Im toten Winkel - Hitlers Sekretärin (2002)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Directors:

André Heller
Othmar Schmiderer

Writers:

André Heller (writer)
Othmar Schmiderer (writer)

Release Date:

22 March 2002 (Austria)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Plot:

Documentary featuring interview footage with Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's personal secretaries during WWII.

Plot Keywords:

Hitler | Secretary | Employer Employee Relationship | Job Interview | Anti Semitism

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Traudl Junge

...

Herself

Also Known As:

Blind Spot. Hitler's Secretary (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic material.

Runtime:

90 min | Canada:95 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Austria

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Australia:PG | Germany:12 | Norway:A | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | Switzerland:14 (canton of the Grisons) | UK:PG | USA:PG | Argentina:Atp | Brazil:14

Company:

Dor Film Produktionsgesellschaft

Quotes:

Traudl Junge: And I think it's also the case that if you value and respect someone you don't really want to destroy the image of that person... you don't want to know, in fact if disaster lies beyond the facade.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Der Untergang (2004)

hype problem: Ms Junge had broken silence well before this film

André Heller is one of the most original and daring artists of post-War Austria. Singer/songwriter, circus organizer, garden architect, multimedia artist and more, he has maintained a highly personal style (a postmodern baroque) which never slid into routine. This interview film sees him once again doing something quite unlike his previous projects, and the idea - to have Hitler's private secretary talk uninterrupted as in a solitary anamnesis - is valuable, remarkable, admirable. But why does everyone fall for the hype formula that this is the time when the film's subject, Traudl Runge, broke a silence kept for almost sixty years after the fall of the Third Reich? I have seen this Traudl Junge give inside views of Hitler's household staff in earlier documentaries on the top Nazi echelon and the Third Reich. They were made-for-TV documentaries shown on the National Belgian (Flemish) television, as well as Super Channel. So while the testimony given here is valuable, it is not totally new. The film over-sells itself on that score.