István Szabó

Filmmaker of Existential Choices

Susan Rubin Suleiman (Harvard University, USA)

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English

Bloomsbury Academic
07 March 2024

Series: Philosophical Filmmakers

István Szabó is one of the few Hungarian filmmakers to have earned a major international reputation over the past half century. This thoughtful and original book is the first examination of

Szabó’s contribution to contemporary thought, engaging the troubled history of Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries.

István Szabó’s importance as a filmmaker lies not only in his attention to film’s formal elements but in his deep and ongoing engagement with some of the most urgent ethical and existential questions of our time.

With detailed analyses of István Szabó’s major films, from his 1960s works to his Academy Award for Best Foreign Film winner, Mephisto, and on through Szabó’s last film in 2020, Final Report, Susan Rubin Suleiman focuses on four important questions pertaining to existential choice: to leave home or to stay in a communist country? To collaborate or not with an authoritarian regime? To affirm or to deny one’s Jewishness in the face of antisemitism? To seek or to give up on community in the face of individual or national conflicts? Above all, Suleiman addresses the single most important philosophical question that haunts Szabó’s work, as it does that of many other Central European intellectuals and filmmakers of our time. That is, how do individuals attempt, through the life choices they make or that are foisted on them, to create a viable self in extreme historical situations over which they have no control?

By: Susan Rubin Suleiman (Harvard University USA)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: Paperback
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
ISBN: 9781350181823
ISBN 10: 135018182X
Series: Philosophical Filmmakers
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 07 March 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction: Encountering István Szabó 1. To Leave or to Stay? Existential Choices under Communism Getting around the Censor in the 1960s Leaving and Its Consequences in Lovefilm Those Who Stay: Visions of Home in the 1970s 2. What Price Glory? The Talented Individual and State Power Step by Step: The Road to Degradation in Mephisto Responsibility in the Rearview Mirror: Taking Sides The Parvenu’s Dilemma: Loyalty and Alienation in Colonel Redl 3. To Be or Not To Be Jewish? Identity as Choice or as Fate The “Jewish Question” for Jews Jews in Hungarian Cinema under Communism Jewish Identity and Its Vicissitudes in Sunshine 4. Living Together? The Idea of Community after Communism “A Metaphor for Europe”? Passions and Music in Meeting Venus Hanging On: Precarious Lives in Sweet Emma, Dear Böbe “Poor Hungary”: Relatives and Final Report References List of Figures Films Index

Susan Rubin Suleiman is C. Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France and Professor of Comparative Literature Emerita at Harvard University, USA. Her many books include Crises of Memory and the Second World War and the memoir Daughter of History: Traces of an Immigrant Girlhood. In 2018, she was awarded France’s highest decoration, the Légion d’Honneur.

Reviews for István Szabó: Filmmaker of Existential Choices

Susan Suleiman’s book touched me deeply and it was interesting even for me. I was surprised by several connections that I had never thought of, but they are very true. * István Szabó *