
Acting
Szabó László
Born
1936-03-24 (90)
Place of birth
Budapest, Hungary
Known for
Acting
Credits
72 titles
László Szabó (born 24 March 1936) is a Hungarian actor, film director and screenwriter. Since 1952, he has appeared in more than 120 films. These include seven films that have been screened at the Cannes Film Festival. He was born to Béla Szabó and Margit Gulyás. Between 1954-1956 he was a student at the Budapest University of Technology , during which he performed in an amateur theater group. He applied to the Theater and Film Academy as an actor, but was not accepted. He left the country in the fall of 1956 and went to Paris . Like the French new wavers, he also visited Henri Langlois ' "liberty university of film history" at the Cinématheque, watched the film series, met and talked to …
Known for
6.8Successful surgeon Tomas leaves Prague for an operation, meets a young photographer named Tereza, and brings her back with him. Tereza is surprised to learn that Tomas is already having an affair with the bohemian Sabina, but when the Soviet invasion occurs, all three flee to Switzerland. Sabina begins an affair, Tom continues womanizing, and Tereza, disgusted, returns to Czechoslovakia. Realizing his mistake, Tomas decides to chase after her.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
1988
7.3Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.
Pierrot le Fou
1965
7.7Twelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.
Vivre Sa Vie
1962
7.2In occupied Paris, an actress wed to a Jewish theater owner must keep him hidden from the Nazis while doing both of their jobs.
The Last Metro
1980
5.5Just as the disheveled and alcoholic filmmaker Ismaël embarks on a difficult new film project, his life is sent into a tailspin. His wife Carlotta, presumed dead for 20 years, come crashing back into his life creating chaos in his work and his current romantic relationship with the starry-eyed astronomer Sylvia.
Ismael's Ghosts
2017
6.9Lemmy Caution is on a mission to eliminate Professor Von Braun, the creator of a malevolent computer that rules the city of Alphaville. Befriended by the scientist’s daughter Natasha, Lemmy must unravel the mysteries of the strictly logical Alpha 60 and teach Natasha the meaning of the word “love.”
Alphaville
1965
Film credits
2000s · 8 titles
6.0A Jewish girl in 19th century London dreams of becoming a stage actress.
Esther Kahn
2000
6.0When he loses his position as a powerful government minister, Vincent is dropped by his pretty mistress and must begin life anew, without the privileges of power. As he gradually becomes acquainted with milieus which he d either forgotten or never known and a host of sometimes eccentric, often remarkable everyday people, Vincent really begins to start living again.
Gardens in Autumn
2006
4.2Lola, a young, energetic and cheerful student lives in Paris. She’s preparing to sit her law thesis, and works part-time at Chloroville, “Our green fingers look after your interior plants”. She has split up with Simon, a lawyer in his thirties who is always busy defending “the trial of his life”. Their stormy relationship held Lola back, and although they’ll love each other forever, it won’t be on an everyday basis.
Like An Airplane
2002
5.0An unexpected phone call from a certain Kirsch sets off a crisis between Catherine and Raphaël that will affect all those around them, be they close friends or casual acquaintances.
Special Delivery
2002
3.6Georges Nail lives in a new suburb. He's married, loves his wife, son and dog. Paul Hammer is good looking, rich and intelligent. But he is torn by his severe judgment of the world and a desire to be part of it. One day, their paths meet. Nail sees this meeting as an opportunity to create a new friendship. On his side, Hammer sees it as a new reason for living : to crucify the perfect image of the happy western man and his incarnation in the person of Georges Nail. A nail is the perfect victim for a hammer.
Parc
2009
7.5A troupe of actors rehearse a play. In the play-within-the-film, an ambitious son and his distant father fight for control of an armaments firm and are pushed to eventual destruction by dangerous outside forces and traitorous aides.
Playing 'In the Company of Men'
2003
Making of Jean Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965)
The Outskirts of Alphaville
2003
7.8Fanfan leaves his friend Charles and thinks he can be accommodated by his friend, Joss. However, at the same time, Joss abandons the marital home. Fanfan and Joss have only to knock on the door of Manu, Fanfan's sister, who gathers them until Mytch, Manu's companion, throws everyone out. The three young women find themselves in the street and continue their run, while their lovers gang up to track them down. The mini-war of the sexes will flare up.
On appelle ça… le printemps
2001
1990s · 8 titles
6.2The story of a woman that remained distracted for a long time from her life, from the passions that made her feel alive. The importance of true love is compared with the material value of diamonds. Only one truly lasts forever. She's got to find the thing that values most for her, the thing that gives psychical stability and real happiness again to her life.
