Istvan Verebes Movies
- 1991
In 1919, shortly after World War I, a communist government briefly achieved power after a revolution. In this historical drama, the effects that revolution had on Hungary's citizens is shown in the lives of a troupe of sideshow performers at a circus. Filmed in black and white, this movie uses that long-ago episode as a vehicle for making comments on Hungary's more recent period under communist rule. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
The second film in the trilogy made by director Istvan Szabo and actor Klaus Maria Brandauer -- hammocked between Mephisto and Hanussen -- Colonel Redl continues Mephisto's fascination with a man overwhelmed by history. In that film, Brandauer played an actor who tried to ignore the rise of the Third Reich, and here he's an ambitious military officer in pre-World War I Austria whose career path is set early on. In military school, he's forced to inform on a student who's the source of a practical joke; though he beats himself up for being a Judas, he soon realizes that to rise in the ranks he must overcome his peasant background and hide his homosexuality by ingratiating himself with his superiors. In time, he becomes Chief of Military Intelligence for the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Though he professes to hate politics and politicians, Redl also can't avoid them. When the leader for whom Redl is supposedly spying among the officer corps, draws up a list of who can't be exposed for traitorous activities (including Austrian nobles, Hungarians, Czechs, Serbs, Croatians, and even the usual scapegoats, Jews -- the aftershocks of the Dreyfuss affair are still rumbling), he tells Redl that he must find a double of himself, a Ukrainian. Now certain that he will be exposed, Redl surrenders to fate, quoting to his wife from Montaigne: "It's no sin to be involved. It's a sin to remain involved." Brandauer is a wonder as the self-loathing Redl, and Szabo's camera picks up every nuance on his expressive face. The film eschews music except for several party scenes, and the absence of a score is most effective in the final shots of Redl's fellow officers awaiting his fate. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi
Though he professes to hate politics and politicians, Redl also can't avoid them. When the leader for whom Redl is supposedly spying among the officer corps, draws up a list of who can't be exposed for traitorous activities (including Austrian nobles, Hungarians, Czechs, Serbs, Croatians, and even the usual scapegoats, Jews -- the aftershocks of the Dreyfuss affair are still rumbling), he tells Redl that he must find a double of himself, a Ukrainian. Now certain that he will be exposed, Redl surrenders to fate, quoting to his wife from Montaigne: "It's no sin to be involved. It's a sin to remain involved." Brandauer is a wonder as the self-loathing Redl, and Szabo's camera picks up every nuance on his expressive face. The film eschews music except for several party scenes, and the absence of a score is most effective in the final shots of Redl's fellow officers awaiting his fate. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi
- Starring:
- Klaus Maria Brandauer, Hans-Christian Blech, (more)
- 1983
The director of a provincial theater group, Adam Horkai (Sandor Szakacsi) is in the middle of rehearsing his troupe for a Schubert musical when he learns that a famous Hungarian author has only two weeks left to live. Out of veneration for the author's contributions to literature, Horkai decides to fake rehearsals of the dying man's prohibited play, "The Jacobins" and invite the moribund writer to come witness his great work as the actors run through it. The cast knows the play is banned, but they concur in this scheme to make the last two weeks of the writer's life rewarding. Their rehearsals, in fact, are so intense that the crew and director have all but forgotten their play acting was only play acting and the result is that they stemmed the tide of the playwright's illness. Now he is looking forward to an "opening night" -- and the director sees no easy way out of his dilemma. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sandor Szakacsi, Dorottya Udvaros, (more)
- 1982
The year is 1931. Someone is trying to permanently derail the Orient Express. This drama, based on a true story, explains who and why. The mad bomber is Sylvester Matushka, a Hungarian businessman. He has destroyed the train and many have died. Now Dr. Epstein is called in to investigate and find Matushka before he strikes again. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Sarrazin, Towje Kleiner, (more)
