Colonel Redl [Oberst Redl] **** (1985, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Hans Christian Blech, Armin Mueller-Stahl) – Classic Movie Review 9344

Hungarian director István Szabó’s 1985 Colonel Redl [Oberst Redl] [Redl Ezredes] is a startlingly powerful film of a subject already familiar from John Osborne’s stage play A Patriot for Me, with a clever screenplay based on that play, or at any rate inspired by it, examining ambition and human nature.

The British Film Academy’s Best Foreign Language Film award (shared) plus the special jury prize at Cannes went to director Szabo’s masterly, compelling re-creation of the life of the Jewish rail-worker’s homosexual son Alfred Redl (Klaus Maria Brandauer), who rose to the top of the forces of the pre-World War One Austro-Hungarian Empire, is ruined when his true nature is discovered by a blackmailer, and forced to commit suicide as a spy.

Szabo weaves an extremely potent spell with the help of a gorgeous production, dazzling Eastmancolor cinematography by Lajos Koltai, and a reined-in but highly emotional, tour-de-force portrayal from Brandauer, one of the world’s great cinema players.

It was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, like its predecessor Mephisto and successor Hanussen (Mephisto won).

Brandauer was reunited with Szabo after 1981’s Mephisto and again in 1988 for Hanussen.

It is made in German, as a Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria and West Germany co-production.

Also in the cast are Hans Christian Blech, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Gudrun Landgrebe, Jan Niklas, László Mensáros, András Bálint and Eva Szabó.

István Szabó is the first Hungarian director to win an Oscar, when his film won the Best Foreign Language Film award for Mephisto.

Colonel Redl [Oberst Redl] [Redl Ezredes] István Szabó, runs 149 minutes, is made by MAFILM Objektív Filmstúdió, Manfred Durniok Filmproduktion, Mokép, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) and Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), is released by Orion Classics (1985) (US), is written by István Szabó and Péter Dobai, inspired by John Osborne’s stage play A Patriot for Me, is shot by Lajos Koltai, is produced by Manfred Durniok, Helmut Fürthauer (executive producer: ORF) and Alfred Nathan (executive producer: ZDF), is scored by Zdenkó Tamássy and is designed by József Romvári.

It is filmed in Vienna, Croatia and Hungary.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9344

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