Corinna Harfouch

In Downfall (2004), Corinna Harfouch gives us someone to watch besides Bruno Ganz, which is no small service to a film so crowded with people. Her Magda Goebbels, alongside Ulrich Matthes as Joseph Goebbels, helps make Oliver Hirschbiegel's bunker drama worth watching for its ensemble. We found her unsettling because of the conviction she gives a character we have no wish to like. Bernd Eichinger's screenplay tries to follow too many people, but Harfouch is one reason we would not want the supporting cast simply pared away. We recommend the film for performances such as hers, while finding its divided attention a real limitation.

Her breakthrough as Maria Rheine in Die Schauspielerin (1988) came after work in East German theatre and DEFA films. She continued into reunified German cinema and television without giving up the stage, and the later leading parts prevent the supporting roles from defining her. Lara (2019) centres on a mother-son story, while Sterben (2024) gives her a leading role in a story of family and mortality. Those leads are a useful corrective to any impression of her as an actor brought in mainly to give a supporting character authority.

Her familiar casting as strong or cool-seeming women does carry a risk: we may begin to recognise the type before paying attention to the person. That is a reason to ask more of the casting, not to invent a fault in the acting. Her work stretches across drama, comedy and thrillers, so severity is plainly not the only thing she has been employed to provide. In Downfall, we value the way she keeps another character distinct within a crowded ensemble, even when the script makes that harder than it should be. We would welcome more parts that do not require her to look formidable on arrival.