12
Can't figure out which is the funniest film, Mein
Führer or Auf Herz
und Nieren. Probably the latter, which briefly features Burt Reynolds, though both films, I
have to say, are absolutely hilarious!
++++++
They say you lead by example, and that is
doubtless true, since any form of coercion or violent imposition would be in consequence
of rule, less of constitutional rule than of despotism. So you lead by example,
and others can, if they so choose, elect to follow you.
Those who 'lead' through coercion are akin to
the proverbial “wolf in sheep's clothing” or, as could also be said, hawk in
the guise of a dove.
++++++
If I were asked – though I doubt in reality
that I ever would be – to name my top five film Hitlers,
I believe my answer would be something along the following lines:-
1.
Bruno Ganz (Downfall).
2.
Helge Schneider
(Mein
Führer).
3.
Tobias Moretti (Speer & Hitler).
4.
Leonid Mosgovoi (Moloch).
5.
Anthony
Hopkins (The Bunker).
For me, Bruno Ganz of
Downfall
is number one because of a compelling charismatic spell which he manages to cast
despite playing a Hitler who was well past his prime and, when not brooding or
reminiscing, subject to uncontrollable bursts of anger and fits of rage caused
by adverse military and social circumstances, while being afflicted with drug
dependency and nervous tremors in his left hand that further narrowed his
physical and even mental options – a feature which Ganz
conveys with a degree of credible consistency sometimes lacking in other
actors. Also you feel he engages with Speer, his favourite minister and
spiritual companion, even soul mate, in a way that conveys something of their
mutual regard and artist's solidarity, if I can put it that way, which not even
Tobias Moretti seems to match, much as he may have a
more convincingly studied manner of conveying certain hand gestures and body
postures that are unambiguously akin to Hitler's.
Yet despite the amazingly subtle way he conveys
Hitler's premature decrepitude and increasingly lackadaisical manner, even a
sense of deflated ego and encroaching defeatism, towards the end of Speer
& Hitler, I still find Moretti less
convincing, overall, than Bruno Ganz and certainly
less physically like Hitler, as a person, than either Ganz
or Schneider, the latter of whom not only looks the part in Mein
Führer, but manages to act the arbitrary
despot to a degree uncharacteristic of the other film Hitlers,
with the possible exception of Moloch's
Leonid Mosgovoi who, like Schneider, can flare up on
an impulse and just as quickly sink into a state of abject lethargy or even
nervous tension and fear-racked introspection in what is by any standards a
deeply atmospheric film, as though fearing the worst or being unsure as to the
likelihood of a positive outcome to certain events. Mosgovoi,
a German-speaking Russian actor, also reveals a playful and even romantic side
to his Hitler which, especially in connection with Eva Braun, is not without
irony and even sarcasm, although he tends to go beyond Schneider in terms of
portraying the dictator in a humiliating light or emphasizing his pet foibles,
including an exaggerated tendency towards hypochondria, probably because,
unlike the German actor, he is more willing, as a Russian, to go along with a
psychologically critical portrait of the Nazi dictator, whereas Schneider's
interpretation is more geared to comedy and to highlighting the absurdities to
which Hitler could go to maintain his power in face of insurmountable odds.
As for Anthony Hopkins' Hitler, which I have
listed last in my top five film Hitlers, I find his
character the least natural and possibly the most contrived of them all,
although like Ganz he is confined, in The
Bunker, to the last weeks of Hitler's life and has to tread a
difficult path between lethargy and anger, fear and resolution, optimism and an
overwhelming sense of defeat, if not futility engendered by the presumption of
having been betrayed and let down by his generals. Given that he has to compete
with German or, at least, apparently German-speaking actors like Mosgovoi, it is no small achievement for Hopkins, starring
moreover in a much earlier film, that his Hitler is as engaging and even
convincing as he mostly transpires to being, even given one's reservations
about his sincerity or ability to psychologically step into Hitler's shoes, as
it were, and play the part as if he really meant it or was suited to it from a
sense of conviction or fellow feeling. I was not totally convinced by
So we can be grateful for these various
interpretations of and angles on Hitler's character and fate which have brought
an important aspect of recent history to life and given us so much food for
thought. That even so accomplished an actor as Robert Carlyle doesn't make my
top five is testimony enough to the strength of the various Hitler protagonists
who, for me, happen to have stolen the limelight. Whether that would still be
my top five in five or ten years' time, I cannot of course say. But right now I
have no doubt that the most credible and impressive actors of this difficult
role are in all but one case given to presenting the character in his native
tongue, whether from a mainly comic or tragic viewpoint. There is no arguing
with that!
******