Mephisto  [OmeU], BRD Ungarn 1981, R: István Szabó mit Klaus Maria Brandauer, Krystyna Janda, Ildikó Bánsági, Rolf Hoppe, 144 Min

Klaus Maria Brandauer als "Mephisto"

Ein deutscher Bühnenschauspieler erfährt unerwarteten Ruhm dank seiner Leistung in einem faustischen Spiel, nachdem die Nazis die Macht in Deutschland übernommen haben. Während seine Verbündeten und Freunde durch den Nazi-Terror fliehen, verdrängt die Popularität seiner Figur seine eigene Existenz.

ENGL.

BASED ON A TRUE STORY. When Fascism comes around, you have to take sides

Mephisto tells the story of Hendrik Höfgen. An ambitious stage actor as the Nazis come to power in Germany, Höfgen cuts himself off from his roots in the leftist theatre scene to ingratiate himself with the fascist regime. “Höfgen is a very talented actor who wants to assert his talent at all costs,” says Szabó. “To stand in the middle of the stage, in the spotlight.” Friends and colleagues are arrested, killed, exiled. But Höfgen only digs in deeper with the Nazis, who make him head of the Berlin state theatre.

All of this is told through the extraordinary central performance of Brandauer, the Austrian actor (later director) depicting all of Höfgen’s frustrated ambition, wilful ignorance and fatal capacity for seduction in a performance as vivid and shocking as any in cinema history.

Today, Szabó pays tribute to the “particularly talented actor” with whom he collaborated most recently in 2020’s Final Report. “It was crucial for me, for us, to decide what to show in close up from Brandauer’s secrets. What he reveals and what he conceals.”

Mephisto is based on the real life story of Gustaf Gründgens, whose career soared when the Nazis ploughed subsidies into the stage to shape it in their own image. [The Guardian]