Ganz' tour de force

Rating: 10/10 (20 March 2006)

Bruno Ganz acts out of his skin in a performance that may just give an inkling why some people actually liked the real Hitler. Ranging from full-throated demagogue to crushed old man, he dominates the film, even when he isn't on screen, supported by some excellent performances from Corinna Harfouch and Ulrich Matthes as the odious Dr and Mrs Goebbels and Juliane Köhler as an Eva Braun who isn't perhaps as much of an airhead as we like to think. Add in the doe-eyed Alexandra Maria Lara and a wonderfully claustrophobic bunker set where you can almost smell the people boxed up for days on end, and you have a wonderful film. It isn't always comfortable viewing, but it's hugely compelling.