The film traces the military and romantic careers of Colonel Alfred Redl from his humble beginnings, through a military academy, into the Austro-Hungarian army, to the guileful environment of high political intrigue, to his ultimate altruistic suicide in 1913. It's supposedly based on a true story but since so little seems to be known about the true story, the epistemology of the plot is questionable. Nobody really knows what happened.

Brandauer delivers a remarkable performance, displaying great range, especially for a man with a face of such ordinariness. He looks like a guy who should be managing the produce section of a supermarket. Yet for all the talent of Brandauer and director Szabo, we don't get to know too much about what's going on inside Colonel Redl's head. The role doesn't give him a chance to pour out his soul to anyone, and, indeed, it's improbably that the real Redl would have done any such thing. His marriage, to a good-looking babe who loved him, was a matter of convenience. His friendships with his colleagues was constrained out of necessity because of Redl's latent homosexuality and because, after all, real men don't talk about their feelings -- they blow their brains out, but they don't talk about their feelings. Example: How does Redl feel about his early youth in the provinces? Well, while passing through his home town, he instructs the driver to pass the old house in which he spent his childhood, and he rubs a vacancy in the frosted window so that he can stare at it without expression for about five seconds. What's going on? What wheels and gears are turning in his memory, if any? It's anyone's guess.

Nice score. Nice period decor and wardrobe. Nice performances from the other players, especially Armin Mueller-Stahl as ruthless Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He has such handsomely clear blue eyes, and he's soft spoken, reasonable, and as treacherous as a rattlesnake. Not that it does him much good, if you remember what started World War I. Elegant music -- Strauss and Chopin. Great marches, full of traps and whistling piccolos and irony. Makes you want to become an officer in the army in 1913 so you can shoot yourself.

The film is paced kind of slowly and the intrigue is never overstated, so a certain amount of patience and attention is required. If anyone has a mind adjusted to the lightning-fast editing of a modern action movie, he's unlikely to find this film satisfying. The rest of us will find it interesting and, in the end, rather tragic.

István Szabó's Academy Award-nominated "Oberst Redl" ("Colonel Redl" in English) has essentially two focuses. The main one is on the title character who rises through the ranks of Austria-Hungary's army, becoming the head of the counter-intelligence wing. A closeted gay man, Russia blackmailed Redl and forced him to hand over secrets, and Austria-Hungary's government eventually convinced him to take his own life.

But there's something else. In a few scenes there's evidence that ugly times are ahead. Towards the end of the movie, Redl attends a masked ball where people are gossiping about rumors of a coming war. Finally, following Redl's suicide, Archduke Ferdinand gets assassinated and Europe gets plunged into war. The auction scene right after Redl's suicide came across as an analogy for the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after WWI.

Both a look at the main character and the factors leading to Austria-Hungary's eventual collapse, it's a fine piece of work. Not that I expect less from István Szabó. I also recommend his "Sunshine", about a Jewish-Hungarian family in the early twentieth century.*

Good one.

*In that movie, the family's name is Sonnenschein (German for sunshine),and there's also a character in this one named Sonnenschein. IMDb forgot to mention that in the trivia.

"Oberst Redl" or "Colonel Redl" is an Oscar-nominated movie from 1985, so this one already had its 30th anniversary last year. It is a collaboration by four European countries and the language spoken in here is German. This is a bit surprising as Hungary (one of the four countries) submitted it to the Academy Awards were it got in, but lost to the Argentinian entry eventually, just like at the Golden Globes. A BAFTA win isn't too shabby either though. The reason why it got in for Hungary is probably writer and director István Szabó, one of the most-respected European filmmakers at this time. He also directed the Oscar-winning "Mephisto" 4 years earlier, another collaboration with actor Klaus Maria Brandauer. Brandauer, an Austrian-born actor, like Szabó was among the finest Europe had to offer back then and he was also a success at Hollywood.

But sadly, I cannot really share the praise all these awards bodies had for "Oberst Redl". This may, however, also have to do with the time in which this film plays, a historic era that I personally never had the biggest interest in. This film easily makes it past the 2-hour mark and if you don't manage to appreciate it quickly, it will drag on several occasions. I would not say that the actors are to blame here. Armin Mueller-Stahl and Landgrebe are still somewhat known in Germany today, but I am mostly referring to lead actor Brandauer with this statement. I am sure this movie would have been considerably worse without him as he is pretty convincing like always and this is definitely one of his career defining roles. I think you can say that now that he in his 70s. The ending especially was one brilliant moment of acting for Brandauer. I will not go into detail about the exact scene, but you will definitely know what I mean when I say it's difficult to find a better portrayal of involuntary closure. Certainly a contender for best film scene of the entire year and Brandauer brings his A-game there. But it is still not worth to set through everything else before that in this period piece. I wish Szabó would have kept it at least 35 minutes (preferrably more) shorter and would have included much more focus and better, more interesting character development aside from the title character. This way there is really no reason to see it other than Brandauer. I do not recommend the watch. Thumbs down.