FILMS WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES:

ADOPTION  1975  89 min.  (VHS)

Director: Marta Meszaros

Cast: Kati Berek, Gyongyver Vigh, Laszlo Szabo

A story about a young woman's efforts to become a mother.

ANOTHER WAY  1982  102 min.  (VHS)
Director: Karoly Makk
Cast: Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieslak, Grazyna Szapolowska, Josef Kroner
In the aftermath of the failed Hungarian uprising of 1956, Livia, the wife of an army officer and a reporter at a Budapest newspaper, meets Eva, an outspoken lesbian journalist. When Eva and Livia fall in love, they embark on an affair that ends in heartbreak and violence for both. Winner of the Critics Prize and Best Actress for Jankowska-Cieslak at the Cannes Film Festival.

DANIEL TAKES THE TRAIN   1983  87 min.  (VHS)

Director: Pal Sandor

Cast: Peter Rudolf, Katalin Szerb, Gyorgi Angeli

Set in the turmoil of 1956,  Daniel is hopelessly in love with Marianne, the girl next door, but when their lives are disrupted by the Soviet invasion, he decides to join his friend on a train headed for the Austrian border. Full of black humor, this film was one of the first to break the silence on the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary. 

THE GIRL  1968  89 min.  (VHS)    

Director: Marta Meszaros

Cast: Kati Kovacs, Adam Szirtes, Teri Horvath

A young woman leaves a state orphanage to find her mother and discovers a deep social and cultural division between them.

I LOVE BUDAPEST  2001  85 min.  (DVD) 

Director:  Agnes Incze

Cast: Gabriella Hamori, Martina Kovacs, Sandor Csanyi

Nineteen year old Aniko moves to the city to fulfill her dream of a better life.  With help from her friend Moni she gets a job and starts to make friends.  But Aniko discovers that her new friends belong to an underworld of crime and violence.

LOVEFILM  1970  123 min.  (DVD)

Dircetor: Istvan Szabo

Cast: Judit Halasz, Andras Balint, Edit Kelemen

Childhood sweethearts, Jansci and Kata, are reunited in France after being separated during the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary.  As adults, they must now unpack their mutual fascination for each other in order to discover whether their lives will keep them together or force them apart again. 

THE MAGIC HUNTER  1996  106 min.  (VHS)  

Director:  Ildiko Enyedi

Cast:  Gary Kemp, Sadie Frost, Alexander Kaidanovsky

Max is the best sharpshooter on the Budapest police force.  But when skill and luck desert him and he accidentally shoots a woman he was supposed to protect, a mysterious friend gives him seven magic bullets that are guaranteed to hit their mark.  What Max doesn't know is that the last bullet belongs to the Devil and will only hit a target of the Devil's choosing.    

MEPHISTO  In German and Hungarian:  1981  144 min.  (VHS) 
Director: Istvan Szabo

Cast:  K.M. Brandauer, A. Muller-Stahl, G. Landgrebe, J. Niklas, Krystyna Janda, Gyogory Cserhalmi, Peter Andorai, Ralf Hoppe
Based on a novel by Klaus Mann about the rise and corruption of an actor, taken from the experiences of Mann's ex-brother-in-law Gustav Grundgens, the famous German Actor.  The screenplay is by Szabó and Péter Dobai.

MY TWENTIETH CENTURY  1990  104 min.  (VHS)   
Director: Ildiko Enyedi
Cast: Dortha Segda, Oleg Jankowski, Peter Andorai, Gabor Mate
At the turn of the century, two identical twins grow up and explore their worlds in very opposite ways. The erotic and playful Dora is a soft and self-indulgent contrast to her bomb-throwing revolutionary sister Lili, who was separated from her at birth. The sisters finally cross paths on the famous Orient Express by sleeping with the same confused man.

THE RED AND THE WHITE  1968  92 min.  (VHS) 
Director: Miklos Jancso
Cast: Tibor Molnar; Andras Kozak; Jozef Madaras, Nikita Mikhalkov, Krystyna Mikolajewska
Set in Central Russia during the Civil War of 1918, the story details a murderous battle between Russia's Red soldiers and the counter-revolutionary Whites in the hills along the Volga.

THE REVOLT OF JOB  1983   105 min.  (VHS)
Directors: Imre Gyongyossy and Barna Kabay
Cast: Ferenc Zenthe; Heidi Temessy; Gabor Feher
An elderly Jewish couple determined to keep their heritage alive in the face of Nazi extermination adopt an eight year old Gentile boy to whom they hope to pass on not only their possessions but their spiritual values as well.

SINBAD  1970  98 min.  (VHS)
Director: Zolan Huszariik
Cast: Zoltan Latinovits, Margit Dayka and Eva Ruttkay
Based on a novel by Gyula Krudy, the film is an evocation of memories of past romantic attachments by an aging Don Juan, set around the turn of the century.

SUNSHINE  In English:  2000  180 min.  (DVD)   

Director: Istvan Szabo

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, 

When great-grandpa Sonnenschein (the name means "sunshine") bottled the cure-all elixir "a taste of sunshine" he established a family fortune and assumed his sons would continue the business.  But great-grandpa's sons- and family members to come-had very different hopes and dreams.

TAMAS AND JULI  In French and Hungarian:  1997  60 min.  (DVD)

Director: Ildiko Enyedi

Cast: Marta Angyal; David Janosi; Gyorgy Barko

A simple and touching story focusing on the budding romance between Tamas, a young coal miner, and Juli, a kindergarten teacher.  On December 31, 1999, Juli sends a love letter to Tamas proposing a rendezvous, but Tamas is assigned a late shift in the mine.  Juli is sitting and waiting for him, but he has no way of reaching her.

TIME STANDS STILL  1982  99 min.  (VHS)
Director: Peter Gothar
Cast: Istvan Znamenak; Henrik Pauer; Sandor Soth; Aniko Ivan
This expressionist film examines Budapest's troubled adolescents of the early 1960's with humor and passion.  The focus is on two young men, whose father left when the Soviets invaded Hungary in 1956 and whose mother stayed.  They reflect the tension inherent in their parents' generation, as one worries about getting ahead, while the other is attracted to rock music and individualism.

THE WITNESS  1969  116 min.  (VHS) 

Director: Peter Bacso 

Cast: Ferenc Kallai, Lajos Oze, Zoltan Fabri

Set in 1949, the film is a political satire that mixes forms and styles, symbolism and screwball farce.  The story concerns a functionary who is imprisoned and eventually manipulated into providing testimony against his best friend, a government minister on trial for treason.  This film was suppressed for 12 years.

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