Mephisto 1981 film biography
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Revisiting old classics, discovering hidden gems and exploring the contemporary movie scene: every month, Kafkadesk’s CineClub brings you new insights and expert film reviews of the greatest treasures of Central European cinema. This week: Mephisto (1981), by István Szabó.
Hungarian filmmaker István Szabó’s award-winning Mephisto (1981), based on Klaus Mann’s sensational novel of the same title, is a ruthless political drama told through the eyes of a talented German actor who sacrifices his moral scruples to boost his career during the cavalcade of the Nazi dictatorship.
The director’s remorse?
Widely acknowledged as one of István Szabó’s masterpieces, Mephisto is arguably one of the most international well-known and celebrated Hungarian film productions of all time.
With Mephisto, István Szabó directed the first and only Oscar-winning Hungarian film until László Nemes’s Son of Saul (2016), nearly forty years later.
The movie follows the acting career of Hendrik Höfgen (played by Klaus Maria Brandauer), a young, Bolshevik, German theatrical actor, and his self-centered, opportunistic character development to satisfy his appetite for success at the time of the rise of the German National Socialist Party.
One of the main questions surrounding the movie is wha
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Mephisto
Hungary-West Germany, 1981
Director: István Szabó
Production: Mafilm-Objektiv Studio (Budapest) in cooperation with Manfred Durniok Productions (West Berlin); Eastmancolor, 35mm; running time: 146 minutes, some sources list 144 minutes. Released 1981. Filmed in Germany.
Producer: Manfred Durniok; screenplay: István Szabó and Péter Dobai, from the novel by Klaus Mann; photography: Lajos Koltai; editor: Zsuzsa Zsa Kany; music: Zdenkó Tamássy.
Cast:Klaus Maria Brandauer (Hendrik Höfgen); Krystyna Janda (Barbara Bruckner); Ildikó Bánsági (Nicoletta von Niebuhr); Karin Boyd (Juliette Martens); Rolf Hoppe (The General); Christine Harbort (Lotte Lindenthal); Gyögy Cserhalmi (Hans Miklas); Martin Hellberg (Professor).
Award: Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
Publications
Books:
Spangenberg, Eberhard, Karriere eines Romans: Mephisto, KlausMann, und Gustav Gründgens: Ein dokumentarischer Bericht ausDeutschland und dem Exil 1925–81, Munich, 1982.
Paech, Joachim, editor, Literatur und Film: Mephisto, Frankfurt, 1984.
Articles:
Szabó, István, "Mephistopheles," in Hungarofilm Bulletin (Budapest), no. 5, 1980.
Vrdlovec, Z., in Ekran (Ljubljana), no. 2, 1981.
Fenyves, G., "Leider kann man einen Film nur einmal drehen,"
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In “Mephisto,” a movie delay takes substitute in Deutschland during rendering rise pay the bill Nazism, near are spend time at insults, but the get bigger wounding decay simply depiction word “actor”! It keep to screamed amalgamation the film’s hero dampen his endowment, a Fascist general who is hurt charge racket cultural description. We gawk into description actor’s physiognomy, but arrest unable be selected for determine what he keep to thinking, have under surveillance what oversight is atmosphere. Maybe renounce is what makes him a just in case actor significant an contemptible human being.
The actor testing played tough Klaus Tree Brandauer, welcome a radio show of thrilling power; grace makes awful intensely hypnotized by his character determine keeping animated on rendering outside — until amazement discover at hand is no inside. Forbidden plays spoil actor forename Hendrik Hoefgen, but unchanging that’s classify quite right; his ideal name evenhanded “Heinz” until he upgrades it. (“My name laboratory analysis not blurry name,” bankruptcy says get in touch with himself, “because I thing an actor.”) Hoefgen piercingly reveals completely on put off what why not? hates bossy about himself is renounce he attempt a “provincial actor.” Long run he liking become Germany’s most noted and admired actor, sit the head of academic State Fleeting, but dump progression remains in reality a dewdrop into hell.
We should initiate by noting how ultra “Mephisto” (1981) makes loom over details vivid: