Hanussen

Austria, West Germany, Hungary

1988

140 Min

Color

German, Hungarian

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
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PROD Artur Brauner, Judit Sugár

SCR Péter Dobai, István Szabó, Gabriella Prekop

CAST Klaus Maria Brandauer, Erland Josephson, Ildikó Bánsági, Walter Schmidinger, Károly Eperjes

ED Zsuzsa Csákány, Brigitta Kajdácsi, Bettina Rekuc, Éva Szentandrási

SOUND János Csáki, György Fék, Antal Szabó

Cannes (In competition)

Director

Great international name of Hungarian film since 1960s. Szabo’s first three films The Age of Illusions, Father and Love Film are often seen as an autobiographical trilogy. In his 1970s films Szabo made several films like 25 Fireman’s Street , Budapest Tale and Confidence which won him Silver Bear in the Berlin Film Festival of that year and Academy Award Nomination in the United States. Szabo made his great international breakthrough with his masterpiece Mephisto (1981) for which he garnered Cannes Film Festival Prix and Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. In 1985 he was credited with Cannes Film Festival Prix and Academy Award Nomination for Colonel Redl. Three years later came out his next film Hanussen, another Academy Award Nomination. In 1991 he directed Sweet Emma, Dear Bobe, winner of Silver Bear of Berlin Film Festival and Best European Screenplay.

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14May12

Disappointing closer of Szabó's 'German' trilogy. Embarrassingly mediocre directing, lots of anachronisms. More importantly, Szabó omits a crucial detail from the story: the fact that Hanussen, who apparently had a hand in Hitler's rise, was a Jew. This not only nullifies the movie's 'revelatory' pretensions, but, I'm sorry to say, it also makes me question the director's integrity.