Fresh
Few have dared what Brandauer accomplishes: showing us a good actor responding to the same neurotic drive for the center of the stage, the immortalizing role. His is a great performance, nothing less.
Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine
Overview
A German stage actor finds unexpected success and mixed blessings in the popularity of his performance in a Faustian play as the Nazis take power in pre-WWII Germany. As his associates and friends flee or are ground under by the Nazi terror, the popularity of his character supercedes his own existence until he finds that his best performance is keeping up appearances for his Nazi patrons.
Director and cast
- István Szabó Director
- Klaus Maria Brandauer as Hendrik Hoefgen
- Krystyna Janda as Barbara Bruckner
- Ildikó Bánsági as Nicoletta von Niebuhr
- Rolf Hoppe as Tábornagy
- Karin Boyd as Juliette Martens
- György Cserhalmi as Hans Miklas
- Péter Andorai as Otto Ulrichs
- Christine Harbort as Lotte Lindenthal
- Tamás Major as Oskar Kroge, színigazgató
- Ildikó Kishonti Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
79%
Tomatometer
Rotten
A disappointingly thin, conventional film.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Rotten
Hungaro pic shows extraordinary period flair for the Germany of the 1920s and '30s, balanced acting by a multinational cast, and exemplary direction.
Variety Staff, Variety
Fresh
The actor is played by Klaus Maria Brandauer in one of the greatest movie performances I've ever seen.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Rotten
Mephisto seems somewhat remote, without all the urgency of which Mr. Szabo has shown himself capable.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
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IMDb
6.9
Rotten Tomatoes
76%
Metacritic
65
Comments
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