Bruno Ganz's precise movements and measured voice make difficult characters worth watching closely. His Hitler in Downfall is disturbing because he remains recognisably human, and we recommend the performance without reservation.
Fi1m perspective
In Downfall (2004), people carry on attending to Hitler while the regime collapses around them. Bruno Ganz makes their continued obedience harder to watch by playing someone whose presence they could have grown used to. He is diminished and paranoid, but never reduced to a caricature. We rate Ganz for this willingness to let ordinary human qualities remain visible in a character audiences might prefer to keep at a distance.
His film breakthrough came with New German Cinema in the mid-1970s, after an established stage career. The American Friend (1977), in which he plays the picture framer Jonathan Zimmerman drawn into crime, gave his sensitivity and capacity for violence room to coexist. Collaborations with Wim Wenders helped bring wider recognition, while Werner Herzog cast him as Jonathan Harker opposite Klaus Kinski in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979). In Wings of Desire (1987), his Damiel, an angel observing life in Berlin, offered a gentler use for that close attention to other people. His controlled physical expression and modulated voice suit figures who spend time watching and thinking, without leaving them inert.
Downfall brought renewed international attention, and Ganz's preparation included studying Hitler's mannerisms. Oliver Hirschbiegel's bunker drama benefits from that precision, although mere resemblance would not have been enough. We were horrified by the routine business of serving his Hitler, because Ganz makes it possible to understand how those around him have become accustomed to his presence. Corinna Harfouch's Magda Goebbels and Ulrich Matthes's Joseph Goebbels give us other people worth studying, so our attention need not end with the leading performance.
The film's weakness lies in how widely Bernd Eichinger's screenplay spreads its attention. Alexandra Maria Lara's Traudl Junge offers a way into the bunker company, but the writing will not stay with her, and the crowded storytelling gradually weakens our concentration. Ganz cannot solve that problem, however closely he holds us when he is present. Nor does admiration for his performance require us to find everyone else's predicament equally absorbing. Give Downfall an uninterrupted evening, with a tolerance for a script that is less disciplined than its leading actor.
Biography
Bruno Ganz (1941–2019) was a Swiss actor whose career spanned stage and screen for nearly six decades. He made his theatrical debut in 1961 and in 1970 co-founded the Berliner Schaubühne ensemble with director Peter Stein.
Ganz appeared in films from the mid-1970s onwards, including The American Friend (1977), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) and Wings of Desire (1987), in which he played the angel Damiel. He received international recognition for his portrayal of Adolf Hitler in Downfall (2004). Other notable screen roles include Professor Rohl in The Reader (2008) and Verge in The House That Jack Built (2018).
Ganz died at his home in Zurich on 16 February 2019.
