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.
Acting
Brandauer's body becomes unrecognizable by the end
Direction
Szabó stages fascism as grotesque theater
Costume
Mephisto's makeup consumes the man beneath
Director
István Szabó
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Hendrik Höfgen
Krystyna Janda
Barbara Bruckner
Ildikó Bánsági
Nicoletta von Niebuhr
Rolf Hoppe
Tábornagy
Karin Boyd
Juliette Martens
György Cserhalmi
Hans Miklas
Péter Andorai
Otto Ulrichs
Christine Harbort
Lotte Lindenthal
Tamás Major
Oskar Kroge, színigazgató
Ildikó Kishonti
Dora Martin, primadonna
Sándor Lukács
Rolf Bonetti, bonviván
Ágnes Bánfalvy
Angelika Siebert, naiva
Judit Hernádi
Rachel Mohrenwitz, drámai szende
Vilmos Kun
Ügyelõ
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Klaus Mann's novel, written in exile about his former brother-in-law Gustaf Gründgens—Nazi Germany's most celebrated actor, who married Mann's sister Erika then abandoned her.
The film was Hungary's first Oscar winner, made under Communist rule—a Warsaw Pact country indicting fascism while its own government suppressed artists. The irony wasn't lost on Szabó.
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