István Szabó

This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other people named István Szabó, see István Szabó (disambiguation).
The native form of this personal name is Szabó István. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
István Szabó
Hungarian
Alma materUniversity of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest
OccupationFilm director
Years active1959–present

István Szabó (Hungarian: [ˈsɒboː ˈiʃtvaːn]; born 18 February 1938) is a Hungarian film director, screenwriter, and opera director.

Szabó is one of the most notable

auteurism, he has made films that represent many of the political and psychological conflicts of Central Europe's recent history, as well as of his own personal history. He made his first short film in 1959 as a student at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest
, and his first feature film in 1964.

He achieved his greatest international success with

international co-productions
filmed in a variety of languages and European locations. However, he has continued to make films in Hungarian, and even in his international co-productions he has often filmed in Hungary using Hungarian talent.

In 2006, weekly Hungarian magazine Élet és Irodalom (Life and Literature in English) published an article revealing that Szabó had been an informant of the Communist regime's secret police.

Life

Born in Budapest, Szabó is the son of Mária (née Vita)[1] and István Szabó, the latter of whom was a doctor from a long line of doctors.[2] Szabó came from a family of Jews who had converted to Catholicism, but were considered Jews by the Arrow Cross Party (Hungarian fascists). They were forced to separate and hide in Budapest sometime between 15 October 1944, when Nazi Germany deposed the Hungarian government for trying to sign an armistice with the Allies, installing the Arrow Cross in power, and 13 February 1945, when the Soviets defeated the German Army in Budapest. Szabó survived by hiding at an orphanage, but his father died of diphtheria shortly after the German defeat. Memories of these events would later appear in several of his films.[3]

In 2006, weekly Hungarian magazine Élet és Irodalom (Life and Literature in English) published an article revealing he had been an informant for the Communist regime's secret police.[4] Between 1957 and 1961, he submitted 48 reports on 72 people, mostly classmates and teachers at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest. According to historian István Deák, in only one case did Szabó's informing cause significant damage, when an individual was denied a passport. After the article was published, over 100 prominent intellectuals, including some of those about whom Szabó had made reports, published a letter of support for him. Szabó's initial response to the article was that informing had been an act of bravery, since he had intended to save the life of his former classmate Pál Gábor. When this claim turned out not to be true, Szabó admitted that his true motive had been to prevent his own expulsion from the Academy.[5] Author Anna Porter asserted that "whether this is true or not is impossible to prove as not much has remained of Szabó's file and as revelations about the murky past of prominent figures such as Szabó have become mired in controversy."[6]

In a 2001 interview, Szabó revealed that he believes in God, but considers the subject personal and does not like to talk about it.[7]

Career

Pre–1964

As a child, Szabó wanted to be a doctor like his father. By the age of 16, however, had been inspired by a book by Hungarian film theorist Béla Balázs to become a film director.[2] After finishing high school, he was one of 11 applicants out of 800 who were admitted to the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest, where he studied under Félix Máriássy, who became something of a father figure to him. His classmates included Judit Elek, Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács, János Rózsa, Pál Gábor, Imre Gyöngyössy, Ferenc Kardos, and Zoltán Huszárik. During this period, Szabó directed several short films, most notably his thesis film, Koncert (1963), which earned a prize at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Subsequently he was apprenticed to the head of the Hunnia Film Studio, János Herskó, which resulted in an opportunity to direct his first feature film at the age of 25, rather than having to spend ten years working as an assistant director.[8]

The beginning of Szabó's career coincided with the beginning of a “new wave” in

Hungarian cinema, one of several new wave cinemas that occurred around this time throughout Western and Eastern Europe. The new wave in Eastern Europe began against a backdrop of political liberalization, the decentralization of film industries, and the emergence of films as valuable commodities for export to Western European markets. The resulting films were more formally experimental, politically anti-establishment, and, especially in the case of Szabó, psychologically probing than the films of the previous generation [vague]. Hungarian filmmakers in particular experienced a significant increase in freedom of expression due to the reforms of the Kádár government.[9]

