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Mephisto (1981) [Re-UP]

Posted By: Someonelse
Date: 12 Jun 2015 13:56:00
Mephisto (1981) [Re-UP]

Mephisto (1981)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC 16:9 | Cover + DVD Scan | 02:24:01 | 7,91 Gb
Audio: German AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English
Genre: Drama, War

Director: István Szabó

Based on Klaus Mann's novel, Mephisto details the rise of a Faustian character who figuratively sells his soul in exchange for greatness. Hendrik Hofgen (Klaus Maria Brandauer, offering an electric performance) is the star of a state-funded theater department who tires of his job. Like his friends, he pays lip service to socialist ideals fashionable for artists of his time – that is, until the Nazis rise to power. He then sees an opportunity to achieve his objective of fame: he will perform propaganda plays and thereby use the Nazis as a vehicle to spread his name across the country – only too late does he realize his mistake. This well-adapted version of the book featured the first teaming of Brandauer with director Istvan Szabo; they would later reunite to make Colonel Redl and Hanussen. Brandauer first gained attention in the U.S. after the film's release and would be cast as the villain in Never Say Never Again as a result.

IMDB - Won 1 Oscar | Wikipedia | Rotten Tomatoes | Amazon


Mephisto (1981) [Re-UP]

Mephisto is one of those rare films which feels inseparable from its lead actor. To imagine it without Klaus Maria Brandauer is to imagine another film entirely. His performance drives Mephisto from the very start; he is its energy and momentum. Certainly, when we watch it’s Brandauer we’re watching and not his co-stars. Furthermore, director Istvan Szabo is quite happy to sit back and stare, to absorb this remarkable display. Surely it can be no surprise that the pair would collaborate twice more over the next decade: on Colonel Redl in 1985 and Hanussen in 1988.

Mephisto (1981) [Re-UP]

It makes sense, then, that Mephisto should so concern itself with performance and the acting process. Brandauer plays a provincial actor who ascends to stardom under Nazi rule, yet he does so without scruples or moral conscience, indeed without self. He drops his politics, his women, and arguably his soul, along the way – all that’s left is a mask, though below this facade exists extreme acts of delusion and self-justification.

Mephisto (1981) [Re-UP]

This tension between the public face and what remains of the private man is central to Mephisto. Appearing in every scene and almost every shot, it’s Brandauer who must root both, and he does so with grace. From the off he remains both a non-entity and utterly charismatic. Certainly, he doesn’t play the role through easy options; rather, the humanity seems to grow as he gets deeper and deeper into his predicament. We become painfully aware of the self-doubt only once it is too late, it seems, though the fascination in this figure is continual. Looking outside of the film for a moment it strikes the viewer that cinema hasn’t used Brandauer better – aside from the later re-teamings with Szabo his key eighties’ performances came in Out of Africa and the unofficial Bond instalment Never Say Never Again, hardly the most testing of work.

Mephisto (1981) [Re-UP]

Yet whilst our lead actor may appear as a force unto himself, it’s important not to underestimate Szabo’s contributions. Aside from a few swift montages, visual flourishes are few – indeed Mephisto may very well be a model of simplicity. However, as with Brandauer, our director never takes the easy option. It would hardly be difficult, for example, for the actor to have swallowed up the whole enterprise, unbalancing everything. Yet Szabo always looks towards the bigger picture and is thus able to hold Brandauer in his place. The political is never lost to the personal, rather the two compliment each other perfectly. Mephisto isn’t simply about one actor and Nazism, but of Europe and Nazism; those tensions between the private and the public face of things are effectively writ large, though Szabo’s lightness of touch means that such concerns never become overbearing. He’s able to use Brandauer as a channel, just as the actor utilises his director. The two feed of each other to their own ends – a stunning performance, a sharp political analogy – resulting in the perfect collaboration.
Anthony Nield, Home Cinema
Mephisto (1981) [Re-UP]

We're all familiar with the archetypal Faustian Bargain, where, in exchange for your soul, the devil grants your wishes. But Why might someone might want to make such a bargain? I mean, there are the common lusts and desires; but, the question still remains: What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Mephisto suggests an answer. And it's not to be found in evil machinations of the Prince of Darkness and his minions, or any such nonsense. It's found in the human psyche.

Mephisto (1981) [Re-UP]

Brilliantly played by Klaus Brandauer (Out of Africa, White Fang), Hendrik Hoefgen is a man haunted by insecurity. At the core of his being is shame. From the age of twelve, he tells his wife, he's always felt ashamed. So he always wears a mask, because he dare not expose his true identity to anyone, for fear of rejection. To hide himself and to medicate his feelings, he adopts a strategy that is all too common: he overcompensates. He buries himself in his work, identifies himself with his work, and becomes an empty creature playing to the crowds, a social chameleon who's a nobody adroitly playing a role. He constantly works on and perfects his social image, alert to the smallest hint of disapprobation in anyone. In this endeavor, his practiced talent of self deception aids him: He says to himself, after he's sold out to the Nazis, that he's satisfied with his success, because it means that many people love him. He's the perfect actor, even for himself. He's a public persona, nothing more. In the flower of his fame, he's a hollow shell. Mephisto is the most brilliantly produced drama on this subject I've ever seen. It's absolutely enthralling. I highly recommend it as one of the best films ever made, by anyone.
IMDB Reviewer
Mephisto (1981) [Re-UP]

As a physical production, the film is breathtaking. Szabo makes the General's office a throne surrounded by empty space. He creates elegant party scenes at which the connected people gossip about one another; they climax with a spectacular celebration at the Grunewald hunting lodge. Huge swastikas turn ordinary buildings into fearful ones. The mechanism by which some people are exiled and others "disappear" is condensed into brief, fearful automobile rides. No effort is made to depict Hitler or German militarism or large-scale persecution of the Jews; all that takes place offstage, considering that the stage is Hoefgen's life. And Szabo ends the film with a visual masterstroke in which Hoefgen is able at last to have the limelight all to himself.
Excerpt from Rober Ebert's Review
Mephisto (1981) [Re-UP]

Disc features:
- The Naked Face: Conversations with István Szabó and Klaus Maria Brandauer - featurette (22 mins)
- Talent Bios

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DVD Collection!

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