• A fantastically written and acted film with a tour-de-force performance by the great Bruno Ganz as Adolph Hitler
  • Hirschbiegel has not really been impressive before or after
  • There’s a character formal arc here- the film starts showing Hitler as caring and gregarious. I’m sure this offended some. It shows flashes of him being a human being. But there’s a transformation here and devolution into madness (or even more madness than he already had) in the bunker. The settings, similar to the U-boats in Das Boot (a great film to pair) makes for such claustrophobia. We’re stuck in this bunker with these characters for the most part.
  • It’s not as poetic as Das Boot but there are some nice shots moving through the corridors of the bunker
  • It’s horrific scene after horrific scene in the finale. It’s powerful stuff. The scene where Goebbels kids are killed is hard to watch
  • Hitler here dies rather unceremoniously which I found a surprising choice by Hirschbiegel
  • Opens with doc footage of Alexandra Maria Lara (Traul Jungle is the person) which grounds Hirschbiegel in realism
  • Ganz’s Hitler really cracks at the exact half way point of the film 76-77 minutes in
  • Ganz is a marvel to watch. It’s hard to imagine a stronger portrayal of one of the most important figures of the 20th century (or any century really)- he physically weakens over the course of the film, he is so strong in the speeches and physical ticks and nuanced eccentricities.
  • I do have a slight problem with us going to Ava’s memoir and another letter from the Maria Lara character about 55 minutes in for the first time for some reason- it just isn’t set up properly to dive into her voice