Klaus Maria Brandauer makes ambitious, compromised men worth watching closely. We favour his leading roles with István Szabó, though his charm can also improve a supporting part in a film that does not quite work.
Fi1m perspective
Brandauer often plays men who use their charm to get what they want. In Mephisto (1981), his international breakthrough, he plays Hendrik Höfgen, an actor prepared to compromise his principles for his career. It is a good fit for a performer who can make ambition attractive without asking us to approve of it. Director István Szabó went on to cast him as Alfred Redl in Colonel Redl (1985) and Erik Jan Hanussen in Hanussen (1988). We favour those collaborations because the men's ambition and self-preservation give Brandauer more to work with than charm alone.
That distinction matters with Out of Africa (1985), in which Brandauer plays Bror and Hans von Blixen-Finecke. His charm and the nuance he brings to potentially conventional characters are worth noticing, even when the film gives us reasons to lose interest. We found it frustrating because Meryl Streep supplies an emotional urgency that the romance around her too often lacks. Sydney Pollack's film is carefully made, but Robert Redford's reserve and the unhurried pacing keep too much of it remote. We would not recommend its 161 minutes on the strength of Brandauer's contribution alone.
Maximilian Largo, opposite Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again (1983), is another example of his usefulness in a potentially routine supporting role. Brandauer can bring enough individuality to such a character to make the casting matter. But these appearances should not obscure the leading work: Colonel Redl and Out of Africa both appeared in 1985. The English-language parts ran alongside the Szabó films, rather than replacing them.
His later screen work is occasional, with theatre continuing alongside it. It includes Carlo Tetrocini in Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro (2009) and a fourth collaboration with Szabó in Zárójelentés (2020). For a first encounter, choose Mephisto; save Out of Africa for an evening when Streep is the attraction.
Biography
Klaus Maria Brandauer is an Austrian actor and director. Born Klaus Georg Steng on 22 June 1943 in Bad Aussee, he trained at the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart and began his career on stage, appearing at theatres including the Burgtheater in Vienna and the Salzburg Festival.
His breakthrough came with the leading role in István Szabó's Mephisto (1981). He gained international recognition for Never Say Never Again (1983) and his supporting performance as Bror von Blixen-Finecke in Out of Africa (1985), for which he received an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award. He has collaborated repeatedly with Szabó on films including Colonel Redl (1985) and Hanussen (1988). Brandauer is a professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna.
