I thought about leaving the sneak preview theater, because I wasn't sure if I could stand Helge Schneider as Hitler. I personally dislike Helge Schneider movies. But i'm happy i gave it a second thought when i noticed that it is a Dani Levy movie. I think Levy is an excellent director.
The movie seems to be a low budget production due to the crappy CGI work but nonetheless, it's a good satire dealing with a serious topic in the right way... i think satire is an appropriate approach to deal with the person Hitler was. compared to "Der Untergang", which made Hitler a piece of "pop-culture" and tried to portray his character as real as possible, this movie criticizes that and fascism with black humor, sarcasm and creativity.
Sometimes i found it quite Chaplin-esk (you know "the great dictator") and that's not a bad reference. I was surprised Helge Schneider's performance was decent and not as stupid as in "Praxis Dr. Hasenbein" (no offense to Schneider fans, but i couldn't sit through that movie, so i turned it off after 30 minutes). Schneider is a good musician though.
Ulrich Mühe's performance is great as usual. Dr. Adolf Grünbaum is an actor who gets out of the concentration camp Sachsenhausen due to the order to teach Hitler the art of acting, to perform his speeches right to seduce the masses and make them believe they still could win the war. But Hitler lost faith in the over all victory, so it's a tough job for Grünbaum. Hitler is pretty neurotic and a bed-wetter, who was beaten up by his father. Which makes it hard for Grünbaum to simply kill Hitler, when he got the chance. Although this might sound like a flat comedy, it's really not! It's a satire, and satire hurts sometimes, like reality does.
I really liked the other actors, who played Hitler's staff officers. It was Goebbels i liked most. Kudos to the casting, because in this movie the audience hasn't the problem that it's hard to distinct one staff officer from another like in "Der Untergang". They really got different characters.
All in all, go watch this movie. It's pretty refreshing after the hype around "Der Untergang".
The movie seems to be a low budget production due to the crappy CGI work but nonetheless, it's a good satire dealing with a serious topic in the right way... i think satire is an appropriate approach to deal with the person Hitler was. compared to "Der Untergang", which made Hitler a piece of "pop-culture" and tried to portray his character as real as possible, this movie criticizes that and fascism with black humor, sarcasm and creativity.
Sometimes i found it quite Chaplin-esk (you know "the great dictator") and that's not a bad reference. I was surprised Helge Schneider's performance was decent and not as stupid as in "Praxis Dr. Hasenbein" (no offense to Schneider fans, but i couldn't sit through that movie, so i turned it off after 30 minutes). Schneider is a good musician though.
Ulrich Mühe's performance is great as usual. Dr. Adolf Grünbaum is an actor who gets out of the concentration camp Sachsenhausen due to the order to teach Hitler the art of acting, to perform his speeches right to seduce the masses and make them believe they still could win the war. But Hitler lost faith in the over all victory, so it's a tough job for Grünbaum. Hitler is pretty neurotic and a bed-wetter, who was beaten up by his father. Which makes it hard for Grünbaum to simply kill Hitler, when he got the chance. Although this might sound like a flat comedy, it's really not! It's a satire, and satire hurts sometimes, like reality does.
I really liked the other actors, who played Hitler's staff officers. It was Goebbels i liked most. Kudos to the casting, because in this movie the audience hasn't the problem that it's hard to distinct one staff officer from another like in "Der Untergang". They really got different characters.
All in all, go watch this movie. It's pretty refreshing after the hype around "Der Untergang".