Usually films about vast political and social movements are told through the perspective of a character that either starts off righteous and fights for good or a character that begins ambivalent and, through struggle, finds that fighting for a good cause is their ultimate mission. Ivan Szabo's Mephisto (1983) takes an entirely different approach. In it, famed German actor Hendrik Hofgen (Klaus Maria Brandauer) spends the early thirties either performing in pro-Bolshevik theater or ignoring politics altogether. Like many around him he is only hypothetically opposed to the Nazi movement. When the Nazis rise to power, he is convinced to return to Germany from a road trip by an actress with long-running ties to the Reich. He decides to perform his life, basically, putting on a show of support for the Nazi Prime Minister (who addresses him as Mephisto and, later, as Hamlet, further allowing Hofgen to hide behind his act) and others who look to make him a symbol of German artistic integrity. He allows himself to become a mouthpiece for propaganda since acting is all he knows to do and staying in his homeland is more important than making a new start in a foreign land.

Mephisto, named for Hofgen's most famous role, is a character study of a man whose ability to blind himself to his own actions makes him an actor in more ways than one. Early on he discusses how his face, voice, and eyes are not his own, but rather they belong to his characters. This sense of lying from the inside out helps make his own personal betrayal possible. He acts to convince those around him but also to convince himself.

A complex and emotional portrait, Mephisto does stray into overly-pretentious territory on occasion, but the detail and specificity given over to Brandauer's character make it a remarkable achievement. It won best foreign film at the 1982 Oscars and also deserves high praise for the performances, cinematography, and music. The atmosphere of back-stage Germany is convincing (although one early scene strangely looks like a Flashdance outtake) and the story of a man who becomes his own devil is a powerful one. By the time the Prime Minister shows him just how tenuous his position is, first by belittling him and then in the strange, eerie finale, Hofgen realizes that his mistake has been assuming that by standing only for what made him happy as an individual he was compromising who he was as a human being all along.

VIDEO:
The widescreen anamorphic video is quite good. The print is clean, the colors are vibrant, and the image is sharp.

AUDIO:
The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio is also well done. A simple soundtrack, the film consists mostly of dialog, but the distinction between theater and more personal atmosphere creates a subtle and effective soundscape. It is in German with removable English subtitles.

EXTRAS:
The only extra of note is a 22 minute piece called The Naked Face, a series of conversations with director Istvan Szabo and star Klaus Maria Branauer. This feature helps illuminate the backgrounds and motivations of both of these intelligent, articulate men, and sheds light on the political events that made them want to pursue serious, thoughtful material like Mephisto.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Mephisto occupies an important space in German film history. German artists have been critical of Nazi sympathizers but Mephisto turns that blame inward, on an art community that managed to put on blinders when clarity of vision was most desperately needed.