István Szabó - Filmmaker of Existential Choices

Istvâan Szabâo 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 Szabâo's contribution to contemporary thought, engaging the troubled history of Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries. Istvâan Szabâo'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 Istvâan Szabâo's major films, from his 1960s works to his Academy Award for Best Foreign Film winner, Mephisto, and on through Szabâo'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 Szabâo'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?

About the author

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.

Product details

• Authors: Susan Rubin Suleiman, Susan Rubin (Harvard University Suleiman
• Assisted by: Costica Bradatan (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 07.03.2024
• EAN: 9781350181823
• ISBN: 978-1-350-18182-3
• No. of pages: 208
• Dimensions: 138 mm x 216 mm x 18 mm
• Weight: 270 g
• Series: Philosophical Filmmakers
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Miscellaneous; PHILOSOPHY / General, PHILOSOPHY / Political, Philosophy, Ethics & moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, Ethics and moral philosophy, Individual Film Directors, Film-Makers, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / Direction & Production