Is this Germany efficiency?

I was harshly awakened when I watched Downfall (2004) early this morning; in the comfort of my own home I witnessed the stark brutality and futile nature of the Nazi's last resistance of the ruin that was Berlin. As the scenes of claustrophobia unfurled inside the Nazi bunker, I felt angry and uneasy, but also pity for the disillusioned followers of Nazism, under the assumption that their decrepit Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, would rise up like Jesus or some biblical figure to resurrect the dream of a glorious state of National Socialism. 

I believe the unease created by Oliver Hirschbiegel is mainly because Adolf Hitler is portrayed with some kind emotions, and you see how people actually like him when a young Frau Junge is ecstatic that she has received the job as Hitler's PA. There is no excuse for Hitler to seem 'nice' or human (he even has a wife!). With knowledge of the context, the truth of the concentration camps looms over however this film makes no mention to them. I was speechless after the film to see people wailing and crying at his feet when he announces his suicide. (I hope readers knew this - :/ no spoilers). 

(this has many hilarious parodies)

Hitler's character is fantastically acted and for a 15 year old like me, Bruno Ganz's depiction makes Hitler on screen seem real enough for me. I watched with rapt attention Hitler's frantic hand rotation and jerks. This for me symbolises madness or suppressed fear for me, knowing Hitler suppresses most emotion and feeling; firmly believing that pity and compassion are sins and in conflict with the laws of the Darwinian idea of natural selection. Mood swings are common features of Hitler's controversial personality displayed in this film - his raucous anger attacks leading to rants and disappointment in his incompetent generals. At these points the director reduces him to a spoilt child,  whose elaborate ideals of fantasy land are not going according to plan and he wants everyone to drop everything therefore he has complete tyrannical control.

The bleakness of the film tears all aspiration for the following day out of you. You can not leave the cinema feeling any kind of elation, for if you do the film has not connected with you at all. The claustrophobia of the bunker consumes you to, it is incestuous. Life in this film is portrayed as meaningless, as if individuals are part of a large clockwork that makes up Nazism, and when too many of these parts (the generals/soldiers) die due to war, or the main cog (leader) dies, then it is the other cogs (the civilians) duty to break the rest of the clockwork by commiting suicide instead of aiming to repair it. It comes to point where staunch followers truly believe that living in a world without National Socialism is worse than living at all. Joseph Goebels (the ultimate creep in the whole film) certainly exceeded in the job of propaganda minister. 

The film is horrifically solemn and if there is any light of comedy it it sure to be quashed in the proceeding scenes. There is a lack of soundtrack, of which the only few melodies are again remorseful German laments played on the piano, sounding as if they have given up on conveying meaning. The overall atmosphere is drab and bleak. In the night orangey-yellow lamps shine halfheartedly knowing they can never provide enough protection and comfort for the panicked citizens of fortified Berlin. 

This film is very hard to critique if you submerge yourself in the story as you are reviewing the true horrors of WWII; it is hard to stay indifferent and view it as 'just another film'

****

I want to find an authentic Wonka Bar...

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factor (1971)...

... makes my mouth water. Even the title sequence is heavenly, when various forms of chocolate production are sensuously filmed; from the delicate chocolate drops to the ongoing waved stream of bourbon filling-like chocolate that starts the salivation that ebbs from the viewers mouth. Except, that last image doesn't sound too pleasant. Hopefully thinking about chocolate will make up for it. 

I watched this film when I was about 3 or 4 basically on repeat. Its beautiful images of pure imagination has made a lasting impression on my mind, for when I watched it recently again, everything came flooding back. Especially the cheesy but memorable songs, the psychedelic roller-coaster/boat ride, the orange faced Oompa Loompa's with their moralising melodies. I couldn't even forget the cockney school teacher's gaseous experiments,

This film is quite strange as it is set in a Bavarian styled American town. Moreover, the factory is actually filmed in Bavaria - Munich to be exact. This mixture of cultures is an introduction of the surreal nature that is amplified in the rest of the film. Charlie Bucket is a boy who you really feel captures the essence of innocence. When he receives the sacred bar of chocolate - chocolate is a rarity due to his poverty, yet the sweet taste has tingled and therefore remains on his taste buds - he thinks first of sharing it with his four humourously bedridden grandparents and his mother. His virtuous character is quickly highlighted when it is so greatly contrasted by the 4 other winners of the golden ticket (I hope its obvious that Charlie does receive one - no spoilers). The other children are the epitome of childhood sins: as if Roald Dahl is God of the religion of childhood, dictating his version of the cardinal vices to educate children how and how not to behave without being strict and obvious. Aptly named to describe the sin and personality Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Baureguard and Mike Teavee all have eventful and slightly disastrous experiences in the factory. 

Compared to the 2005 film (Tim Burton and Johnny Depp) there is much more emphasis the ticket frenzy. My favorite 'visual anecdote' is one where a man is pitching a revolutionary machine that uses probability to find out the location of the tickets inside the Wonka bars. The dated computer is absurb but memorably funny.

its funnier when you watch the film....

Onto Willy Wonka played excellently flamboyant by Gene Wilder (The Producers, Young Frankenstein). He is a very misunderstood man. At first one might imagine a brooding genius who locks himself away, mysteriously conquering the world with his monopolising chocolate brand. However, opinions are quickly changed at the first opening of the factory where his eccentric entrance is amusing. Opinions then get confused when he meanders through his maze of a factory (where the less righteous get lost along the way), you don't know whether he is just cray or wise. In the end you share the joy that charlie feels when Wonka turns out to be a very generous man who can really pull off a purple velvet tailcoat and brown top hat. 

This film has amazing inventions, tantalizing food which takes like whatever you imagine it to be. It is the world of pure creation. It's only downfall is that it is 90 minutes long, barely a tv episode nowadays! I want it to go on forever.

*****