Director Istvan Szabo: biography of life and work, and not only

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Director Istvan Szabo: biography of life and work, and not only
Director Istvan Szabo: biography of life and work, and not only

Video: Director Istvan Szabo: biography of life and work, and not only

Video: Director Istvan Szabo: biography of life and work, and not only
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Istvan Szabo is a famous Hungarian director and screenwriter. Also known as an actor and producer. The track record of a native of the city of Budapest includes 57 cinematic works. He has been working in the film industry since 1959. Istvan Szabo's film "Mephisto" in 1982 received the main award of the "Oscar". His films have won at the most famous film festivals and awards: the Cannes Film Festival, the British Film Academy, the European Film Academy, etc. In 2011, he presented his latest directorial work, The Door.

photo directed by Istvan Szabo
photo directed by Istvan Szabo

Biography

Istvan Szabo was born on February 18, 1938 in a Jewish family. After school, he got a job at the radio as a reporter. In 1956, he successfully passed the entrance exams to the Budapest Institute of Theater and Film, where he would later study as a director. His teacher is the famous teacher Felix Mariashshi. As a student, he made several films in a short format, including the film "Concert", which was favorably receivedat several international film festivals.

Szabo's early work is iconographic, blurring the lines between reality, dreams and memories. In those years, a young director from Hungary was inspired by the French New Wave direction.

frame from Istvan Szabo's painting A film about love
frame from Istvan Szabo's painting A film about love

The most famous Hungarian director loudly declared himself with his art projects, which were included in the so-called "Istvan Szabo's German trilogy": "Mephisto", "Colonel Redl", "Hanussen". However, some critics still consider the paintings "Father", "Budapest Tales" to be his best works. They also highly appreciate Istvan Szabo's film "Love Film" ("Film About Love"). The project, released on the big screens in 1970, consists of autobiographical stories.

director Istvan Szabo on the set of the film
director Istvan Szabo on the set of the film

Movies and genres

The filmography of Istvan Szabo consists of pictures of the following genres:

  1. Biography: "Colonel Redl".
  2. Documentary: "From Europe to Europe", "Artists".
  3. History: "The Offenbach Mystery", "The Taste of Sunshine".
  4. Short film: Pasted Poster, Seventh Day, Reverent Memory, City Map.
  5. Melodrama: "Green Bird", "Meeting with Venus", "Theater".
  6. Adventure: Bors.
  7. Fiction: "Ten minutes older:Cello".
  8. Military: "Opinions of the sides".
  9. Drama: "Mephisto", "Trust", "Door", "Time of Dreams", "Letter to Father", "Relatives".
  10. Comedy: "I Serve the King of England" (actor).
  11. Crime: "Place Vendôme".

Istvan Szabo's films starred such movie stars as Ralph Fiennes, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Glenn Close, Helen Mirren, Havri Keitel and others.

Hungarian director Istvan Szabo
Hungarian director Istvan Szabo

Best project

In 1981, the Hungarian director presented the film "Mephisto" to the audience. This film is based on the legend of Faust, but the setting is the modern world. Actor Hendrik Hofgen is praised by critics, but he is not favored by fame. For the sake of fame, he sells his soul to the Nazis. After a while, he realizes that he made the mistake of his life.

This is interesting

Istvan Szabo is sure that even old people can be young at heart. There are those who are only twenty years old, but they are already old at heart, do not want to think and work. According to the master of cinematography, such people have met many times in his life.

Istvan Szabo says that many young people, when they start making their first films, do not yet have a vision of the world. They, brought up by television, understand commercials and image language more than their native language.

According to Istvan Szabo, of the six thousand films that are shot on the planet every year, only a few hundred have in theirbased on artistic intentions and authorial ambitions. He is proud to have known people who made real movies.

Istvan Szabo calls the camera a weapon that makes it easy to play with reality. However, the camera does not show the whole picture of what is happening, but only what the operator and director intended to show. Therefore, he shoots only feature films, because it is initially presented as a lie - something that did not actually happen. Szabo says it still feels more like the truth than a documentary, which "can't claim to be true" from the start.

Istvan Szabo claims that American cinema was created by people from Central and Eastern Europe who left for the United States because of political persecution or in order to earn a living. They faced real difficulties, they knew how feelings are tested and how these feelings work. Therefore, these settlers made powerful films with the simplest human feelings and the warmth of human touch. The filmmakers who replaced them were already creating simplistic projects that became more and more childish every year.

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