Hungarian-born director in British and American films, whose black
comedies have on the whole been less successful than his more serious ventures. But then
few directors have achieved opposite ends of the success and failure scale with such
regularity. For every 'awful' in Medak's record, there's an 'amazing' too; a lot of his
work, though, in one way or another, is pretty dark.
Born in Budapest, Medak fled his homeland during the uprising of 1956
and landed in England, where he entered a long film industry apprenticeship
that included work as sound editor, film editor, assistant director
and second unit director. He made his debut as a director in rather
mannered style with the bizarre Negatives (1968), which attracted some
attention since its star, Glenda Jackson,
was 'hot' on the British cinema scene. A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
(1972) was an uneasy black comedy about a couple considering the mercy-killing
of their child, but Medak had a much bigger commercial success with
The Ruling Class
(1972), a very weird comedy about a British nobleman (Peter 0' Toole)
who thinks he's Jesus Christ. That seemed to fit Medak for a prime career
in British and international cinema. In fact, the only 'amazing' film
he made in the next decade came from Canada. The Changeling (1980) is
a very superior example of the haunted house thriller whose horrors
are never (well, only in flashback) seen. Its ghost lurks in narrow,
confined spaces and age-old cobwebbed rooms, and Medak's cameras track
relentlessly through these claustrophobic environs like an invader in
some old and murky painting stirred almost to life.
It was followed by another decade of non-achievement, in which TV movies
mingled with such cinematic turkeys as Zorro, The Gay Blade (1981) and
The Men's Club (1986). It took a trip back to Britain to return Medak
to prominence with two real-life crime dramas. The
Krays (1990) was a hard-as-ebony, extremely well set and strong
reconstruction of the bloody careers of twin ganglords who ruled London's
crime from East End to West End in the Fifties. But it was topped by
Let
Him Have It (1991), a reconstruction of a single criminal case from
the same era, an emotive affair in which it seemed a miscarriage of
justice might have been done. Medak's treatment of the affair is immaculate,
and the acting couldn't be bettered. Since then, he has returned to
America, where his work has assumed a lower profile. He has also made
two cinematic records of stage productions starring his wife, opera
singer Julia Migenes. Romeo is Bleeding (1993) was a dark film-noir
featuring Gary Oldman as a crooked cop sliding into a spiral of violence,
decadence and death.
