hem|mungen

Ein anderer Himmel über Berlin

„Als das Kind Kind war, hatte es von nichts eine Meinung, hatte keine Gewohnheit, saß oft im Schneidersitz, lief aus dem Stand, hatte einen Wirbel im Haar und machte kein Gesicht beim Fotografieren.“

As a kid (14, maybe 15 years old) I saw Wings of Desire and sort of fell in love with both Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander. I've followed them along in various things ever since. In a few weeks, Ganz will return to the screen as a different kind of anti-hero, playing Hitler in Bernd Eichinger's adaptation of Joachim Fest's book Der Untergang. Hitler und das Ende des Dritten Reiches and Traudl Junge's memoirs. The German press has already seen the film and there are a ton of reviews trickling in.
The trailer was quite arresting, doing everything I suspect the movie will do - mainly eliciting an unpleasant and confusing empathy in the viewer (me). What does it mean to get up close and personal with Hitler and his retinue in the final days of the war? Obviously this returns us to all the debates about representing German history, and I'm hoping there will be some interesting discussion in the press. Me, I'm all set to rip it apart, just as soon as it makes its slow way across the ocean. Grumble. Guess I'll read the response in the press instead.

[Update: an interview with Eichinger at the FAZ.]

[Update: a bit of a closer look at Ganz and the film at the Süddeutsche.]

Posted by Heather at August 24, 2004 05:24 PM