Customer Reviews

Hanussen [NTSC/REGION 1 & 4 DVD. Import-Latin America] by Istvan Szabo (Spanish subtitles)

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"Hanussen" is the final part in Istvan Szabo's and Klaus Maria Brandauer's trilogy of doomed figures in historic times. The trilogy started with "Mephisto" and was followed by "Colonel Redl".

"Hanussen" like "Colonel Redl" is based on a real person and inspired by true events. But, it is unlike other Szabo films in one regard. It has little to do with Hungary's history. Szabo's films usually are about his native country. Here he is dealing with a story about Germany's history and the beginning rise of Adolf Hitler.

It is like other Szabo films in this sense. Here we have a man who must face inner demons. Szabo's films are about personal struggles. Whether it is "Father", "Colonel Redl", or "Mephisto" his works concentrate on Hungary's history and individuals encountering personal problems against the historical backgrounds.

Klaus Schneider (Klause Maria Brandauer) is a soldier during WW1. He is injuried and sent to a hospital where Dr. Bettelheim (Erland Josephson) takes care of him. Soon the doctor finds out about a gift the young soldier has. His ability to mind manipulate people. Schneider is also something of a clairvoyant. Bettelheim wants Schneider to assist him after the war to help suicidal soldiers, since he can talk them out of it.

With this gift big times are ahead of Scheinder as soon he finds a manager who suggest he go to Berlin. There he changes his name to Erik Jan Hanussen and starts to make predictions on Germany's future. Such as the eventual rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. At first the party welcomes his predictions. Hanussen states the only reason the Nazi will rise to power is because Germany is in need of change and order must preside. But Hanussen starts to predict the hate and evil that lurks within the party and the decline of the party, which Hitler and the Nazi are not so supportive of.

"Hanussen" presents some interesting ideas. One of the things that kept occuring to me as I watched the film was, what would I do if I were around then? Hanussen feels an obligation to tell people of what will happen if the party does succeed, but what does he actually do to prevent it? Does he have any responsibilty to actually do anything? Throughout the film he says he is not political.

Brandauer does a great job playing the character. If you've seen him in other movies, he has a way of always transforming himself into the various people he plays. Each character is present in a different attitude. He doesn't physically change his appearance, but, once he see him in one role we tend to forget about the others. They don't seem to exist. That's about the highest compliment I can pay Brandauer.

Through out the film, Szabo present Hanussen has a genuine clairvoyant. There have been other films made about him, the most recent, German filmmaker Werner Herzog's "Invincible", which didn't present Hanussen in a kind light. It presented him as a fraud. I wonder which version of Hanuseen is true.

"Hanussen" when made in 1988 and released in America the following year open to much critical acclaim. It was nominated for the golden palm at the Cannes Film Festival. And was also nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar.

Despite a change of country for Szabo, "Hanussen" retains most of the director's themes and proves to be one of his best films. If you enjoyed this film, please do seek the Herzog film as well.

Bottom-line: One of Istvan Szabo's best films. The final chapter in Szabo's and Brandauer's trilogy of doomed figures.

Klaus-Maria Brandauer gives a riveting and mezmerising performance as "Hanussen", a clairvoyant in pre-war and Nazi Germany. Seeing the future though is not pleasant and Hanussen pays a price for it. He doesn't warn of terrible things to come; he just reveals it as truth. Based on a true story, the film presents a rare glimpse of post WWI Mittel-Europe too. No hard-core Nazi atrocities here, but the hints, revelations and decadent sideshows plus Branauer's hypnotic performance reveal all that's needed for a very good film.

The creative vein of Istvan Szabo was beating with refulgent intensity. After the world success of his sumptuous and delirious film Mephisto, he returned with Hanussen , an engaging story which turns around a wounded soldier during the WW1 who seems to have prophetic gifts; because of that, will lead him to be used by the Nazis for obvious reasons.

Powerful, intriguing and memorable film. One of the supreme achievements of this Top Director.

The reason why this superb film has not been released on DVD at this time is a true riddle.

The third in director István Szabó's trilogy (Mephisto, Colonel Redl, Hanussen) from the 1980's is currently available on DVD for region one players only in this format, with subtitles in Spanish only. I could not get access to Hanussen even on Netflix or various inter-library loan programs, so I took a chance and bought this DVD. I found that if you have a passable reading knowledge of Spanish (far from fluent, say a year or two of high-school Spanish) you can still enjoy this film, especially if you also understand a bit of spoken German. The picture quality is good-to-excellent, the historical basis for the plot intriguing, and the in-joke cinematic references satisfyingly (or annoyingly) obscure.

The movie opens as German-speaking Austro-Hungarian soldiers on the Italian front during WWI ready an attack on a machine-gun nest hidden in a church. Klaus Schneider, an infantryman, suffers a head wound and wakes up in a front-line hospital, where he befriends a Jewish psychiatrist named Bettelheim, and himself demonstrates an uncanny ability to control others almost hypnotically, calming a suicidal patient brandishing a hand grenade. In addition, Schneider begins to exhibit a seemingly genuine ability to predict aspects of the future. By the time the war ends, he's begun performing as a sort of seer, and when asked by an audience member if she will follow her family, currently on a ship bound for America, to the New World, he says none of them will reach America. Next day news arrives the ship has sunk. A spur of the moment answer to a broker who asks about the future price of cotton seems to be a joke, since Schneider, by now calling himself Hanussen, picks the number twenty-five because it was his grandmother's address. Yet the price actually does plummet from over 100 to 25 within a week. In a number of similar incidents Hanussen relies on charisma as much as seemingly supernatural talent and quick-wittedness to build enough of a reputation to enjoy a number of erotic encounters and to take his act to Berlin.

The remaining half of the film demonstrates how he gradually lets himself be drawn into political predictions, and public demonstrations of hypnotic control of others that eerily parallel his fellow-Austrian Hitler's rise to prominence and draw him into the Nazi orbit until events turn deadly as Hitler is about to assume power. Especially noteworthy is the minor character Hanni Stahl, clearly modeled on Leni Riefenstahl. The gradual descent of Hanussen to his final doom, the symbolic Lord's prayer and three cock-crows and final prophecy ("todos perecan" as the subtitles have it), all make for utterly fascinating viewing.

Klaus Maria Brandauer gives a great performance as a soldier that discovers his psychic powers after a headinjury. Hanussen's career is on the right path until he starts predicting that Hitler will be the next German chancellor and until he ridicules a Nazi party member during one of his shows. Although fascinating, since this is a real-life story, the movie isn't long enough and I found the ending too abrupt. I wish there would have been more to watch.

I would greately appreciate if someone could provide me with any information concerning the original german text which was used to produce the movie "Hanussen". Anything...