Some critics consider idiosyncratic director Hans Jürgen Syberberg's seven-hour 1978 film an epic masterpiece (the late Susan Sontag was a big fan), while others dismiss it as a massive exercise in self-indulgence. Our Hitler is not a documentary—the subject is periodically “played” by a puppet!—but rather a phantasmagoric essay on Hitler as both the embodiment of Germanic myth and a master of theatrical manipulation, as well as a screed arguing that even a defeated Hitler was a primary shaper of the modern world and that we must recognize some of Der Führer in us all. Stylistically, the film is weirdly confined, comprised of 22 sequences shot on artificially-dressed soundstages, often enhanced by rear projection images that actors stroll in front of while delivering long monologues directly to the audience. Said monologues include harangues by Hitler, and extended reminiscences by other characters (such as Hitler's butler), but also heavy philosophical-historical musings by a narrator, especially towards the close. And the soundtrack is equally strange, adding excerpts from period radio broadcasts and chunks of Beethoven, Mahler, and—of course—Wagner (sometimes simultaneously) to the torrents of verbiage. Our Hitler is certainly extraordinary, although whether it's profound or just ponderously pretentious will largely be in the eyes and ears of the beholder. Irregardless, it's unquestionably an important work of post-war German filmmaking. DVD extras include a documentary on the New York festival premiere and a booklet compiling analysis and criticism. Recommended. (F. Swietek)
Our Hitler
Facets, 2 discs, 450 min., in German w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $79.95 Volume 23, Issue 2
Our Hitler
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