Klaus Maria Brandauer is Hendrik Hofgen, an actor in Hamburg at a local theater. He gets noticed when he moves to the big time in Berlin. It is the 1930s, and Hitler and the Nazis have just come to power. He must make choices which become a Faustian bargain, as the saying goes. One fellow actor is taken away and shot, and he is told that his friend died in a car accident, and another dies in a convenient suicide. As the world changes rapidly around him, Hendrik learns to play the game and adapt to the new regime. He repeatedly claims to only be an artist, without any interest in politics, however, he has to bow down to the new prime minister, who just so happens to also be a general. He is made the director of a theater and told to produce plays with positive German heritage, and no more French farces, or other inferior foreign material. He does sell out and he is rewarded with a comfortable lifestyle. Brandauer is tremendous, and in just about every scene. The matter of fact acceptance by most of the people to the new Nazi regime is subtle and terrifying. Mephisto is dark and frightening.