Place Vendôme
1998
6.6A medical intern finds himself drawn into a world of international intrigue after discovering a shrunken human head in his luggage.
The Sentinel
1992
7.2A librarian, a gangster's ex-lover, and a woman who has recovered from a coma spend an eye-opening summer in Paris.
Up, Down, Fragile
1995
8.0This is a dark story of a caring movie maker who struggles to make it and also struggles with his demons and obsessions.
The Diary of the Hurdy-Gurdy Man
1999
6.4An outer suburb of Paris, 1972. Gilles and Christine, both sixteen, are classmates and lovers who have become frustrated with the aloofness of their families and the general monotony of their lives. When the pair are caught shoplifting, Christine's father ships her off to a home for emotionally disturbed children, temporarily putting space between her and Gilles. Luckily for them, though, she escapes and the couple contemplate running away together.
Cold Water
1994
5.1You're a provincial kid in Paris and suddenly you're the center of attention: Movie stars, famous directors and sexy women are doting on you because they all think you're the son of their long-dead legendary friend. You never knew your dad, but the facts of this famous guy's life suggest that he might have fathered you. Your mom tells you nothing. All the fuss makes you uncomfortable at first but soon you find it's rather fun to be the son of the famous Gascogne. And in the midst of it all you fall in love. It is, after all, springtime in Paris.
Son of Gascogne
1995
6.2A famous French filmmaker is hired by a major Hollywood producer to make a documentary on the state of post-Cold War Russia. The filmmaker, though, subverts the project by stubbornly remaining in France and casting himself as the title character of Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot," offering up a series of typically Godardian musings on art, politics, the nature of images and the future of cinema.
The Children Play Russian
1993
4.0The story is set in the present day. László Sziráki, a womanizer and chemistry professor, is searching for the secret of making gold, but one component is missing. He wants fame and a solution to his financial problems. When he meets Esthena, an eccentric philosopher who wants to lose her virginity, he succeeds in turning plastic into gold. But he, a shrewish and shrewd man, does not recognise the exceptional nature of this encounter and pushes her away. Sophika, the wise grandmother of Syracuse, also meets Esthena: she sees her as a kindred spirit and assigns her to her grandson. But in the meantime, Mr. Maci, Esthéna's bumfordian and buffalo-loving gladiator knight, who will do anything for the girl, begins to pursue the alchemist out of jealousy. Will Syracuse find the answer to the alchemist's question? And is making gold even important?
The Alchemist and the Virgin
1998
1980s · 16 titles
6.8Successful surgeon Tomas leaves Prague for an operation, meets a young photographer named Tereza, and brings her back with him. Tereza is surprised to learn that Tomas is already having an affair with the bohemian Sabina, but when the Soviet invasion occurs, all three flee to Switzerland. Sabina begins an affair, Tom continues womanizing, and Tereza, disgusted, returns to Czechoslovakia. Realizing his mistake, Tomas decides to chase after her.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
1988
7.2In occupied Paris, an actress wed to a Jewish theater owner must keep him hidden from the Nazis while doing both of their jobs.
The Last Metro
1980
6.8Feeling suffocated by a possessive boyfriend, work and suburban life, a young woman starts spending the weekends in her Paris apartment in order to reclaim some of her lost freedom.
Full Moon in Paris
1984
5.2A porcelain table service and a painting from the 19th century pass from hand to hand and deteriorate over time, sealing the fate of different characters who cross paths in Paris.
Favorites of the Moon
1985
6.5A man's story parallels Hitler's rise. Austrian Klaus Schneider, wounded in World War I, recovers in the care of Dr. Emil Bettleheim. Bettleheim discovers that Schneider possesses powers of empathy and of clairvoyance, such that could aid suicidal patients. After the war, with one friend as his manager and another as his lover, Schneider changes his name to Eric Jan Hanussen and goes to Berlin, as a hypnotist and clairvoyant performing in halls and theaters. He always speaks the truth, which brings him to the attention of powerful Nazis. He predicts their rise (good propaganda for them) and their violence (not so good). He's in pain and at risk. What is Hanussen's future?
Hanussen
1988
5.8A playwright offers two actress friends the chance to appear in his new, unfinished play, which consists of only one female part.
Love on the Ground
1984
4.2Three girls: Susanne, Annie and Catherine, just have finished high school and meet every night to have a good time in discos and bars with frequently changing boyfriends. Susanne’s younger sister Betty often joins them and copies their behavior, believes everything they say. So she soon ends up with with projectionist George – although she doesn’t take the pill yet.
Girls
1980
5.6While shooting a film, the director becomes interested in the unfolding struggle of a young factory worker that has been laid off by a boss who did not like her union activities.
