Colonel Redl (1985)
Though he professes to hate politics and politicians, Redl also can't avoid them. When the leader for whom Redl is supposedly spying among the officer corps, draws up a list of who can't be exposed for traitorous activities (including Austrian nobles, Hungarians, Czechs, Serbs, Croatians, and even the usual scapegoats, Jews -- the aftershocks of the Dreyfuss affair are still rumbling), he tells Redl that he must find a double of himself, a Ukrainian. Now certain that he will be exposed, Redl surrenders to fate, quoting to his wife from Montaigne: "It's no sin to be involved. It's a sin to remain involved." Brandauer is a wonder as the self-loathing Redl, and Szabo's camera picks up every nuance on his expressive face. The film eschews music except for several party scenes, and the absence of a score is most effective in the final shots of Redl's fellow officers awaiting his fate. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi
- Starring:
- Klaus Maria Brandauer, Hans-Christian Blech, (more)
- Director(s):
- István Szabó
- Theatrical MPAA Rating:
- R
- Format(s):
- DVD
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Synopsis of Colonel Redl
The second film in the trilogy made by director Istvan Szabo and actor Klaus Maria Brandauer -- hammocked between Mephisto and Hanussen -- Colonel Redl continues Mephisto's fascination with a man overwhelmed by history. In that film, Brandauer played an actor who tried to ignore the rise of the Third Reich, and here he's an ambitious military officer in pre-World War I Austria whose career path is set early on. In military school, he's forced to inform on a student who's the source of a practical joke; though he beats himself up for being a Judas, he soon realizes that to rise in the ranks he must overcome his peasant background and hide his homosexuality by ingratiating himself with his superiors. In time, he becomes Chief of Military Intelligence for the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Though he professes to hate politics and politicians, Redl also can't avoid them. When the leader for whom Redl is supposedly spying among the officer corps, draws up a list of who can't be exposed for traitorous activities (including Austrian nobles, Hungarians, Czechs, Serbs, Croatians, and even the usual scapegoats, Jews -- the aftershocks of the Dreyfuss affair are still rumbling), he tells Redl that he must find a double of himself, a Ukrainian. Now certain that he will be exposed, Redl surrenders to fate, quoting to his wife from Montaigne: "It's no sin to be involved. It's a sin to remain involved." Brandauer is a wonder as the self-loathing Redl, and Szabo's camera picks up every nuance on his expressive face. The film eschews music except for several party scenes, and the absence of a score is most effective in the final shots of Redl's fellow officers awaiting his fate. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi
- Theatrical Feature Running Time:
- 142 mins
Complete Cast of Colonel Redl
- Klaus Maria Brandauer - Alfred Redl
- Gudrun Landgrebe - Katalin Kubinyi
- Athena Papadimitriou - Female Singer
- Karoly Eperjes - Lt. Jaromil Schorm
- Laszlo Mensaros - Col. Ruzitska
- Gyorgy Banffy - Adjutant to Crown Prince
- Flora Kadar - Redl's Sister
- Jan Niklas - Kristof Kubinyi
- Gyorgy Racz - Kristof Kubinyi as a Child
- Dora Lendvai - Katalin Kubinyi as a Child
- Eva Szabo - Redl's Mother
- Hans-Christian Blech - Col. von Roden
- Dorottya Udvaros - Clarissa, Redl's Wife
- Andras Balint - Dr. Gustav Sonnenschein
- Laszlo Galffi - Alfredo Velocchio
- Tamas Major - Grandfather Kubinyi
- Agnes T. Katona - Wilhelmina
- Istvan Verebes - Auctioneer
- Robert Ratonyi - Baron Ullmann
- Maria Majlath - Grandmother Kubinyi
- Armin Mueller-Stahl - Archduke Ferdinand
- Gabor Svidrony - Alfred Redl as a Child
- Director(s):
- István Szabó
- Writer(s):
- István Szabó, Péter Dobai
- Producer(s):
- Manfred Durniok, Joszef Marx
- Theatrical MPAA Rating:
- R(Violence, Adult Situations, Not For Children)
- 1985 - British Academy of Film and Television Arts - Best Foreign Language Film
- 1985 - Cannes Film Festival - Jury Prize
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