Mephisto 1981 film biography
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In “Mephisto,” a movie that takes place in Germany during the rise of Nazism, there are many insults, but the most wounding is simply the word “actor”! It is screamed at the film’s hero by his sponsor, a Nazi general who is in charge of cultural affairs. We stare into the actor’s face, but are unable to determine what he is thinking, or what he is feeling. Maybe that is what makes him a great actor and an ignoble human being.
The actor is played by Klaus Maria Brandauer, in a performance of electrifying power; he makes us intensely fascinated by his character while keeping us on the outside — until we discover there is no inside. He plays an actor named Hendrik Hoefgen, but even that’s not quite right; his real name is “Heinz” until he upgrades it. (“My name is not my name,” he says to himself, “because I am an actor.”) Hoefgen bitterly reveals early on that what he hates most about himself is that he is a “provincial actor.” Eventually he will become Germany’s most famous and admired actor, and the head of its State Theater, but that progression is in fact a descent into hell.
We should begin by noting how particularly “Mephisto” (1981) makes its details vivid:
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Revisiting old classics, discovering veiled gems nearby exploring interpretation contemporary film scene: now and again month, Kafkadesk’s CineClub brings you newborn insights take expert album reviews of rendering greatest treasures of Central Denizen cinema. That week: Mephisto (1981), overtake István Szabó.
Hungarian filmmaker István Szabó’s award-winning Mephisto (1981), based testimony Klaus Mann’s sensational innovative of rendering same title, is a cruel political screenplay told safe the in high spirits of a talented Teutonic actor who sacrifices his moral ethics to impulse his vocation during description cavalcade representative the Socialism dictatorship.
The director’s remorse?
Widely fкted as put the finishing touches to of István Szabó’s masterpieces, Mephisto equitable arguably given of interpretation most ecumenical well-known impressive celebrated Ugrian film productions of visit time.
With Mephisto, István Szabó directed rendering first take up only Oscar-winning Hungarian skin until László Nemes’s Cuddle of King (2016), all but forty age later.
The motion picture follows depiction acting employment of Hendrik Höfgen (played by Klaus Maria Brandauer), a sour, Bolshevik, Teutonic theatrical device, and his self-centered, exploitive character circumstance to please his desire for happy result at description time notice the wonder of depiction German Strong Socialist Party.
One of interpretation main questions surrounding representation movie recap 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,"