Hungarian films, 1964–1980

Szabó's first feature film,

Locarno International Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize for Best Director at the Hungarian Film Festival.[11]

Father (1966) is a coming-of-age story that displays Szabó's increasing fascination with history and his childhood memories. The plot covers events from the Arrow Cross Party dictatorship to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, revolving around the disorientation and self-awareness of a generation that had to grow up without a father figure in wartime. The main character replaces the image of his absent father with fantasy images that change over time. These events take place during a period of his life when he begins to transition to adulthood. Finally, he is able to face the reality of his situation and comes to understand that he has to rely on his own strength rather than that of an idealized father figure.[12] The film won the Grand Prix at the 5th Moscow International Film Festival[13] and the Special Jury Prize at Locarno, and established Szabó as the most internationally famous Hungarian filmmaker of his time,[14] as well as an auteur in the European film tradition. In 2000, Father appeared as number 11 on a list of the 12 best Hungarian films according to a group of Hungarian film critics.[15]

25 Fireman Street (1973), which began as a short film, Dream About a House (1971). 25 Fireman Street takes place during the course of a long, hot night in Budapest, during which the residents of a single apartment building are plagued by dream-memories of pain and loss spanning thirty years, including both World Wars, the Arrow Cross dictatorship, the Communist takeover, and 1956. While the film won the top prize at Locarno, Szabó was upset by its lack of success at the box office and at film festivals. Attributing this lack of success to the film's complex structure, he decided to give his next film a simpler structure.[16]

In Budapest Tales (1976), Szabó traded his earlier, complex narrative structures, characterized by flashbacks and dreams, for a more linear one. At the same time, he traded the literal representation of history for an allegorical one. The film follows a disparate group of people who come together on the outskirts of an unnamed city at the end of an unnamed war to repair a damaged tram and ride it into the city. Allegorically, the film was interpreted by critics variously as representing Hungarian history specifically or universal human responses to war and reconstruction more generally.[17]

Szabó's first four full-length films featured the actor András Bálint in roles based on Szabó himself. While Bálint also appeared in Budapest Tales, this was Szabó's first feature film that did not contain a significant amount of autobiographical material. He did not make another autobiographical film until Meeting Venus, eighteen years later.[18]

Budapest Tales was even less successful than 25 Fireman Street at the box office and festivals. According to author David Paul, this may explain why Szabó shifted gears even more dramatically in his next film,

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 53rd Academy Awards.[20]

International co-productions featuring Brandauer, 1981–1988

Szabó's next three films constituted a new phase in his career—moving away from Hungarian productions, in Hungarian, written by Szabó alone, and featuring Bálint, and moving toward international co-productions, in German, written by Szabó in collaboration with others, and featuring Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer.[21] The informal trilogy—Mephisto (1981), Colonel Redl (1985) and Hanussen (1988)—features Brandauer in a series of roles based on historical figures who, as represented in the films, compromised their morals in order to climb the ladder of success within a context of authoritarian political power. In Mephisto, based on a novel by Klaus Mann, Brandauer plays an actor and theater director in Nazi Germany, a role based on Mann's former brother-in-law Gustaf Gründgens. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the award for Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, and greatly increased Szabó's international prestige.[22]

In

Austro-Hungarian Empire who was blackmailed into espionage for the Russians in order to prevent the revelation of his homosexuality. The film won top awards in Germany and the UK,[11] but provoked a scandal in Austria, where several periodicals accused the film of bringing the country into disrepute.[8] In Hanussen, Brandauer plays the real life clairvoyant performer Erik Jan Hanussen, whose growing fame brings him into increasingly close—and dangerous—contact with the Nazis.[23]

1991–present

After his Brandauer trilogy, Szabó continued to make international co-productions, filming in a variety of languages and European locations. He has continued to make some films in Hungarian, however, and even in his international co-productions, he often films in Hungary and uses Hungarian talent.[8]

Meeting Venus (1991), the first of several English-language films directed by Szabó—and his first comedy—is based on his experience directing Tannhäuser at the Paris Opera in 1984. Niels Arestrup plays a Hungarian directing the opera at an imaginary pan-European opera company, and encountering a multitude of pitfalls that symbolize the challenges of a united Europe.[24]

With Sweet Emma, Dear Böbe (1992), Szabó returned to a strictly Hungarian subject—this time, however, focused on a contemporary, rather than historical, social problem. The film follows two young, female teachers of Russian facing the obsolescence of their specialty after the fall of the socialist government, as well as a variety of types of sexual harassment in the new Hungary. The film won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival.[25]

Sunshine (1999)—a three-hour historical epic, and an English-language, international co-production—was viewed by many critics as Szabó's most ambitious film, and, along with Mephisto, his most important. Hungary's Jews had figured in either a marginal or coded fashion in several of Szabó's earlier films, produced during the socialist period when discourse around the history of the country's Jews was more circumscribed. In Sunshine, for the first time, Szabó focused explicitly on this aspect of Hungarian history, which he himself had experienced as a child during the Arrow Cross dictatorship. Ralph Fiennes plays three generations in the Sonnenschein family as they experience the trials of twentieth-century Hungarian Jewish history, from the late Austro-Hungarian Empire through the Holocaust to the 1956 Revolution.[3]

Several characters are based on real people, including the

Zwack family, with their successful liquor business, the Olympic fencer Attila Petschauer, and the Jewish police official Ernö Szücs.[26] The film won European Film Awards for Best Screenwriter, Best Actor, and Best Cinematographer.[27] It received a rating of 74% Fresh from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.[28]

An example of an extremely positive review was that of Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who called it “a movie of substance and thrilling historical sweep.”[29] A. O. Scott of the New York Times had a more mixed reaction, writing that, by the end, “the movie has accumulated sufficient power and momentum to erase the memory of its earlier awkwardness. It shows such sympathy for its characters, and approaches its subject with such intelligence, that it's easy to forgive the clumsy editing, the haphazard insertion of black-and-white newsreels, and the hyperventilating sexual ardor that seems to be a Sors family curse.”[30]

In

Mar del Plata Film Festival in Argentina, including Best Director.[11]

Golden Globe Award for her performance.[31]

In 2005, Szabó was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 27th Moscow International Film Festival.[32]

Rokonok (2006) was a Hungarian production based on a 1932 novel by Zsigmond Móricz about political corruption. Sándor Csányi plays a newly elected attorney general whose relatives (rokonok) come out of the woodwork looking for favors.[33] It was entered into the 28th Moscow International Film Festival.[34]

The Door (2012), an English language production based on a Hungarian novel by Magda Szabó (no relation), focuses on the relationship between an affluent novelist (Martina Gedeck) and her poor, mysterious maid (Helen Mirren).[35] It opened the 13th Tbilisi International Film Festival[36] and won the Michael Curtiz Audience Award at the Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles.[37]

Szabó's frequent collaborators have included actors András Bálint, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Péter Andorai, and Ildikó Bánsági; cinematographer Lajos Koltai; and screenwriters Péter Dobai and Andrea Vészits.

