Can these two themes be combined to create a high quality movie? Possibly. That is what director Istvan Szabo did. He directed the movie Mephisto in 1981, a movie about the life of a German actor during Nazi's rule pre-World War II. The movie was based on Klaus Mann's novel with the same title. The story of the main character in the movie, Hendrik Hoefgen, was similar to Faust. He is willing to sacrifice everything including his ideals in return for a successful career as an actor. He saw that opportunity coming by collaborating with the regime in power. He therefore formed an alliance with the Nazis to achieve that. The Nazis offered him a glorious artistic life and he in turn would be their public propaganda tool in the artistic world. A big dilemma emerged from this movie. Does artists have a moral responsibility to the society through his artistic works or should they be concerned only with the aesthetics aspect of their profession? Like any other occupations, artists ought to care about how his works would affect the welfare of the society and its morality, and even more so because they are seen as the major mediator of culture in societies.
Why is that so? It is because art has a tremendous influence over society. Artists are powerful merchants who "sell- particular culture or belief to society. From the ancient time, art had been an inseparable part of human life. The Dark Age with its pessimistic art shaped the society in the same way. Next, the enlightened Renaissance age came and produced societies with optimistic and inquisitive attitude. Till today, the power of art has not diminished yet. The public is still deeply affected by the type of art popular at this time. For example, the pervasive trend of violence and sexual content of art works have been blamed time and again for the degradation of the morals of contemporary societies. In Mephisto, it is shown how art could also be used to brainwash many decent people to compromise with Nazism lunatic ideology and the belief of fascism.