Godard's Passion
1982
5.0When Peter, Margaux's American writer husband, leaves Paris in a funk and heads home, she finds herself the single parent of two near teens. She also gets a new assignment at work: to find, sign, and promote new rock singers. She discovers a duo, Jeremy and Michel, and jump-starts their music careers. Jeremy is attracted to the older Margaux, asserts himself with her, befriends her children, and neglects Michel and their music. The kids go to New York to be with their father Peter, freeing Margaux to respond to Jeremy. Does that relationship have any future? And what of the musical duo?
Paroles et musique
1984
8.0Two Hungarian documentary makers, having heard nothing about their countryman Mickey Hargitay for almost 15 years, embark on a quest for the former body-builder/B-movie star. They cross America and find Mickey, living quietly in Southern California, running his businesses and raising his children, who have names like Mariska (ring a bell?) and Zoltan, speak Hungarian, and look like Jane Mansfield (of course).
Mr. Universe
1988
4.3A woman accused of murder escapes an asylum and her psychiatrist tries to find her.
The Mysterious Death of Nina Chereau
1988
8.0This somber drama chronicles the writings of Paltiel Kossover (Michel Jonasz), a Rumanian Jew who was incarcerated in a Stalinist prison. Zupanev (Erland Josephson) is a sympathetic court registrar who smuggles the documents and later presents them to the poet's son Grisha (Vincent David).
Le Testament d'un poète juif assassiné
1988
4.0Barely out of prison, where she spent five long years, a pretty prostitute sows disorder in the life of a hitherto peaceful couple.
Stand Up Crabs, the Sea Is Rising!
1983
4.8A young woman travels to Japan to write a novel.
Laissé inachevé à Tokyo
1982
7.0After the suicide of his actress-mother, a young man announces his identity to his father, who happens to be the man who directed his mother's last film.
Pleure Pas My Love
1989
8.0No synopsis available yet.
Légitime défense
1980
1970s · 14 titles
6.5A French diplomat is surveilled by a secret service to find a weakness for political control, his private life becoming 'File No. 51'.
Dossier 51
1978
7.3In 1950s communist Czechoslovakia, a government minister, a war veteran long a loyal party man, leads a relatively comfortable life with his wife. However, he soon finds himself under surveillance, then under arrest. Unclear what his offense is, agents for the totalitarian regime interrogate and torture him, aiming to use their unending power to gain a false confession for these supposed crimes against the state.
The Confession
1970
5.5Roland des Roncesvalles is a legendary knight from the age of chivalry in France. In the 11th-century epic La Chanson de Roland, he is depicted as a key figure in halting the advance of the Arabs into France. In this story, the 10th-century legend is staged by a group of 12th-century pilgrims using the 11th-century poem. Their acting is interrupted by a violent peasant uprising, which kills many of the pilgrims. However, one of the survivors, is converted to the peasant cause and later speaks out in favor of more just treatment for the downtrodden.
The Song of Roland
1978
4.9Cinématon is a 156-hour long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It was the longest film ever released until 2011. Composed over 36 years from 1978 until 2006, it consists of a series of over 2,821 silent vignettes (cinématons), each 3 minutes and 25 seconds long, of various celebrities, artists, journalists and friends of the director, each doing whatever they want for the allotted time. Subjects of the film include directors Barbet Schroeder, Nagisa Oshima, Volker Schlöndorff, Ken Loach, Benjamin Cuq, Youssef Chahine, Wim Wenders, Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Samuel Fuller and Terry Gilliam, chess grandmaster Joël Lautier, and actors Roberto Benigni, Stéphane Audran, Julie Delpy and Lesley Chatterley. Gilliam is featured eating a 100-franc note, while Fuller smokes a cigar. Courant's favourite subject was a 7-month-old baby. The film was screened in its then-entirety in Avignon in November 2009 and was screened in Redondo Beach, CA on April 9, 2010.
Cinématon
1978
No synopsis available yet.
Le Dernier voyage du commandant le Bihan
1972
7.0Stephen, living in a troubled family, breaks into a grocery store and wreaks vandalism. He is sent to a reform school. Later he works in a cleaning brigade and accidentally meets József Draskóczi, who denounced him. Draskóczi lives in an unloving, troubled atmosphere with his barren daughter and cynical son-in-law, ascetic about his youthful communist beliefs. He feels responsible for Istvan's fate, offering him a human voice and love. Despite his daughter's hysterical jealousy, he sends Istvan to school and then, through his previous connections, provides him with an apartment...