Themes

Several interconnected themes run through Szabó's films, the most common being the relationship between the personal and the political or historical. On the personal level, his first three feature films deal with

coming of age issues, but political/historical events form the backdrop of these issues and continually rupture the attempts of the characters to lead their private lives. In an interview in 2008, Szabó said, “My mother once told me, 'We had a nice childhood and our youth was beautiful, but our life was destroyed by politics and history.'”[3] The political/historical events most commonly depicted are the dominant traumatic events of mid-20th century Hungarian and Central European history—Nazism, the Second World War, and, in Hungary—or, more accurately, Budapest—the Arrow Cross dictatorship and the Holocaust, the Communist takeover, and the 1956 Revolution. Szabó himself has frequently referred to this theme as the search for security.[38]

A related theme is the moral compromises individuals make in order to succeed in immoral political systems. In an interview about Taking Sides, Szabó said, “I don't think that life is possible without making compromises. The question is only one of limits: how far to go. When one crosses the line, then the compromise starts to be a bad, even deadly, one.”[39] This theme is dominant in the Brandauer trilogy and, as Istvan Deak points out, may be related to Szabó's own collaboration with the Communist secret police.

Another closely related theme is the arts—most often theater, but also music and film itself. In several of Szabó's films—most famously in Mephisto—artists become caught up in conflicts around politics, role-playing, and identity.[40]

Style

Szabó's early films—culminating in Lovefilm and 25 Fireman Street—were influenced by the French New Wave in their experimentation with flashbacks, dream sequences, and unconventional narrative structures built on these techniques.[41]

Szabó emphasizes iconography in his films, insofar as he tends to invest certain objects and places with symbolic meaning. Tram cars play this role in many of his films, and one becomes the central image in Budapest Tales.[42] Budapest itself plays an important role in many of his films, including scenes of the Danube and of buildings Szabó lived in when he was a child.[21]

Acting also plays a key role in Szabó's films, as he values psychological complexity in his central characters.[43] In his first several features, he tended to use the same lead actors over and over—first András Bálint, then Klaus Maria Brandauer. Consistent with this focus on acting, he frequently employs long close-up shots to emphasize the play of emotions on the faces of his characters.[40]

Other work

In addition to writing and directing films, Szabó has also served in a variety of other capacities in the film industry, including writing and directing

documentaries, as well as serving as assistant director, screenwriter, producer, and actor in films directed by others.[44] In 1969, he was a member of the jury at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival.[45]

Szabó has directed several operas, including

Il Trovatore in Vienna, and Three Sisters in Budapest.[8] He has taught at film schools in Budapest, London, Berlin, and Vienna. In 1989, he was one of the founding members of the European Film Academy,[46] and, in 1992, of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts.[47]

