Destroyed and reborn

Jannie 2022-04-20 09:01:12

The Destruction of an Empire didn't feel long to me at all. On the contrary, Oliver Sisberg's narrative style was plain, objective and calm. The tone of gray and white is full of artillery fire. The sense of trance interlaced in time and space, the repression of war and belief, the sense of right and wrong of betrayal and persistence, the whole film makes people feel heavy, but can't stop.

The most memorable is not Hitler's suicide, nor Jung's smile on the wind. It was Mrs. Goebbels' calm medicine, and then she calmly poisoned six children. She fed the children medicine, and squeezed their lips together to break the poison. She received each child's painful expression for a second before they died, and then mechanically pulled the snow-white sheets, which covered every small face, and the exposed feet were still pink. She went to the table and sat down, and began to shuffle and deal the cards. The face is lifeless, the pupil is lifeless.

What is Faith? Some people think it's empty talk, some people are willing, and even drag their family members to sacrifice their lives for it. Either choice is right or wrong. Every corner of the world, each of us, who is not always destroyed and always reborn?

Then, what about remodeling? depends on you.

View more about Downfall reviews

Extended Reading

Downfall quotes

  • Adolf Hitler: The war is lost... But if you think that I'll leave Berlin for that, you are sadly mistaken. I'd prefer to put a bullet in my head.

  • [first lines]

    Traudl Junge: I've got the feeling that I should be angry with this child, this young and oblivious girl. Or that I'm not allowed to forgive her for not seeing the nature of that monster. That she didn't realise what she was doing. And mostly because I've gone so obliviously. Because I wasn't a fanatic Nazi. I could have said in Berlin, "No, I'm not doing that. I don't want to go the Führer's headquarters." But I didn't do that. I was too curious. I didn't realise that fate would lead me somewhere I didn't want to be. But still, I find it hard to forgive myself.