25 Fireman's Street 1973  N/R, 97 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Istvan Szabo
Cast: Lucyna Winnicka, Margit Makay, Karoly Kovacs, Rita Bekes, Erzsi Pasztor, Edit Lenkey, Andras Balint, Zoltan Zelk, Peter Muller, Janos Jani
A Hungarian apartment building is to be demolished. As the time for demolition nears, the residents reflect on their pasts–including World War II's stories and changes brought about by the war as well as from the 1956 revolt. Visionary.
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Apa 1966 N/R, 95 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
aka: Father
Director: Istvan Szabo
Cast: Andras Balint, Miklos Gabor, Klari Tolnay, Dani Erdelyi, Kati Solyom, Zsuzsa Rathonyi, Zsuzsa Balogh, Rita Bekes, Judit Halasz, Anna Nagy
Young Tako's (Dani Erdelyi) father was killed near the end of World War II, and Tako has made a hero of his father in his fantasies. As an adult, Tako (Andras Balint) meets and falls in love with a Jewish woman (Kati Solyom) and finds out about the horrors of the Holocaust. He now seeks to find out what kind of man his father really was.
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Being Julia 2004  R, 105 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Istvan Szabo
Cast: Annette Bening, Jeremy Irons, Shaun Evans, Bruce Greenwood, Michael Gambon, Juliet Stevenson, Rosemary Harris, Miriam Margolyes, Lucy Punch, Maury Chaykin, Sheila McCarthy, Tom Sturridge
This film adaptation of Somerset Maugham's "Theatre" is set in 1930s' London and revolves around aging stage actress Julia (Annette Bening) and her affair with the much younger Tom Fennel (Shaun Evans). Annette Bening was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar.
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 Meeting Venus 1991  PG-13, 119 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Istvan Szabo
Cast: Glenn Close, Niels Arestrup, Erland Josephson, Moscu Alcalay, Marian Labuda, Jay O. Sanders, Maite Nahyr, Maria de Medeiros, Johanna ter Steege, Victor Poletti
Opera diva Karin Anderson (Glenn Close) falls in love with her conductor Zoltan Szanto (Niels Arestrup) in this sappy story. Wagner's "Tannhauser" is the centerpiece for this film which is more soap than opera. However, some will like it, according to some reviewers.
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Mephisto 1981 N/R, 144 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Istvan Szabo
Cast: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Krystyna Janda, Ildiko Bansagi, Karin Boyd, Rolf Hoppe, Christine Harbort, Gyorgy Cserhalmi, Peter Andorai, Tamas Major, Ildiko Kishonti
This film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. It is the story of actor Hendrik Hofgren (Klaus Maria Brandauer) whose ambition to be a star is so great that he sells out to the Nazis in his effort to attain his dream.
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 Sunshine 1999 R, 180 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Istvan Szabo
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Ehle, Molly Parker, Deborah Kara Unger, William Hurt, James Frain, John Neville, Miriam Margolyes
This story relates the tribulations of three generations of a Jewish family enduring Hungary's troubled years. The Sonnenschien family–despite two world wars and numerous governments between the late 1800s and the 1960s–survive as history tends to repeat itself throughout the generations.
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Taking Sides 2001 N/R, 108 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Istvan Szabo
Cast: Harvey Keitel, Moritz Bleibtreu, Stellan Skarsgard, Birgit Minichmayr, Ulrich Tukur, Oleg Tabakov, Hanns Zischler, Armin Rohde, R. Lee Ermey, August Zirner, Robin Renucci, Jed Curtis
Based on the life of the 1930s' Berlin Philharmonic conductor, Dr. Wilhelm Furtwangler (Stellan Skarsgard), this story involves American Army Major Steve Arnold's (Harvey Keitel) brutal, post-war investigation into the activities of Furtwangler during the Nazi era.
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| 1. 25 Fireman's Street (1973)
2. Apa (1966)
aka: Father
3. Being Julia (2004)
4. Meeting Venus (1991)
5. Mephisto (1981)
6. Sunshine (1999)
7. Taking Sides (2001)
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