Reviews: DVD

Downfall

Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, starring Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara

It's 1945 and as the Soviet Army slowly advances into Berlin, the men who orchestrated a holocaust scurry inside a bunker and reminisce about a Thousand Year Reich that did not live a decade. At the head of a table we find a certifiable Adolf Hitler barking orders to mobilise forces that do not exist.

Hitler is also seen making kind gestures to several of his aides including a secretary named Traudl Junge (on whose account this film is based). The real danger, of course, with portraying der Fuhrer in this manner is the possibility that he may be regarded with sympathy. Perhaps it's productive to depict him as human to show that the Nazis' atrocities were planned and committed by men of flesh-and-blood. On the other hand, could it be that granting these ghouls the honor of human characteristics is a luxury undeserved?

For mine, the risk of permitting Hitler behavioural traits other than lunacy is worth the risk. Stripped of power, the once feared dictator goes to his grave an insolent and pathetic victim.

Downfall is undeniably compelling. It's as if you're been walked through a private party where the guests are all preparing for the Grim Reaper to arrive.

Ben Davey

Fellini's Roma

Directed by Federico Fellini, starring Peter Gonzales Falcon, Fiona Florence

American novelist Gore Vidal makes an appearance toward the end of director Federico Fellini's love letter to his beloved Rome. Vidal remarks on Rome's many great illusionists like the Vatican, filmmakers and politicians. In a city that has been killed off and reborn as many times as this one, fantasy is a necessity and it explains why this esteemed filmmaker would choose to tell his own life story in such an unconventional fashion.

Within small vignettes, we see fragments of daily life in the Italian capital. Of families eating al fresco and of a character representing a young Fellini in theaters. Strangely, we also see catwalk models parade in catholic garb and a crew filming a traffic sequence with dead livestock strewn over the motorway.

It's heady stuff, which recalls the extravagance that earned Fellini a reputation as an epic stylist. However, the quality of the skits that comprise Roma is inconsistent and even the high points serve as token reminders of one of cinema's most impressive back catalogues.

BD

(China Daily 03/14/2007 page20)