09/01/2007

Two days before the X-Verleih release of Dani Levy's new comedy, Mein Führer – Die wirklich wahrhste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler (lit. "The Really Real Truth About Adolf Hitler"), German newspapers are asking whether Hitler and humour are even compatible.

This question calls to mind the controversy that accompanied the release of Levy's last film, Go For Zucker [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. The film, a tender caricature of a Jewish family, ultimately received the approval of Paul Spiegel, the representative of the Jewish Community in Germany. As Spiegel pointed out, Levy "doesn't laugh at us but with us".

The controversy surrounding Mein Führer – fuelled by the last-minute reluctance of one of its main actors, Helge Schneider, who plays the dictator in the film, which he no longer considers to be very good – is similar to the debates stirred up by Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Downfall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bernd Eichinger
interview: Joachim Fest
interview: Oliver Hirschbiegel
film profile], a drama about the Führer’s last days, released in September 2004.

It is not the film’s comic treatment of a tragic event that is under question – like in Chaplin's The Great Dictator of 60 years ago or Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not To Be – but rather the humanisation of a repulsive character. The X Filme production, co-produced with ZDF, deals with the 1944-1945 period.

Depressed by recent defeats, Hitler Is struggling to write his New Year’s wishes to the German people and has to call on the services of his former rhetoric teacher, Jew Adolf Grünbaum, played by the excellent Ulrich Mühe.

While it is true that Hitler is humanised in the film, that is also part of the director’s desire, to provide a counterweight to historical films and give a normal face to characters often portrayed as charismatic, even when they are monstrous.

It is also this popular approach to which Levy owes his success, as well as a hint of scandal, which he skilfully adds to his films. The German public will no doubt waste no time in reacting.

(Translated from French)