Szabó László

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

The Unbearable Lightness of Being poster
6.8

Successful 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

Pierrot le Fou poster
7.3

Pierrot 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

Vivre Sa Vie poster
7.7

Twelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.

Vivre Sa Vie

1962

The Last Metro poster
7.2

In 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

Ismael's Ghosts poster
5.5

Just 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

Alphaville poster
6.9

Lemmy 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

Esther Kahn poster
6.0

A Jewish girl in 19th century London dreams of becoming a stage actress.

Esther Kahn

2000

Gardens in Autumn poster
6.0

When 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

Like An Airplane poster
4.2

Lola, 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

Special Delivery poster
5.0

An 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

Parc poster
3.6

Georges 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

Playing 'In the Company of Men' poster
7.5

A 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

No artwork available
NR

Making of Jean Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965)

The Outskirts of Alphaville

2003

On appelle ça… le printemps poster
7.8

Fanfan 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

Place Vendôme poster
6.2

The 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

The Sentinel poster
6.6

A medical intern finds himself drawn into a world of international intrigue after discovering a shrunken human head in his luggage.

The Sentinel

1992

Up, Down, Fragile poster
7.2

A 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

The Diary of the Hurdy-Gurdy Man poster
8.0

This 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

Cold Water poster
6.4

An 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

Son of Gascogne poster
5.1

You'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

The Children Play Russian poster
6.2

A 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

The Alchemist and the Virgin poster
4.0

The 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

The Unbearable Lightness of Being poster
6.8

Successful 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

The Last Metro poster
7.2

In 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

Full Moon in Paris poster
6.8

Feeling 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

Favorites of the Moon poster
5.2

A 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

Hanussen poster
6.5

A 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

Love on the Ground poster
5.8

A 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

Girls poster
4.2

Three 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

Godard's Passion poster
5.6

While 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

Paroles et musique poster
5.0

When 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

Mr. Universe poster
8.0

Two 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

The Mysterious Death of Nina Chereau poster
4.3

A woman accused of murder escapes an asylum and her psychiatrist tries to find her.

The Mysterious Death of Nina Chereau

1988

Le Testament d'un poète juif assassiné poster
8.0

This 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

Stand Up Crabs, the Sea Is Rising! poster
4.0

Barely 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

Laissé inachevé à Tokyo poster
4.8

A young woman travels to Japan to write a novel.

Laissé inachevé à Tokyo

1982

Pleure Pas My Love poster
7.0

After 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

Légitime défense poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Légitime défense

1980

1970s · 14 titles

Dossier 51 poster
6.5

A 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

The Confession poster
7.3

In 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

The Song of Roland poster
5.5

Roland 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

Cinématon poster
4.9

Cinématon 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 artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Le Dernier voyage du commandant le Bihan

1972

Minden szerdán poster
7.0

Stephen, 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

Dreaming Youth poster
4.8

Herbert 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

La Barricade du Point-du-Jour poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

La Barricade du Point-du-Jour

1978

Male of the Century poster
7.5

The wife of an extremely jealous merchant is held hostage by a bank robber.

Male of the Century

1975

Just Like at Home poster
4.7

On 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

Unruly Heyducks poster
4.6

This 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

Judith Therpauve poster
6.4

A 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

Valparaiso, Valparaiso poster
4.6

Alain 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

No artwork available
7.0

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

Pierrot le Fou poster
7.3

Pierrot 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

Vivre Sa Vie poster
7.7

Twelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.

Vivre Sa Vie

1962

Alphaville poster
6.9

Lemmy 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

Weekend poster
6.9

A 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

Le Petit Soldat poster
6.9

Despite 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

Made in U.S.A poster
6.1

Paula 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

The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers poster
5.4

Five 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

Silence and Cry poster
7.0

Set 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

The Fatal Shot poster
9.0

Laci 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

The Girl poster
6.5

On 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

Do You Know Sunday-Monday? poster
4.9

Juli 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

Series credits

Behind the camera

Volley for a Black Buffalo poster
6.2

During 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

Volley for a Black Buffalo poster
6.2

During 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 artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Le Dernier voyage du commandant le Bihan

1972

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Le Dernier voyage du commandant le Bihan

1972

Zig Zig poster
5.5

Two women work as entertainers and prostitutes to raise enough money for their dream home.

Zig Zig

1975

Zig Zig poster
5.5

Two women work as entertainers and prostitutes to raise enough money for their dream home.

Zig Zig

1975

The White Gloves of the Devil poster
5.2

A 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

The White Gloves of the Devil poster
5.2

A 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

The Man Who Slept at Daylight poster
10.0

Detective 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

The Man Who Slept at Daylight poster
10.0

Detective 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

Point mort poster
NR

A 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