Minden szerdán
1979
4.8Herbert lives a happy childhood in a small town in early-century Hungary. His new friend Ödön brings colour and excitement into his life, and they find a hiding place together in a warehouse. One day, an escaped girl from an institution is locked up here, but Herbert later releases her, and loses his friend forever...
Dreaming Youth
1974
10.0No synopsis available yet.
La Barricade du Point-du-Jour
1978
7.5The wife of an extremely jealous merchant is held hostage by a bank robber.
Male of the Century
1975
4.7On his return from America, András simply cannot find his place: he has lost his wife, friends and job, and he cannot even find his way back to his former great love. Eventually, as a surrogate father, he takes in a wild young girl (Zsuzsa Czinkóczi) and a particularly strong bond is formed between these two rootless people. Márta Mészáros’s remarkable movie starring Jan Nowicki and Anna Karina is about displacement, loneliness and attachment.
Just Like at Home
1978
4.6This film, set at the beginning of the 17th century, is the first East-European "Eastern". Bocskai István orders the free Heyducks to shepherd a huge herd of cattle through the country torn to three parts, to the Dalmatian coast, where he can get weapons in exchange, for fighting the Austrians.
Unruly Heyducks
1974
6.4A former hero of the French anti-Nazi resistance is approached by old comrades to lead a financially struggling liberal newspaper. Initially reluctant, she takes on the challenge, mortgaging her house to keep it afloat. As conservative forces intensify their opposition, she is eventually forced to sell the paper, seeing it as a personal failure.
Judith Therpauve
1978
4.6Alain Cluny is Balthazar, a bumbling middle-aged intellectual who spouts off from time to time about leftist causes, usually to his current girlfriend. Then Edwarda (Bernadette Lafont), who is active in the political underground, comes into his life. From that point on, he begins to act on his beliefs. Edwarda's underground political action group stages a little drama to test Balthazar's commitment and reliability, putting him through an interrogation by what appear to him to be French secret police. Having passed this test, he is given a real assignment. This film is a comedy with elements of satire, and it explores the humor to be found in left-wing pretentiousness of all kinds. - Rovi
Valparaiso, Valparaiso
1973
A drifter navigates the fringes of Parisian society. The protagonist, a solitary man seeking direction, becomes entangled with a group of outsiders—misfits, lovers, and wanderers—who live on the city's margins. As he moves through this world, he connects with a woman whose struggles mirror his. Their relationship is fragile, shaped by fleeting moments of intimacy and the harsh realities of their surroundings. The film captures their attempts to escape their circumstances, but fate and the weight of their pasts make change elusive.
Rue du Pied de Grue
1979
1960s · 11 titles
7.3Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.
Pierrot le Fou
1965
7.7Twelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.
Vivre Sa Vie
1962
6.9Lemmy Caution is on a mission to eliminate Professor Von Braun, the creator of a malevolent computer that rules the city of Alphaville. Befriended by the scientist’s daughter Natasha, Lemmy must unravel the mysteries of the strictly logical Alpha 60 and teach Natasha the meaning of the word “love.”
Alphaville
1965
6.9A supposedly idyllic weekend trip to the countryside turns into a never-ending nightmare of traffic jams, revolution, cannibalism and murder as French bourgeois society starts to collapse under the weight of its own consumer preoccupations.
Weekend
1967
6.9Despite his lack of political convictions, photojournalist Bruno Forestier is roped into a paramilitary group waging a shadow war in Geneva against the Algerian independence movement.
Le Petit Soldat
1963
6.1Paula Nelson goes to Atlantic City to meet her lover, Richard Politzer, but finds him dead and decides to investigate his death. In her hotel room, she meets Typhus, whom she ends up knocking out. His corpse is later found in the apartment of David Goodis, a writer. Paula is arrested and interrogated. From then on, she encounters many gangsters.
Made in U.S.A
1967
5.4Five swindle stories, taking place in five international cities: Tokyo, Japan ("Fumiko's Five Benefactors" by Hiromichi Horikawa); Amsterdam, The Netherlands ("A River of Diamonds" by Roman Polanski); Naples, Italy ("The Road Map" by Ugo Gregoretti); Paris, France ("The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower" by Claude Chabrol); and Marrakesh, Morocco ("The Confidence Man" by Jean-Luc Godard). Godard's segment was not included in the original French cinema release, and Polanski's segment was not included on the 2016 home disc release.
