Zoltán Fábri

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Zoltán Fábri
Born	October 15, 1917(1917-10-15) Budapest, Austria-Hungary
Died	August 23, 1994 (aged 76) Budapest, Hungary
Years active	1951–1983

Zoltán Fábri (October 15, 1917 - August 23, 1994) was a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. His films The Boys of Paul Street (1969) and Hungarians (1978) were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Fábri wanted to become an artist from an early age on. He studied design and graduated at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts. He began working in the Hungarian film industry in 1950 when it was under total state control as a production designer. He directed his first film Vihar (Storm) in 1951. He became an internationally acclaimed director with his third feature Körhinta (Merry Go-Round) in 1956. He continued directing and writing until the early 1980s. After his retirement from film industry Fábri taught on the Hungarian University of Theatrical and Film Arts.

Fábri's style of filmmaking can be described mainly as "classical", using academic techniques of art filmmaking. He never used any "modernist" styles or techniques even when it was popular in the movie world (the 1960s-1970s), although his 1976 film Az ötödik pecsét (The Fifth Seal) contains some highly surrealist scenes. For this reason the Communist cultural regime favored Fábri over more controversial and experimental directors like Miklós Jancsó.

He was known as a perfectionist who wrote, drawn and choreographed every scene to the most precise detail months before production began and never improvised anything. His reputation as a rigid, tyrannical director was somewhat contradicted by his friendly and kind behaviour towards the American child actors on the set of The Boys of Paul Street.

Fábri made nearly all of his films based on literary material (novels or short stories) and wrote the screenplays himself. His constant theme was the question of humanity. Many of his films are set in or around World War II. Two of his frequent collaborators were actress Mari Törőcsik and cinematographer György Illés. In 1969 he played the role of prosecuted statesman Zoltán Dániel in his friend Péter Bacsó's cult satire, A tanú (The Witness) as his sole acting job.

[edit] Filmography

Déryné (1951) - production designer
Vihar / Storm (1951) - director
Erkel (1952) - production designer
Életjel / Fourteen Lives (1954) - director
Dandin György, avagy a megcsúfolt férj (1955) - production designer
Körhinta / Merry Go-Round (1956) - director, screenwriter, production designer
Hannibál tanár úr / Professor Hannibal (1956) - director, screenwriter
Bolond április / Summer Clouds (1957) - director, production designer
Édes Anna / Sweet Anna (1958) - director, screenwriter, production designer
Dúvad / Brute (1961) - director, screenwriter
Két félidő a pokolban / The Last Goal) (1962) - director, screenwriter, production designer
Nappali sötétség / Darkness in Daytime (1963) - director, screenwriter, production designer
Vízivárosi nyár / Hard Summer (tv-series) (1964) - director
Húsz óra / Twenty Hours (1965) - director
Útószezon / Late Season (1966) - director
A Pál-utcai fiúk / The Boys of Paul Street (1969) - director, screenwriter
Isten hozta, őrnagy úr! / The Tóth Family (1969) - director, screenwriter
A tanú / The Witness (1969) - actor
Hangyaboly / Ant Hill (1971) - director, screenwriter
Plusz-mínusz egy nap / Plus-Minus One Day (1973) - director, screenwriter
141 perc a befejezetlen mondatból / 141 Minutes from the Unfinished Sentence (1975) - director
Az ötödik pecsét / The Fifth Seal (1976) - director, screenwriter
Magyarok / Hungarians (1978) - director, screenwriter
Fábián Bálint találkozása Istennel / Bálint Fábian Meets God (1980) - director, screenwriter
Requiem (1981) - director, screenwriter
Gyertek el a névnapomra / Housewarming (1983) - director, screenwriter