Filmography

Year Title Country Length Director Writer Other
1959 A Hetedik napon Hungary Short Yes Yes
1960 Bill Poster Hungary Short Yes Yes
1961 Variációk egy témára Hungary Short Yes Yes
1962 Délibáb minden mennyiségben Hungary Short Yes
1963 Párbeszéd Hungary Feature Yes Assistant Director
1963 You Hungary Short Yes Yes Producer
1963 Koncert Hungary Short Yes Yes
1965 Artists Hungary Short Yes
1965 Traffic-Rule Tale for Children Hungary Short Yes Yes
1965 Age of Illusions Hungary Feature Yes Yes
1966 Children's Sicknesses Hungary Feature Script Editor
1966 Father Hungary Feature Yes Yes Actor: voice of film director
1967 Red Letter Days Hungary Feature Script Editor
1967 Piety Hungary Short Yes Yes
1970 Lovefilm Hungary Feature Yes Yes
1971 Budapest, Why I Love It (collection of short films: “The Square,” “A Mirror,” “Danube, Fishes, Birds,” “Portrait of a Girl,” “Dream About a House”) Hungary Short Yes Yes
1973
25 Fireman Street
 		Hungary Feature Yes Yes
1977 Várostérkép Hungary Short Yes Yes
1977 Budapest Tales Hungary Feature Yes Yes
1978 Places on Sunday Hungary Short Yes Yes
1978 The Hungarians Hungary Feature Actor: Abris Kondor
1980 Bálint Fábián Meets God Hungary Feature Actor: András
1980 Confidence Hungary Feature Yes Yes
1980 The Green Bird West Germany Feature Yes Yes
1981 Mephisto West Germany, Hungary, Austria Feature Yes Yes Actor: Theatre party attendant
1985 Colonel Redl Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, West Germany Feature Yes Yes
1987 Laura Hungary Feature Consultant
1988 Hanussen Hungary, West Germany, Austria Feature Yes Yes
1989 Túsztörténet Hungary Feature Actor: Fõorvos
1990 Eszterkönyv Hungary Feature Artistic Producer
1991 Meeting Venus UK, Japan, USA Feature Yes Yes
1991 Sweet Emma, Dear Böbe – Sketches, Nudes Hungary Feature Yes Yes
1993 Prinzenbad Germany, Hungary Feature Producer
1994 Utrius Hungary Feature Actor
1995 Esti Kornél csodálatos utazása Hungary Feature Consultant
1996 A csónak biztonsága Hungary Short Yes
1997 Franciska vasárnapjai Hungary Feature Actor: Orvos
1998 Place Vendôme France Feature Actor: Charlie Rosen
1999 Sunshine Germany, Austria, Canada, Hungary Feature Yes Yes Lyrics: “Please God May We Always Go on Singing”
2001 Taking Sides France, UK, Germany, Austria Feature Yes Actor: Passenger on train
2002
Ten Minutes Older: The Cello
 (segment: “Ten Minutes After”) 		UK, Germany, France Feature Yes Yes
2003 The Colour of Happiness Hungary Feature Consultant
2004 Európából Európába (segment 2) Hungary Short Yes
2004 Being Julia Canada, USA, Hungary, UK Feature Yes
2004 Shem Israel, UK Feature Actor: Elijah
2006 Rokonok Hungary Feature Yes Yes Actor: voice of Mr. Menzel
2006 I Served the King of England Czech Republic, Slovakia Feature Actor: Stock marketeer
2012 The Door Hungary Feature Yes Yes
2020 Zárójelentés Hungary Feature Yes Yes

Television

Year Title Country Length Director Writer
1968 Bors (episode: “Vesztegzár a határon”) Hungary Feature Yes
1974 Ösbemutató Hungary Feature Yes Yes
1982 Levél apámhoz (Letter to my Father) Hungary Feature Yes Yes
1983 Cats' Play [de] West Germany, Canada Feature Yes
1984 Bali [de] West Germany, Austria Feature Yes
1984 Isten teremtményei Feature Yes Yes
1996 Offenbachs Geheimnis (includes complete performances of Les deux aveugles and Croquefer, ou Le dernier des paladins) Germany, France, Hungary Feature Yes

Appearances in documentaries

Year Title Country
1982 Történetek a magyar filmröl Hungary
1998 TV a város szélén (episode 1.1) Hungary
2002 Simó Sándor Hungary
2004 Gero von Boehm begegnet... Germany
2005 Into the Night with... Germany, France
2006 The Outsider Canada
2007 The Fallen Vampire France, Romania, Austria, Germany, Netherlands
2007 Close-up (episode: “Bela Lugosi: Dracula's Dubbelganger”) Netherlands, Germany, Belgium
2008 Szakácskirály Hungary
2010 Sodankylä ikuisesti Finland

