Mario and the Magician

Brandauer′s adaptation of Thomas Mann′s story is influenced by a heavily politicised intepretation of Mann′s text. The film is set is an Italian sea resort in the late 1920s. Mann′s alter ego, the German writer Bernhard Fuhrmann, is vacationing here with his family for years. He senses the change of mood caused by the rise of fascism but in contrast to the narrator in Mann′s story explicitally declares his worries. Then, the performance of the dubious magician Cipolla ends in disaster, but instead of the "dictatorial" Cipolla, waiter Mario dies in an unfortunate accident.