Reviews (5) 
A milestone in cinema's story
Think in a masterpiece. Mephisto falls in this elite.Szabo is to date one of the best direcors in all the world.
His recent film Taking sides is another proof of this statement.
Mephisto has too many elements to be a genuine gem.The dynamic script, the amazing Klaus Maria Bandauer giving his the role of his life. Brandauer belongs together with a selected group of actors who goes far beyond the legend , Armin Muller Stahl, Jeremy Irons, Bruno Ganz, Harvey Keitel, Anthony Hopkins to name one of this selected group.
To built a story based in the sense of the opportunity , in the decay of the being human, when all his efforts seems concentrate in the search power no matter even if you sell your soul.
It's a ravishing film, very deep and conceptually rich. Since his debut in 1982 it became in a classic film.
You must watch it, once and several times, because as all masterpiece , you'll watch something new in it.
Piece of garbage
Brandauer can't even mimic the performance of Gustav Gruendgens, the original for "Mephisto" -- find the 1963 Gruendgens version of Goethe's Faust instead to see the actor of the century.
no particular title
First of all, this is one the best films I've ever seen. And this picture is one of the best Hungarian pics. If you don't believe it: see it yourself, and you're going to be amazed of how an East-European director can tell you a story about a man, who can't choose between fame and political correction.
Sleeper and Must-see for All
Mephisto is a brilliant film. Klaus Maria Brandauer is possibly one of the greatest living actors today and this is probably his key role. It is based on a novel written by Klaus Mann (son of the famous German author Thomas Mann), which is loosely based upon the real-life story of Klaus's actual brother in law, famous German actor Gustaf Grundgens. (Grundgrens is mostly known to us for his role as the criminal-organization leader in Fritz Lang's "M").
Isvan Szabo directs this stirring character-study with depth and sincerity, asking us to question: "If a particular culture is guilty of crimes against humanity, is it's art also guilty?". The viewer is left to decide for themselves, but the ride is well worth it in the end.
This is the story of a man who must decide whether to do what he thinks is right, or what is in his best interest. I also get the feeling that this character just hates change and would do just about anything, and sacrifice anything, to maintain as much of the status quo as he could in a world that insists that all of its members change radically or be eradicated.
swastikas and greasepaint
Hungarian director Istvan Szabo's tale of Klaus Maria Brandauer as an actor in Nazi Germany reminded me of the problem posed by Burt Lancaster in Judgment at Nuremburg. As a German lawyer indicted for enforcing Nazi ideology, he asked whether it was more moral to have fled the country the way others did in disgust, or to stay and try and moderate in a kind of passive protest. Brandauer faces the same dilema, though his predicament is given the added irony of him being an actor, a person assumed to lack an identity. However Szabo doesn't demonize the character, which may have something to do with Szabo continuing to make movies in Hungary after the Russians invaded, as evidence of the adjustment of the working artist. We may think that Mephisto's decision to stay on is ill-advised since we know the Nazis to be fickle in their allegiance, but we don't admonish him for being an opportunist. And Brandauer lets us see this actor is more than just a performer, and particularly in one close-up where his contempt for the Nazi Prime Minister is hidden behind the mask of host. The material is taken from the novel by Klaus Mann, the son of Thomas Mann, and allegedly based on the marriage of Erika Mann (Klaus' sister) to the actor Gustav Grundgens, who appeared in Fritz Lang's M and toured Faust internationally after the war. As metaphor the Faust legend is apt, with a man who sells his soul to the devil, though the Hamlet analogy also used with Brandauer as the Nazi's Hamlet is less successful. Szabo creates an hypnotic mood of continuous dread. We are in constant fear for what will become of Mephisto, especially when he tries to protect friends, and of the horror of the Nazi's represented by the Goring-like Prime Minister. His fatness suggests both an over-ripe sensuality and a barbaric ignorance. At one point he even says "When I hear the word culture I reach for my revolver". Szabo gets a laugh from a montage of Brandaeur's entrances in various theatre roles, after he closes a curtain from an argument, and Brandaeur himself gets us on side with his first appearance howling in a jealous tantrum backstage. It is rumoured that Grundgens was a homosexual, who also had a relationship with Klaus Mann, and while Brandaeur doesn't make this overt, his fay dancing and the platonic marriages he enters into may reveal subtext.
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