Gentler Hitler takes German stage
August 25, 2004
A decades-long taboo has been broken in Germany by a film in which Adolf Hitler appears for the first time in a central role, not as a ranting demagogue but as a soft-spoken dreamer.
The Downfall is a huge shift from the previous tendency in German cinema to show Hitler only as a background figure or a character who does not appear on camera at all.
It tells the story of the last 12 days of Hitler's life in his 7.5-metre-deep bunker in Berlin - including his suicide with his new wife Eva Braun on April 30, 1945 - while liberating Soviet troops pulverise the city with shellfire.
The production by Bernd Eichinger, a respected director, is likely to cause controversy when it opens in German cinemas next month. It depicts the Fuehrer as an avuncular character with a penchant for chocolate cake, who slides into madness when his lifelong dream of a 1000-year Reich slips from his grasp.
Hitler is convincingly played by the star German actor Bruno Ganz.
In one scene Ganz depicts him with his hair in his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks, as he declares: "The war is over."
Hitler is shown stroking his alsatian Blondie and treating his secretary with tenderness and patience. Until he starts having hysterical fits, Ganz's Hitler talks in a soft, melodic Austrian accent, far different from the barking tone he adopted for his mass rallies. The director said the voice was copied from the single surviving recording of Hitler talking in normal tones.
Eichinger, who also wrote the screenplay, reconstructs the last days of the Third Reich as seen from the dim, claustrophobic bunker with the help of diary extracts and witness accounts.
The Downfall has been welcomed by critics for demythologising Hitler - even before they have had the chance to see it. Others say the debate is in danger of playing into the hands of those who play down the crimes of the Holocaust.
The Telegraph, London
