Битеф

BITEF ON FILM

EDITOR: VERA KONJOVIĆ

FILM TRIP TO THE TRUTH: DICTATORS

Three things can't be hidden: the Sun, the Moon and the Truth. Buddha The hungry and unemployed ore the stuff that the dictators are made of. Franklin D. Roosevelt A tie gets halfway around the world before the truth had a chance to get its pants on. Winston Churchill The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth. Edith Sitwvell Victory, not the truth, matters. Adolf Hitler Fascism is capitalim plus killing. Upton Sinclair In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell,,

DOWNFALL (DER UNTERGANG)

TO DIE IN MADRID (MOURIR A MADRID)

Feature film

Oliver Hirschbigel

Bernd Eichinger based on Joachina

Fest's book and memoirs of eyewitnesses

Bruno Ganz, Juliane Kohler, Aleksandra Maria Lara i drugi

Germany Colour, 2004

This film provoked a heated debate. The authors endeavoured to show a threedimensional image of Hitler but many people believed that to see Hitler in Private, as an acceptable human being, nice to his secretaries or his cook or as a man who loves his dog, could be dangerous as some might find him likeable. The German director Wim Wenders thought so. Onthers, including David Denby believed tat although Hitler was not presented as a superman but rather as earth returning to earth exalted by his followers, it could not amnesty him from what he had done. There was unanimous agreement that Bruno Ganz was the best Hitler ever. We know that he watched documentary material and studies Hitler’s postures, gestures, voice and inflections for days on end.

Feature film

Ennio De Concini

Gerhard Bold

Alec Guiness, Simon Ward, Dorris Kunstman and others

United Kingdom and Italy Colour, 1973

The main role, that of Hitler, is played by one of the greatest British theatre and film actors Alec Guiness. He thought that it was his best film part. Many critics disagreed. During the war against Hitler Alec Guiness served in the British Navy and participated in the disembarkation on Sicily and Elba. He was also among those who charged with supply the resistance fighters in the occupied Yugoslavia...

Documentary film

Frederic Rossìf

Madeleine Chapsal, Frederic Rossii

Maurice Jarre

France

b/w, 196:

The documentary To Die in Madrid stands as one of btter reports and analyses of the Spanish civil war, its causes and its effects. The director Frederic Rossif skillfully put together well-selected archival material of war, correspondents and the sequences he shot in Franco's Spain in 19605. The film addresses the Spanish history between 1930 s and the early 19605: backward country, electoral victory of the Popular Front, the king's abdication, chaos, civil war... and its effects: half a million killed, 250.000 to 500.000 refugees who fled from Spain fearing the reprisals and in search of a better life. Particularly powerful are the stories about the international brigades, children refugees, defence of the Basques and the conflict between Miguel de Unamuno and the nationalistic general Jose Mlllan Astray.