The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers
1964
7.0Set during a turbulent era of disquiet, fear, persecution and terror, which permeates every corner of post-WWI Hungarian society. In 1919, after just a few months of communist rule the Hungarian Republic of Councils falls victim to a nationalist counter-revolution. Admiral Horthy, leader of the nationalist far right movement, becomes the self-proclaimed regent of Hungary, and assumes power as the legal Head of State. Soldiers of the short-lived Hungarian Red Army are now on the run from relentless secret policemen and patrol units of the nationalist Royal Gendarme. If caught, ex-Red Army soldiers are executed without mercy or proper trial. István Cserzi, a former soldier of the Red Army has fled to the Great Hungarian Plains and has taken refuge on a farm, which is run by two sympathetic women.
Silence and Cry
1968
9.0Laci and the divorced Klári decide to commit suicide, since neither's parents give them shelter, they have no place to sleep, no decent job and no future. Béla, who lives on stealing cars, joins them. He has a gun. Based on a true story.
The Fatal Shot
1968
6.5On receiving a letter from her mother, a quiet working-class girl leaves the state orphanage in Budapest where she grew up and takes a trip to the rural countryside to visit her.
The Girl
1968
4.9Juli is a 17-year-old student who takes a summer job in a local chemical factory. She is befriended by Piri, a girl with an unsavory reputation who has worked there before. The two friends are ogled by male workers who have overactive libidos and imaginations. Juli spurns the advances of a deluded Romeo while Piri continues to work and endure open hostility from the older female workers while her slothful parents sink deeper into alcoholism.
Do You Know Sunday-Monday?
1969
1950s · 2 titles
5.8The mistress of the wealthy Henri Marcoux is murdered and the family accuses the milkman of committing the crime. But Marcoux's daughter's fiancé suspects that she may have been murdered by someone else.
À double tour
1959
6.4Tsar Alexandre II meets a young student, Katia. He understands that he loves her and try to send her away but they end up seeing each other again and becomes his mistress. With the help of Katia, Alexandre prepares a liberal constitution, but these reforms make him hostile to the more privileged subjects without satirising the revolutionaries against the regime.
Katia
1959
Series credits
Behind the camera
6.2During the years following World War II, a new boy arrives to class 7/c, and the audience learns to know the lives of the drunkard teacher, his husband-cheating wife, the lonely music teacher hiding behind her paper flowers, the wise count deprived of all his properties, the jovial parish priest and especially the buffalo owner of tragic fate who lost his four daughters, alongside with the young protagonist.
Volley for a Black Buffalo
1985
6.2During the years following World War II, a new boy arrives to class 7/c, and the audience learns to know the lives of the drunkard teacher, his husband-cheating wife, the lonely music teacher hiding behind her paper flowers, the wise count deprived of all his properties, the jovial parish priest and especially the buffalo owner of tragic fate who lost his four daughters, alongside with the young protagonist.
Volley for a Black Buffalo
1985
No synopsis available yet.
Le Dernier voyage du commandant le Bihan
1972
No synopsis available yet.
Le Dernier voyage du commandant le Bihan
1972
5.5Two women work as entertainers and prostitutes to raise enough money for their dream home.
Zig Zig
1975
5.5Two women work as entertainers and prostitutes to raise enough money for their dream home.
Zig Zig
1975
5.2A murder at the Whisky Bar leads a Buddhist policeman on the trail of a strange deal that links the owner to a crooked politician. A zany, satirical detective story that denounces a certain milieu where politicians and crooks coexist. The politician, a drug dealer and employer of hired assassins, becomes the target of a blind hitman.
The White Gloves of the Devil
1973
5.2A murder at the Whisky Bar leads a Buddhist policeman on the trail of a strange deal that links the owner to a crooked politician. A zany, satirical detective story that denounces a certain milieu where politicians and crooks coexist. The politician, a drug dealer and employer of hired assassins, becomes the target of a blind hitman.
The White Gloves of the Devil
1973
10.0Detective Sebők is shot at by a fleeing criminal and then pushed off the road. Sebők breaks his leg. Left by his wife, pensioned by his boss on the basis of false reports, he has a clash with banker Gömöri at the colonel’s party.
The Man Who Slept at Daylight
2003
10.0Detective Sebők is shot at by a fleeing criminal and then pushed off the road. Sebők breaks his leg. Left by his wife, pensioned by his boss on the basis of false reports, he has a clash with banker Gömöri at the colonel’s party.
The Man Who Slept at Daylight
2003
NRA man is shot down in a provincial airport. Despite his wounds he manages to drag himself to his plane bound for Italy, unaware that the killers are already waiting for him at his destination. During the flight he reminisces about the events that led him there. His name is Matou and he was a Formula 1 champion before being banned from racing circuits for causing a fatal accident. Matou ran away in the company of Lena, his employer's girlfriend. But while they were in the open country they got shot at by mysterious pursuers, which was the beginning of a wild manhunt.
Point mort
1984

