Mephisto
Directed by: István Szabó
Distributor: Analysis Film Releasing
Corporation
Released: April 1981
Country: Hungary
Faustian: made or done for present gain without regard for
future cost or consequences
The Faustian bargain is not much of
one. It’s when you're willing to give
anything, ANYTHING, for your obsession.
The oft-told classic tale is of a man named Faust, appropriately enough,
who sells his soul to The Devil’s bargainer, Mephistopheles, for 24 years of
magical powers. The story has about a
hundred permutations: In real life,
Robert Johnson, blues-man from Mississippi, was said to have sold his soul for
mad guitar skills. The 1936 short story “The
Devil and Daniel Webster” by Stephen Vincent Benét is considered a classic. In 1987’s Angel
Heart, a musician named Johnny Favorite is called upon by Louis Cypher
(Louis Cyper—Lucifer—get it?) to pay the debt of his soul for becoming a big time heartthrob singer. Sometimes the
deal is in the form of a bet, and the mortal wins in the end, like in Charlie
Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” (though anyone who had heard that song
knows that the Devil and his Band of Demons sound way cooler than fiddlin' Johnny).
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| Pre-Faustian deal Hendrik |
In Mephisto, the 1981 film from Hungary, the Faust character is that
of Hendrik Hoefgen, a decent actor in pre-Nazi Hamburg. When we first meet Hendrik, we find him in a
state of angst, almost to the point of panic.
The cause: An impressive
performance, followed by praise of, a fellow thespian, a pretty and noteworthy
young actress on the rise. Hendrik
craves the spotlight so much it hurts him to see another person in it.
Hendrik is an actor, and his
portrayer, Klaus Maria Brandauer, overacts in the role appropriately, every
emotion being at a heightened state, as if to tip off the audience that Hendrik
himself cannot be just Hendrik. He is a
man without a core, and as such is open to the Faustian bargain he will be
presented.
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| Nazi General Mephisto and Hendrik Mephisto |
Hendrik’s sole purpose is to be an
important actor, perhaps one day starring in his favorite play, Hamlet.
Early in the film, we see him distance himself from a relationship with
his black girlfriend—it seems he does love her, but her race won’t help him in his ambitions as
the Nazis gain power. Hendrik tries to
become famous by heading up a Bolshevik theater troupe—that association, not based
on any true political principles, will also be jettisoned once it becomes a bad
idea in National Socialist Germany.
Hendrik also will ditch a wife he married to better his career once she
no longer is a benefit to him. And
instead of playing Hamlet, he takes a role in the play Faustus, and is amazing in his role of Mephisto/Mephistopheles.
Then one day Hitler takes over
Germany. The party wants to have the
right people in the right places,
and a Nazi General comes to Hendrik and
expresses to him how great an actor he is, and how important he can be to the
new government. We have a man who would
do anything to be an important actor, the
most important actor, and here is a chance at that greatness. Whatever will he do?
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| Robert De Niro as Louis Cyphre, Angel Heart |
This movie has interesting
performances and is an insightful character study. There is a lot to like here. But I have to say I didn’t quite take to it,
really. What was missing, I think, was
that the film never gave us a chance to empathize with Hendrik. I thought of Michael Moriarty’s character in
the 1978 miniseries Holocaust, who similarly allows his character to be
corrupted by the allure of being an important Nazi. In that case, we meet him early on, a likable
if milquetoast lawyer who seems swept up by circumstances, lacking the moral
core to stave off the evil of Nazism.
Hendrik, conversely, embraces whatever will get him
ahead, and so we
never root for him, either to make the right choices or to get out of the
consequences of his wrong ones. Perhaps
instead of working as an actor for the Nazis, had he challenged the Nazi
General to a rock-off, he would have
been better off. It worked against The
Devil when he went down to Georgia.
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| Tenacious D also put their souls at risk versus the Devil |
The
Title: Comes from the title of a 1936 novel by a
German exile named Klaus Mann. The
subject of the novel is closely based on a real life German
actor named Gustaf Gründgens, who most notably appeared in Fritz Lang’s 1931 masterpiece,
M.
But his most famous role was that of Mestipho.
The
Culture: An instructive portrayal of what it must have been
like having to be in Germany during the failing Wiemar Republic, and having to
learn how to deal with the rise of Nazism.
Agenda
danger: The message of the film is a profound
one—when one is willing to accept any principles, or lack of principles, grave consequences
are inevitable.
Best
Picture that year: Chariots of Fire.
Rating: I do think this movie went on too long and
that there was too long a wait to get to what the film was really about, but as
a Faust story, it certainly is better than Angel
Heart. And again, Klaus
Maria Brandauer’s performance is perfectly over-the-top, and hard to look away
from. Brandauer has been in a handful of
American movies, including 1985’s Out of
Africa, for which he was nominated as Best Supporting Actor.
