Mephisto

The 1981 Academy Award-winning (Best Foreign Language Film) Mephisto concerns a passionate but struggling actor (Klaus Maria Brandauer) who remains in Germany during the Nazi regime and reaps the rewards of this Faustian pact by finally achieving the stardom he has long craved.

"There has been precious little incisive appraisal of the precise seductive allure of fascism, and certainly none to match that offered by Szabó's remarkable film." - Paul Taylor, Time Out (London)

"One of the greatest movie performances I've ever seen. A performance of electrifying power." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"Magnificent and distinguished. It's more than a mercy, it's a coup." - David Thomson

"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

"Mephisto is brilliant metaphorical filmmaking." - Bruce McCabe, Boston Globe

"Possesses an inner momentum and the film as a whole, with its dynamic leading performance, has an energy reminiscent of the films of Andrzej Wajda." - David Shipman