Swastika

Watched version available in Youtube.

What is interesting is to find the narrative implemented by choice of shots and their editing, and the adding of dialogue(it is not the original) and music. That turns the sucession of shots something that may or intends to convey a message. Is it neutral? If not, is it for or against Nazism? Some earlier critics said it humanized Hitler. Well, he was a man (of sorts). When we hear epic Wagner music accompanyng some parts we get a bit suspicious... But the intelectual montage of shots of children with hitler and juden children starving (altough kind of speedy and forced comparing with the rest of the movie) and last part showing USA nazi party, makes it more somewhat balanced.

About the sound and dialogue added: first of all, it sounds very artificial, second it is supposedly added via lip reading, but in some cases it was clearly not possible, like when we hear Hitler saying that Churchil and Chamberlain are asleep and we can only see his back.

Nevertheless, I think it is not so polemic today as it was when first shown.

I tripped over this movie late at night on Amazon on-demand video. I gotta tell you, it's definitely interesting. It shows the "human" side of Hitler, joking around with staff, making wise cracks here and there, complaining about cigarette smoke, etc. I think the intent of the story (which is basically newsreel and personal movie camera footage in order from 1935 to 1945) is to chronicle the rise and fall of Hitler, as seen in his eyes. You can see how the war wears on him- he gets grayer, starts shaking at times, and even see how he can't stand being in direct sunlight because of the drugs he was on. So, knowing his personal and physical history from what I've read before about the sick Bastard, this movie confirms those conclusions (i.e.- he was mentally ill and took large doses of drugs that blurred his speech, the way he walked, the way he interacted with others, etc. So, it's a good documentary from that end. Suggest watching with the volume down most of the time because hearing all the "Hiel Hitler!"s are enough to make you want to drink...

This film consists entirely of footage taken during the Third Reich, without the usual background comment. Some is official and mostly in B&W; speeches by Hitler and his henchmen, Nazi celebrations and rituals, the 1936 Olympics, ordinary Germans going into ecstasies over the view of the Führer, exhibitions of awful Nazi "art" and so on. The rest is mainly in color, home movies taken by Eva Braun and others (using an 8mm camera gifted by Hitler) featuring members of Hitler's inner circle plus assorted visitors in his Obersalzberg mountain retreat and environs. I believe this latter footage was made public by the first time in this film, which was shown at the Cannes festival in 1973.

The movie's purpose is clearly stated on the first screen: "If the human features of Hitler are lacking in the image of him that is passed on to posterity, if he is dehumanized and shown only as a devil, any future Hitler may not be recognized simply because he is a human being." Indeed Hitler was not an abstraction like a "devil" or "monster," but a human being, albeit one capable of almost inconceivable levels of evil. This take on Nazism was controversial, aroused violent responses at Cannes and the film was banned for many years in Israel and Germany. Since then, the home movie footage has been featured in many documentaries and is available in You Tube.

The last shots are of German cities razed to the ground and one particularly horrifying sequence filmed in the recently liberated Belsen concentration camp, with Noel Coward's wartime satyrical song "Don't let's be beastly to the Germans" as background music.

In some of the home movies shown, snatches of dialogue (mostly unintelligible) are heard. Since the original footage was soundless, the dialogues were reconstructed. We don't know how or from what sources. Much later (in 2006) the conversations were almost entirely restored using sophisticated lip reading software. This footage can be seen in Hitler's Private World, a 2006 episode of the British TV series Revealed.

In the 1970s, historian Lutz Becker discovered a singular contemporary document: the so called "Home Videos" of Eva Braun. The 16 mm images show Adolf Hitler and his entourage in his country home Berghof at Obersalzberg. Becker turned to the young director Philippe Mora, who arranged the Home Videos with other footage from Germany in the 30s. The result was an unusual documentary: "Swastika". It premiered in 1973 at Cannes, where it caused a scandal. The movie had to be stopped halfway through, because the audience was irritated by the seemingly trivializing depiction of Hitler. In France, the movie role was stolen from a cinema and spread over the graves of Jewish Holocaust victims.

As you can see, "Swastika" was political dynamite. It was one major decision by Philippe Mora that caused all the fuss: He renounced every didactic commentary. There is no voice-over contextualizing the footage. Whoever watches this movie has to establish the critical distance alone. We have to find our own way through the propaganda Mora confronts us with. That makes for a challenging, captivating experience. The movie isn't completely neutral, though. There might be no verbal commentary, but there certainly is a stylistic one. For instance, in one scene we see Hitler taking a walk with a small girl, where Mora cuts repeatedly to pauperized ghetto children. Interestingly, these direct condemnations form the weakest parts of "Swastika". The movie is at its best when it just shows us the German delirium that was the Third Reich: cheering crowds, swastikas everywhere, sappy art, orotundity à la Riefenstahl, and finally Hitler presenting himself as a cool-headed and insightful leader. This madness ought to be a punch in the gut of every (reflected) viewer.

Then there are the color movies that Eva Braun recorded at Obersalzberg. We see a middle-class community enjoying itself, all while the Holocaust is raging. Among them: Hitler the personified evil, shown in all his banality. He's shockingly boring, standing around clumsily, almost dim-witted; talking about the Hollywood classic "Gone With the Wind", pondering the future of technicolor and playing with his dog Blondi. What do these images want to show us? What can they show us? The answer is: not much. At least nothing we shouldn't have known in the first place. Hitler wasn't some kind of monstrosity that came from outer space. He was a human like all of us. If we dehumanize him, we will never understand the catastrophe that was Word War II - insofar it is understandable at all. That's a simple yet important message the movie tells us rather clumsily at times. But "Swastika" shouldn't be reduced to that basic thesis. It shows more than it tells.

The juxtaposition of image and sound is especially remarkable. The love song "What Wouldn't I Do for That Man" ironically characterizes not only the relationship between Hitler and Eva Braun, but also the Hitler cult of the Germans. The use of Noël Coward's satirical song "Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Germans" after devastating pictures of mass extermination is downright cynical.

To this day, "Swastika" is a brave documentary that omits instruction (almost) entirely. The execution is a bit shaky, but you can't deny the unsettling atmosphere Mora's editing creates.

Philippe Mora was the person who as a 19 year old film student discovered the now well known personal films of Eva Braun (that would make a fine film in itself). This fascinating color film footage is incorporated into this un narrated documentary along with a wide assortment of original Nazi newsreels and propaganda films to present life in Nazi Germany from 1933-45 as seen through the propaganda filmmakers (and Eva's) camera lens. A wonderful classical music score accompanies. This film is quite rare and is generally unavailable. I believe it was nominated for an award (or won an award). Nevertheless,if you get a chance to see it, buy it, etc, do it. It is the best documentary film on Nazi Germany of it's kind with much never before seen original footage.