Undergångens arkitektur (1989)

Director:

Peter Cohen

Writer:

Peter Cohen (writer)

Release Date:

13 October 1989 (Sweden)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

Skönhetskult och barbari i Tredje Riket

Plot:

An absorbing and chilling documentary about the National Socialist aesthetic, and how attempts to create...

Plot Keywords:

Landscape Art | Architecture Scale Model | Eugenics | Physical Handicap | Degeneration

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Rolf Arsenius	...	Narrator (original version) (voice)
Bruno Ganz	...	Narrator (German, subtitled English versions) (voice)
Sam Gray	...	Narrator (dubbed English version)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Martin Bormann	...	Himself (archive footage)
Dr. Karl Brandt	...	Himself (archive footage)
Arno Breker	...	Himself (archive footage)
Hermann Giesler	...	Himself (archive footage)
Josef Goebbels	...	Himself (archive footage)
Heinrich Himmler	...	Himself (archive footage)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (archive footage)
Wilhelm Keitel	...	Himself (archive footage)
Viktor Lutze	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jeanne Moreau	...	Narrator (French version) (voice)
Alfred Rosenberg	...	Himself (archive footage)
Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt	...	Himself (archive footage)
Albert Speer	...	Himself (archive footage)
Josef Thorak	...	Himself (archive footage)
P.L. Troost	...	Himself (archive footage)

Directed by
Peter Cohen

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Peter Cohen		writer

Produced by
Peter Cohen	....	producer

Original Music by
Sven Ahlin
Peter Cohen

Non-Original Music by
Richard Wagner		(from opera "Rienzi")

Cinematography by
Mikael Cohen
Gerhard Fromm
Peter Östlund

Sound Department
Klas Dykhoff	....	sound editor
Kjell Westman	....	dubbing mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Börje Sundberg	....	gaffer

Editorial Department
Karin Giernoth	....	negative cutter

Other crew
Stig Jonassen	....	fact checking

Thanks
Göran Bengtson	....	thanks
Marcel Cravenne	....	thanks (as Marcel Cohen)
Boguslaw Drewniak	....	thanks
Marylou Gjernes	....	thanks
Kay Glans	....	thanks
Harald Herrmann	....	thanks
Ernst Klee	....	thanks
Gerhard Koch	....	thanks
Bo Kuritzen	....	thanks
Lars-Olof Larsson	....	thanks
Lars Lundström	....	thanks
Mikael Rosengren	....	thanks
Werner Schwanitz	....	thanks
Hans Jurgen Singer	....	thanks
Claes Söderqvist	....	thanks
Rita Stetter	....	thanks
Peter Vierek	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Poj Filmproduktion AB
• SVT Drama
• Sandrews
• Svenska Filminstitutet (SFI)

Distributors

• Cult Filmes (Brazil) (VHS)
• First Run Features (1991) (USA) (subtitled)
• Sandrew

Also Known As:

The Architecture of Doom

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:G | Sweden:11

Company:

Poj Filmproduktion AB

Trivia:

While researching this film in Germany, 'Cohen, Peter' stumbled upon an obscure industrial documentary about various methods of vermin control for factory use. This short, entitled "Kleinkrieg" (or "Little War"), proved invaluable as it was the first to advocate the use of Zyklon-B as an effective means of mass extermination.

Movie Connections:

Features Ewige Jude, Der (1940)

The Raise and Fall of the Nazism, in the Megalomaniac Dream of Rebuild Germany First and Later the World, in a Artistic and Aesthetic View

The raise and fall of the Nazism, in a artistic and aesthetic view, is brilliantly showed in this film. I regret only that the economic situation of Germany is not presented at the same time, to give a complete big picture of Germany along this dark period of history. The focus is the megalomaniac dream of a sick leader of rebuilding the world in a standard of beauty. This is exposed magnificently in this stunning documentary. Probably it is one of the best ever made. It should be part of the curriculum of any high-school around the world. Indeed, the history teacher of my daughter recommended their students to watch this fantastic movie as a complementary of their class. The raise and fall of the nazism, their concern with arts, the megalomaniac dream of Hitler with pure race and a beautiful and aesthetic Germany first and then the world, are amazingly well presented in this great documentary. The research of Peter Cohen is great, and the clear, didactic and logical presentation gives a class of history to the viewer. Outstanding and remarkable. Two points along this film called mainly my attention: the first one is the dream of Hitler in designing a Berlin more beautiful than Paris (with an Arc of Triumph larger twice than the French one). The images in the end of the documentary shows how it ended. If the viewer has a chance to watch also Roberto Rossellini's movie 'Germany Year Zero' (of 1947), he will have a chance to see the rest of this megalomaniac dream. The other point was the initial preoccupation of Hitler in not dropping bombs in Greece, due to its historical patrimony to mankind. Unfortunately, recently in Iraq, the same respect was not demonstrated, and we watched on TV the destruction of a great patrimony of mankind, with museums, archaeological fields and other historical monuments being bombed. In Brazil, this film is spoken in German with subtitles in Portuguese. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Arquitetura da Destruição" ("Architecture of the Destruction")