Our Hitler: A Film From Germany
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Movie Reviews of Our Hitler: A Film From Germany
Movie Review: Truly extraordinary, a once in a lifetime event....a bonafide masterpiece....
Summary: 5 Stars
Susan Sontag called this film "the most extraordinary film I've ever seen". While this may seem hyperbolic, it isn't. This is an extraordinary film, and I completely understand Sontag's adoration of it. This is a brilliant film, one that has had me thinking for days about it. I watched it over 2 nights, and there's so much in it and so much to take in that I'm planning on renting it again or perhaps purchasing it. Despite its nearly 7 1/2 hour length, there isn't one dull moment in it. I only watched it over 2 nights because I had to go to sleep. If I had had the time to watch the whole thing in one sitting, I would have done so without thinking. I haven't felt this glued to the screen in I don't know how long.
The film is absolutely mesmerizing. This film has been unavailable for many, many years, and this is the first time it's been offered on home video. The director, Hans Jurgen Syberberg, had posted the film on his website, but watching it on a TV or projected is the best way to see it. The film is operatic, theatrical, mind bending, sad, haunting, angry, depressing, and just about everything else you can think of. The 4th part is a little boring (the first 30 minutes of part four is one long monologue), but after this monologue is concluded, the film takes off again to a stunning conclusion.
Never does the film feel padded. Like in Wagner's great operas (Wagner figures prominently here), a film like this needs to be long to tell its story, and that should be respected. The actors throughout the film give excellent performances, and the film is one of the most thought provoking films that I've seen in recent memory.
It is interesting to note that this film, despite its mammoth length, cost a mere $500,000 dollars and only took 20 days to shoot (even though the pre-production period was longer than most films). The DVD has an excellent booklet with many essays on the film, but the most (and justifiably) famous essay is the one written by the great, late Susan Sontag, who championed this film and who should be congratulated for her insight and dedication to this filmic masterpiece.
Movie Review: Syberberg's brilliant cinematic vision of Nazi Germany.
Summary: 5 Stars
More controversial for his politics (he has been compared to a young Hitler) than for his aesthetic genius, German film director Hans-Jürgen Syberberg has characterized his work as a cinematic combination of Bertolt Brecht's doctrine of epic theatre and Richard Wagner's operatic aesthetics. Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Studios has released Syberberg's visionary 1977 film, Hitler: ein Film aus Deutschland as Our Hitler in the U.S. Set on a soundstage and using puppets, Syberberg's 442-minute avante-garde film consists of monologues spoken by actors in WWII-era costumes in front of rear-screen projections evoking Nazi Germany, amidst a soundtrack of original audio recordings of German and allied speeches and radio broadcasts, together with music by Wagner, Mahler, Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart. Using props and set designs from the Cinémathèque Française, the film has a surreal, nightmare-like visual style (developed by Henri Langlois), and is structured into four parts:
Part 1: Der Gral ("The Grail") examines Nazi propaganda and Hitler's cult of personality.
Part 2: Ein deutscher Traum ("A German Dream") examines the pre-Nazi cultural, spiritual, and national heritage of Germany.
Part 3: Das Ende eines Wintermärchens ("The End of a Winter's Tale") chronicles the the ideology of the Holocaust, particularly from Himmler's point of view.
Part 4: Wir Kinder der Hölle ("We Children of Hell") depicts Syberberg reading scripts from scenes that were not filmed, and conversing with a puppet of Hitler about how he destroyed Germany spiritually.
Hitler: ein Film aus Deutschland is an equally controversial and compelling one-of-a-kind experience in film.
G. Merritt
Movie Review: Brilliant!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was introduced to this film about eight years ago and my astonishment has not faded. I have long been captivated by the drama of Hitler and his Nazi party. I must place emphasis on the word drama! I certainly have no regard for Hitler, but find endless fascination with the staging of his madness. It is my opinion that this film should be required viewing for both college and high school students. Syberberg has managed to offer a cinematic treatment of the insanity that was. And he has managed to do so in a manner that is simultaneously artful, visually impactful and weighted with a perspective laden voice that communicates the deep psychosis of what was happening in Germany during Adolph's demented leadership. This film is both visually and intellectually lush and is an adept expression of deep historical moments of night. When my friend John Rininger first placed this film before me, I had no idea that I was about to be captured by what I believe to be cinematic greatness. As the announcer in this film states, "This film is not about righteous anger". For me, it is about intellectual and artistic perspective of how wrong life can go when diligence is abandoned.Movie Review: A must for a few
Summary: 5 Stars
I have watched movies for at least 45 years, and since my earliest age I sought to be discriminating. This is one of the most important films I have ever seen. Like many others, I sought to understand Nazism and read books of history, political science and mass psychology, including William Reich's masterpiece. Yet, this information did not really enable me to understand the core of that which created Nazism. This movie has catalyzed into place all other information previously available to me, and enabled me to finally understand. The movie is not descriptive but evocative, as it conveys a massive "something" which albeit not rational and beyond the limits of language, is nonetheless real and was a major factor in the events of Germany at that time. It is a "something" which, in good and evil, belongs to the legacy of the western world. The theatrical medium is perfect, and perhaps the only one, to bring this "something" to the fore. This movie is not for everyone, and may just be for a few. Training in Wagnerian music and mythology is a prerequisite. Those who do not love Wagner should not bother buying it.Movie Review: Very unique...very interesting...very long
Summary: 5 Stars
What can be written about this film that hasn't already been written? I found the film captivating....mesmerizing. Though it is indeed very long (7+ hours) I would have no reservation watching it again in its entirety. The production of the film is unique...unlikely anything at least this reviewer has ever seen. I was drawn to the film because it was produced by Germans and I am really curious how Germans feel about the whole National Socialism movement, or at least how some of them may have viewed that era looking back from the 1970's. There are portions of the film that do indeed seem to drag on a little too long (the monologues by the young German intellectual, for example) but I've always had a fascination with the entire movement and in particular Hitler that I still enjoyed the film. How could it all really take place?, I ask myself. Anyhow, if you are interested in this period or German history I would highly recommend this film. If you have little to no interest in either of these two subjects you will probably have little to no patience for this film. I loved it, however.
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