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Movies screened by our discerning staff (in reverse chronological order) for 2004:

"Mr."	DIRECTOR [1979]
"Night and the City"	Jules Dassin [1950]
"Untergang, Der(Downfall)"	Oliver [2004]

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Liner Notes.

"This evening's film will be "Untergang, Der", known in English as "Downfall".

"Downfall stars Bruno Ganz and was directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. It was nominated for the Oscar for best foreign film and holds #61 on IMDBs list of top films, which places it next to "Bridge on the River Kwai".

"Bruno Ganz is one of Germany's best actors, with a long and well respected history. He has won numerous international awards for his work. Downfall has been called by many his best work to date. Ganz's best-known english-language film is likely "The Last Days of Chez Nous" [1992], which while good, is not up to the standards of this film.

"Downfall is based upon the memoirs of Traudl Junge, who was Adolf Hitler's personal secretary. Shortly before she died in 2002, she wrote the memoirs of her time with Hitler, which lasted from 1942 until his death in 1945. She shares writing credits for this film. Junge was not a Nazi party member, which to a degree shielded her from charges of being an apologist.

"Downfall concerns itself with the final weeks of Hitler's life and that of the Goebbels family, which were almost entirely spent in the command bunker in Berlin. It is a personal study of the man and is considered the only depiction to date that captures what he was actually like then. Previous films portray him as simply monstrous, which is both easy to do and safe. Without a detailed eyewitness account by one who was always near him, previous efforts had to fabricate much from whole cloth."

--ggf

"Tonight we are watching the film Night and the City [1950]

"Night and the City [1950] is considered by some a masterpiece of film noir. It uses London for its background, which is an unusual noir setting. Richard Widmark gives a stand-out performance as the hapless Harry Fabian, a cheap hustler with much more ambition than he has brains. Living in the world of the fix, Fabian grabs for the brass ring and never knows that he doesn't have a chance.

"Night and the City was the last film Jules Dassin directed for Hollywood before HUAC/McCarthy and the Hollywood blacklist ended his career there. Well shot and moodily lit, it very successfully portrays a desolate and hopeless life for those in London's small-time criminal undercalss.

"Dassin went on to direct in Europe, where he became more successful than he was in Hollywood. Dassin is generally credited with inventing the 'heist' movie with Rififi [1954]. The films Ocean's Eleven [1960] and Reservoir Dogs [1992] are rooted in the ground the Dassin broke. Dassin later met and married Melina Mercouri, with whom he made Never on Sunday [1960] and Topkapi [1964]."

--ggf

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--ggf

Last update on 1/2/3 at 4:5:6.