematography, screenwriting, photography or experimenting with TV genres. For me, my photo book Danaids is as important as my feature films. My creations are different both in style and in theme. Between two films so many things happen in the world, around me and with me, so many things change in my relations with technology, that I can’t recreate the previous atmosphere, the same style.” – he says about himself.
From 1975, his films have many times received the main award or the cinematography award at the Hungarian Film Week. Since 2010, he has been a member of the Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts, and the same year he was awarded the title Master of Hungarian Motion Picture for his outstanding creative work and for his dedicated professional and public activities.