Review of Downfall (2004) by Georges D — 18 Aug 2009

To have a Swiss (normally neutral!) actor to play the role of Adolf Hitler is somewhat ironic but I must say that now I have seen that movie, I will never imagine anyone playing the fuehrer better than the fantastic Bruno Ganz.

This being said, the whole film is worth seeing cause it presents the nazi system from a pretty unusual perspective : it is about the last days of the regime and one can see here more than at any other time how disorganized and crazy the entire system was, with services fighting against each other, no real clear hierarchy, with favours granted and taken back without a strong logic, etc.

Through Hitler's sickness and madness, we are given to see the sickness and madness of a tyranny that ruled Europe for five years. Because the point of view is the one of Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge, we are also given to see things with an incomparable proximity and intimacy.

It does not make Hitler or Speer or the other nazi leaders any nicer, but it makes them human, i.e. people of flesh and blood, not abstract entities. The word "wahnsinnig" (crazy) is pronounced so many times that what comes to mind as far as what is shown is that nazi system was actually a microcosm that Kafka anticipated in "The Trial" or in "The Castle", where no rules apply, except maybe arbitrary madness.

..