Downfall

Already a box-office phenomenon in its native Germany, Downfall provides a thrilling account of the fall of Berlin in 1945 viewed primarily from the confines of Hitler’s bunker. That’s all the more impressive when you consider that this is one movie where no-one – up to and including uneducated, agoraphobic, outer Mongolian cave-dwellers – can be unaware of the denouement Downfall has in store.
Based on Joachim Fest’s book Inside Hitler’s Bunker and the memoirs of Der Fuhrer’s secretary Trudl Junge, this fascinating multifaceted piece from director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Das Experiment) is perhaps the most apocalyptic war movie ever made – officers swing from chandeliers then shoot each other in the head as the Red Army closes in, Hitler (Ganz) gazes longingly at Speer’s aborted architectural plans for Germany and in several deft, unblinking movements Magda Goebbels poisons her children – “Without National Socialism,” she clips, “there is no future.”
Inevitably and appropriately, Adolf Hitler overshadows everything else in the film and Bruno Ganz is simply mesmerising in this most daunting of roles. Simultaneously kindly, charismatic, forlorn, terrifying and manic, over two hours, Ganz provides a wealth of character detail that could normally only be gleamed by an incredibly close reading of Ian Kershaw’s magnificent, bullet-stopping volumes Hubris and Nemesis.   
There’s Hitler as religious icon, as dog-lover, as day-dreamer and as bore (“He only talks about dogs and vegetarian meals”). The clincher though, and the film’s big talking point, is the repeated spectacle of the tyrant in tears. Several British tabloids have already made their displeasure on the issue known and many will recall the preordained kicking administered to Max, 2003’s scintillating interpretation of Hitler’s artistic youth.
But if Downfall’s attempts to grapple with Hitler’s magnetism fleshes him out in a Shakespearean manner, it never lets you forget his sadism. “We can’t worry about so-called civilians now,” he says of his volk, while calling for a scorched earth policy, before swelling with pride for having “openly confronted the Jews”.
Perhaps then, the most extraordinary feature of this extraordinary film, is that Goebbels makes for spookier company still.

Running Time 150mins. Cert 16. Opens April 1st