István Szabó Filmography

Relatives

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Sándor Csányi, Ildiko Toth, Oleg Tabakov, Karoly Eperjes, Erika Marozsán

Synopsis: A virtuous man discovers just how deep corruption can run, and how easy one can succumb to it, in this satiric comedy-drama from Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Szabo. When a scandal brings down the attorney general of a small but prosperous community near Budapest, Istvan Kopjass (Sandor Csanyi), a Read More

Being Julia

Crew: Director

Actors: Annette Bening, Jeremy Irons, Bruce Greenwood, Miriam Margolyes, Juliet Stevenson

Synopsis: A woman scorned unleashes her fury in this droll comedy based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham. Julia Lambert (Annette Bening) is a famous and well-respected actress, but though her life in the limelight seems glamorous, things are not going well for her off-stage. Julia's husband is unfaithful Read More

Taking Sides

Crew: Director

Actors: Harvey Keitel, Stellan Skarsgård, Moritz Bleibtreu, Birgit Minichmayr, Oleg Tabakov

Synopsis: Set in Germany in 1946, Taking Sides tells the story of the investigation of Wilhelm Furtwängler (Stellan Skarsgård), the renowned conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras, by the American occupying army. Major Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel) has been told by his Read More

Ten Minutes Older: The Cello

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Amit Arroz, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Mark Long, Alexandra Staden, Dominic West

Synopsis: Eight master directors of world cinema combine forces for this omnibus film that focuses cumulatively on the subject of time. Bookended by cello interludes, Ten Minutes Older: The Cello presents just one parameter to each of its filmmakers: no final entry can be more or less than ten minutes long. Read More

Sunshine

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Ehle, Molly Parker

Synopsis: The fortunes of a family of Hungarian Jews are followed over the course of nearly 150 years in this epic historical drama, with leading man Ralph Fiennes playing three different roles. The story begins in the late 18th century, as Aaron and Josefa Sonnenschein (the name means "Sunshine" in German) Read More

Franciska Vasarnapjai

Synopsis: Though Hungarian politics play a key role in providing the backdrop for this account of a young woman's life, the real focus is on the long-term romance between the woman and her married lover. The tale begins just before the outbreak of WW II. Franciska is a country girl working in a mansion. One Read More

Steadying the Boat

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: Made by Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Szabo as an entry in the Scottish BBC television series Director's Place -- a program devoted to offering insightful self-portraits of the world's great filmmakers -- this highly symbolic venture is more subtle than other entries in that it focuses not on Szabo Read More

Utrius

Actors: Mihaly Szabados, Ildiko Szucs, István Szabó, Peter Andorai, Mari Csomos

Synopsis: Irony abounds in this Hungarian drama that chronicles the situation in the Balkans. The story begins in 1914 as Pal Utrius, an adolescent, is drafted into the military. Just before he leaves, he makes love to his sister. His letters to her provide the framework for his tumultuous inner thoughts. Read More

Edes Emma, Draga Böbe - Vazlatok, Aktok

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Johanna ter Steege, Peter Andorai

Synopsis: Emma has moved to Budapest from the countryside with her good friend Böbe, and both of them have taken jobs as schoolteachers. However, their wages are pitifully small, and all they can afford in the way of housing is a shared room in a boarding house near the airport. The two women have settled Read More

Meeting Venus

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Glenn Close, Niels Arestrup, Erland Josephson, Macha Meril

Synopsis: Meeting Venus is based on a play cowritten by the film's director, Istvan Szabo. Glenn Close plays a celebrated Swedish opera star Karin Anderson who is slated to appear in an internationally-telecast production of Tannhauser. Ms. Anderson balks at the notion of working with obscure Hungarian Read More

Hanussen

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Erland Josephson, Ildikó Bánsági, Walter Schmidinger, Karoly Eperjes

Synopsis: Based on a true story, Istvan Szabo's Hanussen centers on an Austrian soldier (Klaus Maria Brandauer) who becomes clairvoyant after he is shot in the head during World War I. He is able to read minds and predict the future. Before long, he has foreseen Hitler and the Nazis' rise to power, and he Read More

Tusztortenet

Actors: Ary Beri, Gabor Svidrony, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, István Szabó, Judith Pogany

Synopsis: In this Hungarian drama, a pair of thugs hold a dormitory full of girls hostage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Colonel Redl

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Hans-Christian Blech, Gudrun Landgrebe, Dorottya Udvaros

Synopsis: The second film in the trilogy made by director Istvan Szabo and actor Klaus Maria Brandauer -- hammocked between Mephisto and Hanussen -- Colonel Redl continues Mephisto's fascination with a man overwhelmed by history. In that film, Brandauer played an actor who tried to ignore the rise of the Read More

Bali

Crew: Director

Mephisto

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Krystyna Janda, Ildikó Bánsági, Karin Boyd, Rolf Hoppe

Synopsis: Based on Klaus Mann's novel, Mephisto details the rise of a Faustian character who figuratively sells his soul in exchange for greatness. Hendrik Hofgen (Klaus Maria Brandauer, offering an electric performance) is the star of a state-funded theater department who tires of his job. Like his Read More

Bizalom

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Ildikó Bánsági, Peter Andorai

Synopsis: Confidence is set in wartime Hungary. Fugitives Peter Andorai and Ildiko Bansagi are married, though not to each other. In order to escape the Nazis, the pair must reluctantly pose as husband and wife. Their ever-growing mutual trust and respect eventually blossoms into love. Released in Hungary Read More

Budapesti Mesek

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: Hungarian director Istvan Szabó's 1976 feature Budapest Tales (AKA Budapesti mesék) unfolds in a purely allegorical, dreamlike realm, rich with indigenous symbolism. Following some great catastrophic onslaught - its exact nature unknown - a number of individuals emerge from hiding and discover a Read More

Osbemutato

Crew: Director

25, Firemen's Street

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Rita Bekes, Lucyna Winnicka

Synopsis: Hungarian filmmaker István Szabó's moving drama concerns the occupants of an old house who gather on the eve of its demolition to reflect on their lives from World War II to the present. Among the residents are Mrs. Gaskoy (Rita Bekes), a baker's wife who hid people from the Nazis in the house's Read More

World's Largest Television Studio

Synopsis: This documentary covers the Democratic National Convention of 1972. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Love Film

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Andras Balint, Judit Halasz, Lucyna Winnicka

Synopsis: Childhood sweethearts are reunited in France after they are separated during the 1956 Russian invasion of Hungary. Jansci (Andras Balint) boards a train bound for Paris to see Kata (Judit Halasz), who fled during the conflict. He recalls his past during the trip as he remembers the dead and the Read More

The Father

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Andras Balint, Miklos Gabor, Klari Tolnay, Daniel Erdelyi, Kati Solyom

Synopsis: In The Father (Apa), Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Szabo invests a great deal of poetry and warmth in a story that, in lesser hands, might have become a wallow in bathos. After his father is killed in World War II, a young Hungarian boy named Tako concocts a fantasy image of the parent he never Read More

Álmodozások kora

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Andras Balint, Ilona Beres, Judit Halasz

Synopsis: The Hungarian Age of Illusions was the first feature-film effort by writer/director Istvan Szabo. Andras Balint plays an electrical engineer who hops from bed to bed, never making any lasting commitment with any one woman. All this changes when he falls in love with a local celebrity whom he sees Read More