Mephisto

Germany during the 1920s. Hendrik Höfgen (Brandauer) is an actor in a provincial company who decides he wants success above everything else. To this end, he marries the daughter of a prominent professor which enables him to get into the State Theatre company in Berlin. Once there, he becomes a success and eventually gets the opportunity the play the role of his dreams, Mephistopheles in Goethe's Faust. At this moment, however, the rise to power of the nazis forces him to make another choice - to go into exile or to attempt to ingratiate himself with the nazis. Although the choice Höfgen makes leads to even greater success, it also forces him to capitulate to the nazis at every turn. As in the Faust legend, he finally learns what it means to serve the devil.