Mephisto

Mephisto (1981) is a historical drama by István Szabó you can watch online on iFILM. It reworks the Faust legend and drops it into Germany between the wars, where gifted stage actor Hendrik Höfgen dreams of a bigger stage and a bolder, more radical kind of theater.

His fame arrives hand in hand with the Nazis. Höfgen, played by Klaus Maria Brandauer, doesn't share the regime's beliefs, but his hunger for recognition outweighs his conscience: as friends and colleagues flee or are destroyed, he accepts the patronage of the new rulers. His turn as the devilish Mephistopheles makes him a star of the Third Reich — and slowly the mask fuses to his face. The higher he climbs, the less of the real man is left.

Szabó didn't make a costume biopic but a cold study of compromise: how a brilliant artist convinces himself that art sits above politics, then sells his soul one concession at a time. Brandauer is electric, and his final monologue under the spotlights has been remembered for decades. The film took the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Stream Mephisto online on iFILM.