Hanussen

A film about the rise of a man who became famous for his predictions. Klaus Schneider is an Austrian soldier wounded in the First World War. Something is noticed while he is in hospital: he can influence people, change their behaviour by suggestion, and what he says comes true. After the war he changes his name and goes on stage. As Hanussen he becomes known in Berlin; his shows are full and the papers write about him. Politicians take an interest too. That interest is the subject. The man tries to keep himself out of politics and says he serves nobody. But in Germany at the start of the 1930s neutrality is not possible, and every word he says is used by someone. What raised him destroys him: a prediction of his comes true, and from that moment he becomes a dangerous witness. The character starts from a real person; Hanussen was killed in 1933. Klaus Maria Brandauer leads; it is the last film of the trilogy he made with the director. Erland Josephson is in the cast. István Szabó directed. The film was nominated for the foreign film Oscar. A strong closing piece for anyone who likes European cinema and films about power and the artist. For a viewer expecting a supernatural story, the film is not interested in whether the gift is real.