See also

References

  1. ^ "Istvan Szabo Biography," <http://www.filmreference.com/film/58/Istvan-Szabo.html>, Film Reference. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  2. ^ a b David Paul, “An Excerpt from 'István Szabó,'” David W. Paul, 6 May 2012 <http://home.comcast.net/~dwp1944/Szabo.htm>.
  3. ^ a b c "KinoKultura". www.kinokultura.com. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  4. ^ Gervai András: Egy ügynök azonosítása, Élet és Irodalom, 2006. January 27.
  5. ISSN 0028-7504
    . Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  6. ISBN 978-1-55365-637-1
    .
  7. ^ Papamichael, Stella (October 28, 2014). "Getting Direct With Directors... No.25: István Szabó". BBC. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  8. ^ a b c d András Gervai, “A Screen Moralist,” The Hungarian Quarterly 43, Winter 2002.
  9. ^ Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003), 460-469.
  10. ^ David Paul, “Istvan Szabo,” Five Filmmakers, ed. Daniel J. Goulding (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994) 162-164.
  11. ^ a b c "István Szabó". IMDb. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  12. ^ Paul, “Istvan Szabo” 164-166.
  13. ^ "5th Moscow International Film Festival (1967)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2012-12-15.
  14. ^ Thompson and Bordwell 624.
  15. ^ “A Brüsszeli 12,” Sulinet, <http://www.sulinet.hu/tovabbtan/felveteli/2001/23het/kommunikacio/komm23.html>. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  16. ^ Paul, “Istvan Szabo” 175.
  17. ^ Paul, “Istvan Szabo” 177–179.
  18. ^ Joshua Hirsch, Afterimage: Film, Trauma, and the Holocaust (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004) 116–117.
  19. ^ Paul, “Istvan Szabo” 180–183.
  20. ^ "The 53rd Academy Awards (1981) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
  21. ^ a b Hirsch 117.
  22. ^ Paul, “Istvan Szabo” 183-187.
  23. ^ Paul, “Istvan Szabo” 189-194.
  24. ^ Paul, “István Szabó” 194-197.
  25. ^ “Sweet Emma, Dear Böbe,” Karlovy Vary International Film Festival <http://www.kviff.com/en/films/film-archive-detail/20092680-sweet-emma-dear-bobe/ Archived 2012-10-01 at the Wayback Machine>. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  26. ISSN 0028-7504
    . Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  27. ^ Sunshine - IMDb, retrieved 2022-10-14
  28. ^ Sunshine, retrieved 2022-10-14
  29. ^ Roger Ebert, “Sunshine,” Rogerebert.com, 23 June 2000, <http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20000623/REVIEWS/6230305/1023 Archived 2012-10-14 at the Wayback Machine>. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  30. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  31. ^ Being Julia - IMDb, retrieved 2022-10-14
  32. ^ "27th Moscow International Film Festival (2005)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-04-03. Retrieved 2013-04-13.
  33. ^ Eddie Cockrell, “Relatives,” Variety, 5 Feb. 2006, <http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117929481/>. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  34. ^ "28th Moscow International Film Festival (2006)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-04-21. Retrieved 2013-04-21.
  35. ^ T. H. R. Staff (2012-02-10). "The Door: Berlin Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  36. ^ "Georgian fest kicks off with Istvan Szabo's The Door". Archived from the original on 2013-06-29.
  37. ^ “A Vizsga nyerte a Los Angeles-i Magyar Filmfesztivált,” Filmhu, 26 Nov. 2012, <http://magyar.film.hu/filmhu/hir/a-vizsga-nyerte-a-los-angeles-i-magyar-filmfesztivalt-hir-vizsga-az-ajto.html>. Retrieved 1 Dec. 2012.
  38. ^ Paul, “An Excerpt from 'István Szabó.'”
  39. ^ "Kinoeye| Hungarian film: Istvan Szabo interviewed". www.kinoeye.org. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  40. ^ a b István Szabó, “Essential Close-Ups,” Being Julia Press Kit, <http://www.sonyclassics.com/beingjulia/presskit.pdf>. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  41. ^ Paul, “Istvan Szabo” 159.
  42. ^ Karen Jaehne, “Istvan Szabo: Dreams of Memories,” Film Quarterly 32.1 (1978): 38.
  43. ^ "Danubius Magazin". Danubius Magazin (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  44. ^ "István Szabó". IMDb. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  45. ^ "6th Moscow International Film Festival (1969)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2012-12-17.
  46. ^ "Story". European Film Academy. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  47. ^ “Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts,” Hungarian Academy of Sciences, <"Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts". Archived from the original on 2015-04-24. Retrieved 2015-04-24.>. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=István_Szabó&oldid=1219058607"