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I realize I am pitifully behind on my movie watching and reviewing films that most of ya'll saw long ago, but I don't get out much (single mom) and I just recently re-joined Netflix so I have a lot of catching up to do.
Downfall 9/10 - My 17 y.o. daughter insisted I watch this film with her. She is fascinated with all things German and particularly with Nazi Germany. Not in a positive way, of course. It is more of the fascination of disbelief, I think. She is horrified by the Holocaust...but I am digressing. I loved the film. I found it very enlightening as to the "inner sanctum" figures of the Third Reich. A subject I've not been well-educated on. But I found the performances to be both chilling and unexpectedly sympathetic. Not that I sympathize with their cause, just that they were shown to be just what they were, humans with frailties and flaws and a quite remarkably ignoble gullibility. I have not witnessed on film a more chilling and pathetic example of this than Frau Goebbles in a very long time. All in all I found the film to be very engaging, exceptionally performed, and photographed with a skillful modesty considering the bunker set most of the film takes place on - in fact, I was impressed with the unassuming tone of the film overall. I could go on and on about the thoughts and feelings this film left me with, but primarily I came away with this impression: In the end, how feebly and pathetically fall even the most breathtakingly ignominious of humankind's follies. I highly recommend this film to anyone and everyone except, of course, the very young - there are a few gruesome scenes.
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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce
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