Downfall / Der Untergang
Someone pointed me to this as a dramatic reenactment of Traudl Junge’s interview that resulted in Blind Spot.
Expertly done. In her interview, Junge talked about how surreal the whole end of the war bunker experience was. This film captures that perfectly. The random and sporadic violence of being in a war zone and the insanity the comes at the end of a losing game is right on the money. From a purely dramatic point of view, I think maybe Alec Guinness might have slightly better in the role of Hitler, but everyone here did a spectacular job. Frau Goebbels (Corinna Harfouch) was especially good.
It’s sometimes weird, and a little distracting, to watch a foreign language film and see characters you recognize from elsewhere. Heino Ferch who played Albert Speer looked very familiar but I don’t know from where. Otto Günsche is played by Götz Otto who was “Stamper” in Tomorrow Never Dies. More distracting (and I realize this is just me and no reflection on the film) is Hans Krebs played by Rolf Kanies who I know as President Priest from Lexx. I half expected to see First Lady Bunny show up.
; would watch again
