Il est de retour

Imagine a film made guerilla-style like "Borat"....but with a guy dressed up like Hitler walking about modern day Germany! Well, you don't really need to imagine too much as some crazy filmmakers have done that with the film "Look Who's Back"!! Yes, a film crew follows Oliver Masucci as he impersonates Hitler and plays it 100% straight!

Unlike "Borat" where you know that it's just Sasha Baron Cohen pretending to be from Kazakstan, in this film Masucci plays it as if he really is Hitler and never breaks character. When the film begins, he is inexplicably transported from Germany in 1945 to the present day. At first, he's very confused. Then, he develops a plan...to return to politics and take Germany into the future! To do this, he enlists the help of an unemployed filmmaker, Sawatski...and together they travel throughout the country...meeting people, talking politics and becoming an internet phenomenon! Where does all this lead to? See this very insightful film.

The idea of this film is thoroughly distasteful and I actually thought might be illegal in light of German laws about the portrayal of Nazis and Hitler. However, the film manages to somehow be funny, great political commentary and not as distasteful and awful as you might imagine. This is because some of the folks in this film are not actors...and their reactions to Hitler are incredibly telling. Many of them seem to like Hitler and his message...especially regarding the negative influence immigrants have made on Germany. Again and again, folks agree with 'Hitler' and his crazy ideas while others just think it's a funny or incredibly unfunny joke...and these reactions are indeed fascinating. In addition, the way that television takes to him and his crass message is a real indictment of the moral bankruptcy of many in the media...and one that is highly reminiscent of the great 70s parody, Network.

Before you start sending me hate mail, I suggest you try seeing this odd and incredibly offensive film for yourself. While it clearly is wrong on one level...it manages to actually have some incredible political and social commentary...making it clever and a sad indictment of the culture and the media. The film's contention, amazingly, is that he'd probably fit in just fine if such a thing actually did happen! What an unusual and compelling movie...and one that just debuted on Netflix this month. Clearly, you ain't seen nothing' until you've seen this one!

"Even Poland still exists! This war has been useless!" erupts Adolf Hitler not too long after the movie has started. This is one of the many instances one has to fight the urge to spit one's drink all over the place. A fish out of water if there was ever one, Look Who's Back puts an outrageous twist on the stuff of legend (Elvis not dead, neither Marylin, or MJ) and precipitates a resurrected Hitler in contemporary Germany. The Fürher still thinks he's on command; harsh reality quickly enlightens him: he is a laughing stock, with a future in stand up comic.

This movie is way better that it should be, a miracle walk on a very, very tight rope. The first reason is of course the delightful performance of Oliver Masucci, unrecognisable behind his moustache. Compared to him, the rest of the cast is a bit run-of-the-mill, but most of the scenes involving public appearances have been improvised, and what the common German people have to say about a Hitler comeback is as hilarious as it is frightening.

What could have been a series of vignettes à la Sacha Baron Cohen takes the trouble of developing a plot and various characters, to whom Hitler reacts with a mix of genuine passion for "the German people" and a sly denial of anything racist or xenophobic. He's the perfect politician, with an answer to any question and at least three escape routes planned for any quagmire.

Carefully editing a mix of newsreel (the Angela Merkel cameo, gratified with "the charisma of a cold noodle", is priceless), movie references (the Leni Riefenstahl opening title, the now-iconic Bruno Ganz' bunker scene, except it's oh so cleverly attributed to the villain of the piece) and guerrilla-style impromptu meetings, Look Who's Back manages to balance serious issues (far too many to list) and fleeting fads shedding a cruel light on our social networking culture. From an online "Adolf Hitler make- up tutorial" to a "I hate everyone but Hitler" tweet and the demonstration that Facebook is useless at recruiting Hitler Jungen, naturally springs the conclusion – it shames one to write it – that "no one ever stay mad at Hitler for very long".

Chaplin's The Great Dictator was a brave movie because it was fighting on the front of an ugly war. Look Who's Back adapts this sense of emergency and combativeness to our desperately stupid modern times. The worst thing Hitler can do is kill a puppy. Gasing whole families was "all a joke", as asserted by the latest generation of one of said families.

What to think of the world we live in, the duty of memory, the atrocities that constellated the 20th century, when one pees itself watching the most reviled person in history punctuating his nazi salute by the phrase "See you soon, Nigga"? If this blog has a meaning at all, it has found his first authentic modern monster. Bad news is it's a real one; good news is it's desperately funny.

I was traveling in Berlin a year ago when I first saw someone reading the eponymous book on which this movie is based. It stuck in a corner of my mind, so as my travels brought me back to Berlin and posters were advertising "Er ist wieder da", I had to give it a go.

