Film: Downfall - Der Untergang

Yes it is. For those you in the UK it is on Channel 4 at the moment.

 

the big problem is that the translation does not match the actual spoken German!

Mind you, the actress who plays Frau Junge, is a bit of alright

 

Mind you, the actress who plays Frau Junge, is a bit of alright

lol, well put.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4652074.stm

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4652074.stm

Richly deserved award. magnicent film

 

It is well deserved, Bruno Ganz played the part of Hitler very well.

I do recall seeing something about an interview with the last survivor of Hitlers bunker on the BBC last night but missed it.

 

Most chilling scene - when Frau Gobbels kills the children. I]ve never seen anyhting quite so chilling as that.

Burst out laughing when the aide announced Hitler's death and everyone lit up.
Marina

 

Saw the DVD again. Chuikov doesn't look like Chuikov at all!

http://www.go2war2.nl/artikel-afb/1805050612141233k.jpg

Also the scene with the Soviet composer hidden in the closet and fainting during the Krebs/Chuikov conversation was ommited, a pity.

Well, Jodl and Goering don't either, but Himmler is top notch, and Keitel is ok too. Goebbels was ugly but not so much ugly! But a fine actor, regardless.

Luckily Heydrich had been killed 3 years earlier, or else we would be seeing Ken Brannagh again :elkgrin:

An excellent movie, much much better than the Rex Harrison one, even if this was pretty good for the time.

 

Also the scene with the Soviet composer hidden in the closet and fainting during the Krebs/Chuikov conversation was ommited, a pity.

I believe the film makers actually wanted to include that scene and may have actually filmed it but decided to cut because either people wouldn't get it or think it too slapstick.

 

I recently watched this film, and thought it was excellent. The acting especially from Bruno Ganz, was superb and frighteningly accurate, but it was the whole atmosphere that really grabbed me. The sense of utter madness and surreality of the situation in the Fuhrerbunker was compelleing and chilling at the same time, and I had to keep reminding myself that what I was watching was the unfolding of real events and not some Dante-esque nightmare conjured up by someone's imagination! I liked the way that little odd remarks were inserted to help build up the characters, for instance Eva Braun's admission to Traudl Junge that she often kicked Hitler's dog because she hated him.

It helped watching the film to place it in the context of all the stuff I have been reading about the Eastern front, and gaining an insight into the mind of Hitler (as far as it is possibler to do that). The film really conveyed the fact that he had lost touch with reality. The tantrums of his conferences with his generals were superbly juxtaposed with the scenes of chaos raging above their heads. I found the scenes in the Berlin streets to be horrifyingly apocalyptic, and particularly the Geheime Feldpolizei (I presume) hanging people at random just for being there, and not fighting!

There has been some criticism, I have read from some quarters, which feels that the film portrayed certain characters as being 'too human', and yet I felt that this helped to put across a stronger message. To not portray them as "monsters" is more chilling, because it highlights the fact that it is human, not in-human nature which is capable of such evil!

Excellent film! I need to watch it again, as I never take it all in from watching a film just once. I must admit, understanding a reasonable amount of German helped too, althought he subs were very good and accurate.
What do others think?

 

Its a compelling film to watch, not one for entertainment. But it certainly gives the feeling of the end of the regime and the "street" scenes are extremely well done. The piece were the Hitler Youth are dying whilst Eva talks about her Jewellery and other inane matters is really powerful stuff. I watch this film at least once every few months.

 

it made speer look almost saintly.lee.

 

It made Burgdorf seem Human!

 

I believe it was important to show these individuals as they truly were, individuals with a capacity to do evil and with no morals or ethics but ultimately people. Another film with this ability to shock is "conspiracy" with Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci. Its about the Wannsee Conference in 1942 and is as chilling as "Der Untergang"

 

I agree, GH.

The most horrifying aspect of the film, and onw which I realise I mentally shut myself off from and can now hardly remember in any detail, is the murdering of the Goebbels children. As a Mother watching that I found I was unable to connect, it was just too horrifying

 

Yes that scene was stomach churning and THAT is when you see these people for who they truly are.

 

Actually, I think it is all the more terrible because of the fact that you have seen everyone behaving relatively 'normally', even Hitler in some moments, interspersed with his violent rages. Although the guy who played Goebbels seriously creeped me. I could have nightmares about him!