No other German actor, not even Conrad Veidt, moves so expressively, comes the praise from the London Times critic, when the provincial actor from Hamburg begins to make his mark in Berlin. And indeed he does move expressively, even exaltedly, when throwing himself into a dance routine; but this is primarily a face movie, not a body movie. It is also a didactic and, after a while, somewhat stagnant movie, once the actor abandons his early interest in revolutionary theater, adapts himself to life under Hitler, and becomes the Nazis' fair-haired boy. For a movie set in Nazi Germany, a notable degree of complexity and ambiguity is gotten into the moral (and aesthetic) issues, but this is difficult to sustain, especially when we arrive at such a predigested scene as the dissident bit-player being driven to the countryside by S.S. men and ordered to walk slowly into the woods. Klaus Maria Brandauer, in the plum role of the actor "born to play Mephisto," is required to wear many faces, and he wears them well. Directed by Istvan Szabo. (1981) — Duncan Shepherd
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