Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich is a very difficult but important film. The plot of the movie has Traudl Junge [Alexandra Maria Lara], the final stenographer for Adolf Hitler [Bruno Ganz], telling the story of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII. Downfall has been nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
Oliver Hirschbiegel is the brilliant director of Downfall who first made an impression on US soil with the psychological horror film Das Experiment which was partially...
Quite an interesting interview, I actually sat through a Charlie Rose where he interviewed Oliver Hirscbiegel and Bruno Ganz and it is obvious that they tackled a subject that is very intense yet amazingly historic.
It seems many historic/period movies are far to Hollywood, this appears to have a sense of accuracy to it. I plan to check it out soon.
How did I know they would not give this movie the award.
Wim Wenders critic on the Downfall (translated from german ... mind the mistakes) (source here)
I found this Hitler too wretched and humane in this movie. In the end it is an unbelievable belittlement of the historic figure Hitler. I don't want to say that Bruno (Ganz) did a bad job playing Hitler, quite the contrary, he did a very good job, as i don't want to reduce to achievement of (Bernd) Eichinger anyway. It is an insane job they accomplished. But however I saw to much of Bruno Ganz, in the end his Hitler became a figure for which i felt pity. I don't know if pity is something to confront the historical figure Hitlers.
I left the movie and thought that now, more than ever, work on mourning for Hitler needs to be done in germany. He can't have been such an old, harmless halfwit. In this movie, so many good germans appeared that i felt dizzy,
I am not very good at translating. so msg me if something does not makes sense.
quickie
btw: some weird movie trivia: Bruno Ganz was considered for the role of Oskar Schindler in Schindlers List (source IMDB). Feels strange now, doesn't it?
Missy
SUICIDEGIRL
California, USA
FEB 25, 2005 06:00 AM