The challenge, as with previous comedic movies themed around Hitler or the Nazi regime, is treading the line of reasonable taste and still being challenging enough to gain some relevance. One of the best known spoofs of the times, The Producers, uses it as a pivot to tell an engaging story about several memorable characters, so that works well. But here, there's little to pivot from, as Hitler, in realistic attire and demeanor, narrates his experience of present day Germany. So the twist, in part, is to make it a mockumentary in the spirit of Borat, see how people react to Hitler walking the streets and delivering his calculated critiques of the political system, the media - life in general. When it's not doing this, the film provides a decent dose of slapstick and irony to its more obviously scripted parts. Distinguishing one from the other is not really the key to enjoyment; the key lies in accepting this faithful representation of Hitler as a grotesquely humorous caricature of the symbolic power he holds over modern history in its most extreme moments. It was a bit harder than I thought it would be at the beginning, but one settles in well, after a while.

Narratively, not much really happens, other than the fact that the protagonist pops up in Berlin and gets acquainted to what the world is like nowadays. To help him in this, a few support characters act as guides; none believe him to be "the real thing", but rather a comedian or a satirist. So, in a sense, it's not really a very ambitious film, because the degree to which it engages with the moral dimension of the situation is limited. But it is ambitious in that it tries to keep a straight face even through the more ghastly, touch-and-go moments one would relate to a Hitler movie. It is at its best when it does this, but then the occasional piece of slapstick hits you in the face are you're back into the reality of a mildly amusing film that people have only heard of because it is polemic.

An important part in the whole thing coming together reasonably well is thanks to Oliver Masucci, who offers a strong performance to keep the "pots" in balance. Perhaps one could critique this in particular: the implication is that any piece of fiction told in the first person will make the viewer empathize with the character, hence humanizing the historical figure. But the historical figure itself is merely a representation of the man and "Er ist wieder da" tries to contextualize this - make away with what you know and imagine this were pre-1933. As mentioned, it doesn't go very deep with it and it would be quite problematic to do so. It's just a thought experiment which concludes in a slightly open and ambiguous fashion.

To address the real question though: did I laugh? Yes, I did. Did I enjoy it? Yes, I did. The film managed to create an amusing environment which plays off the character of Hitler, without making it the other way around (all the time). As for the big picture, I might not agree that the world is, collectively, where it was seventy years ago, in spite of the troubles we are currently facing, especially in Europe. Or that we would make the same mistakes all over again. But that's another story of me visiting Berlin.

The movie shows Hitler in a current day setting. Which at first is very humorous, but during the movie it turns from just funny into awkward and beyond. There are great scenes in which the movie refers to other movies about Hitler, like "Der Untergang", but also hilarious scenes in which the absurdity of a present day Hitler are just fun. The turn of the movie is subtle and fascinating. You only notice it after it has already happened, which to me reflects the real way this would occur. It even happens that at some point the audience questions its own laughter. This movie is fun to experience, but also confronting in the upcoming changes in political landscape.

So watch out, it is not just a comedy!

How to make a comedy out of very tragic events and characters? Adrian Brody did it in "Life Is Beautiful" about life in a concentration camp. "Look Who's Back" does it via the premise that Adolf Hitler returns to modern day Germany. Of course everyone believes that he is an actor - one who disturbingly never steps out of character. The audience knows that he cannot - as he actually is Hitler. Much of the film is humorous as Hitler tries to reestablish himself as "The Fuhrer" and tries to understand and cope with modern day technology and attitudes.

Oliver Masucci is brilliant as Hitler -playing the role so straight that he became very scary near the end. The brilliance of Hitler was aptly demonstrated as people began responding to the hate - filled rhetoric he employed on various television shows. In real life the industrialists supported Hitler because they were sure they could control him - they could not. The church supported him because they thought he would be useful to them and that they could control him - they could not. Finally the German Army threw in with him because they wanted to get rid of their rivals - Hitler's "brown shirt" Army - the Sturmabteilung (SA). He got rid of Strasser and Rohm and thousands of others as he dismantled the organization which carried him to power. But alas the Army also could not control him.

In the movie, he becomes a media star because of viewership and ratings. We see glimpses of the audience saying like "I think I agree with him, and he makes a lot of sense." The TV moguls are building their careers on his outrageousness and resulting popularity.

His grasp on people is creepy, insidious and feels quite realistic. This film shows you how riveting he could be - and gives you a glimpse into how he came to power.

So, beyond laughs - the message clearly is that this could happen again. We must be aware of potential dictators in our midst. A few people in the movie saw that he really was Hitler - and they were discarded at the end of the movie.

This movie is not a condemnation of Germany - past or present. Hitler in the movie postulates at the end of the film that we cannot get rid of him - because he is a part of us. I hope that is not true.