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NEW YORK, NY, USA - Doing a film about Adolf Hitler offers a challenge that few filmmakers want to grapple with: making this monstrous person seem human, but not too human. German director Oliver Hirschbiegel has managed to succeed in getting that balance right in "Downfall," the story of Hitler and the last days of the Third Reich. And as a result he garnered a best Foreign Film Oscar nomination, as well as considerable controversy in Germany and beyond.
G21: Did you feel the weight of this subject on your shoulders?
OH: Its definitely quite a responsibility because I was the first German director to do so. I do what I always do when I direct a film. I try and stay honest with the source, with the characters that I'm depicting and of course with the audience.
On the other side, when you do a film like this, you have to do your homework. So you do all this research and study documentaries and ask people who were there detailed questions like how did you brush your teeth and wash your cloths and what you ate. That gives you kind of a security.
G21: Are you surprised at people's fascination with this film?
OH: It's not the usual thing for a German director to get such a great amount of recognition, so I'm a bit surprised.
G21: Did you expect a lot of controversy with the release of this film or did you expect an Academy Award?
OH: I certainly didn't expect a nomination and that's for sure. We were expecting a certain controversy. That's only obvious. Adolph Hitler for such a long time was not to be touched, especially in Germany. I was surprised at how few the negative statements were. I wasn't expecting much more.
G21: When did you decide t o incorporate material from the Traudl Junge documentary ("Hitler's Secretary") and her testimony into the film?
OH: The concept was right in there from the beginning. It was always the idea to start with her and end with her because that just made the connection to today. Even thought she's dead for three years now, she stands for all the old people who are still alive and can give us answers to questions that haven't been answered before.
G21: Did you like that film?
OH: Yeah. I think it's brilliant. I think it's one of the best pieces about this time period. It has a lot of insight. It raises a lot of questions too. I think it's very strong, a very strong piece.
G21: Did you research a lot of books?
OH: Oh yes, of course. I read them all. I don't keep the books at home. This stuff is very unpleasant material. At some point I didn't want to have that stuff at home. They're in the cellar.
G21: Have you seen many Holocaust-related films?
OH: I think I've seen everything dealing with the issue. Not necessarily to prepare for this film, because I've been dealing with this subject for a long time.
I started at 10 or 11. I don't think its possible to depict the camps in a film. I think that knowing about that -- its unconceivable horror that took place there. I think the masterpiece to the right approach to deal with this is show it. I think Steven Spielberg did a great job with "Schindler's List." But knowing about the horror, that only comes that close. Does it really help to show it that way? It's horrible enough but it was much worse, so much worse.
G21: How did you decide to cast Bruno Ganz as Hitler?
OH: He was the first choice because to me he is the best actor of the German language who is alive at the moment. And then I did this drawing of Hitler on Bruno and it was frightening. He looks like him too. I dont [know] what I would have done if he had given me the thumbs down.
G21: What were you favorite Bruno Ganz films?
OH: My favorite film of Bruno's is "Pane e tulipani." And also "Wings of Desire."
G21: Have you shown this [film, "Downfall"] to a Jewish audience?
OH: We of course had screenings for the Jewish people in Germany. They completely get our point. They get it 100 percent.
It was always my argument. I think we owe it to the victims of the Holocaust and millions of Russian prisoners of war who were killed mercilessly. To show [how] these people knew exactly what they were doing. They were human beings, they were just like us. Because it means it might happen again. The source is there; it seems to be in our genetic code to be evil and violent. It seems to be a terrible truth.
G21: Where was your family during the war?
OH: My mother was young -- she was 13. I think at the end of the war she was 15. they took the kids out of the countryside to be safe from the bombings. And all of these kids were members of the youth organizations and they believed Adolph Hitler was god. And she told us our upset they were and how completely broken when they learned that the war was over and Hitler was dead. The world was breaking apart.
My father was two years older. He was one of those boys who manned the .88 anti-aircraft cannons. But he never had to fight in the war or on the front. My grandfather was an electrician he never had to go to war because he was working in the factory that was important for war purposes.
G21: Were [you] afraid of the reaction the Nazis might have to the movie?
OH: Well I think it's obvious that we did not do a pro-war or pro-nationalist or socialist movie. So they didn't find any angle to use it. But, on the other side, there isn't really anything they could do ...
G21: Where have you gotten the most surprising reaction?
OH: The most surprising reactions were people from the audiences thanking me for doing that film. Most of them told me [that] for the first time in 40 years they had started honestly talking about this in the families, like asking their grandmothers and grandfathers questions. And for hours and hours they were discussing this issue.
That was surprising to me, because the old people always were just been [neglected to be asked due to the seriousness of the subject.] They had no chance to ever talk. Then all of a sudden you see this film and you basically see perpetrators and bad people who stand for mass murder. But you also see that they are human beings and you get emotionally involved and that opens up this need to talk for the first time in such a long time.
G21: Do you feel it was important to address the people who were unable to act during the war?
OH: I think it was very important to show that atmosphere of complete obedience to this man who was already sick and down. And it was just totally obvious that the war would be lost and nobody did anything.
They could have just put him in a closet and thrown the key away and no one did so. Even after this man is dead they still follow his orders. That is a strange attitude and it's hard to understand today. And for me it was important to recreate that strange atmosphere. Basically we follow the historical events and what we know about. So we only saw what we know. It was very hard to leave things out and then on the other side it is a two and a half hour movie and I think there's quite a lot in it.
G21: With all of your movies, do you like claustrophobic settings?
OH: It's funny if I look at the films and most of them deal with close environments. But I don't choose the project by that. It's rather by what's most appealing and the greatest challenge. And who are the characters? Are they believable? And it just happened to be this. I hope the next one will be a love story, though I wouldn't dare to touch a musical.
G21: What films have influenced you?
OH: That's a tough question. I can tell you who my hero is. Howard Hawks. He touched all the doors. He was great at anything he did. He never tried to trick the audience. He was a very honest man. He was a true storyteller. And that's what I'm aiming for -- to become a master at story-telling.
G21: At what point did you decide this was going to be the next film after your controversial film, "Das Experiment?"
OH: I was actually talking about other projects. I was talking about two projects that would have been shot here in the States. When Bernd [Eichinger: Screenwriter] approached me with this idea, I at first didn't really buy it. I read the books and it slowly dawned on me that it could work and then he came up with the first draft of the screen play. And then there was the same situation of not getting a green light with an American movie. And I kind of had a green light on the other one, so I decided to do it.
G21: Could you have made this movie if you hadn't make "Das Experiment?"
OH: That's a hard question. As a filmmaker, I could still not explain how this works. For me it's an ongoing process of learning lessons. I keep learning and learning. Of course I realize I gather up routine and knowledge. But I still feel like a baby when I start a new film. I don't feel that the experiment was a specific help but doing another film dealing with a lot of guys who were violent.
G21: How do you follow a movie like this?
OH: I can't tell really. I don't know. I'm a director who doesn't write. So I read scripts at the moment. And I'm waiting for the one that tells me "it's me."
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