Das Goebbels-Experiment (2005)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Lutz Hachmeister

Writers:

Lutz Hachmeister (writer)
Michael Kloft (writer)

Release Date:

13 April 2005 (Germany)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography | History | War

Plot:

The Nazi propaganda mastermind behind Hitler speaks in first person as actor Kenneth Branagh reads pages of the diary kept by the chief of propaganda...

Plot Keywords:

Nazi | Propaganda | Diary | Speech | Archive Footage

Cast

Udo Samel	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kenneth Branagh	...	Narrator (voice: English version)
Heinrich Brüning	...	Himself (archive footage)
Winston Churchill	...	Himself (archive footage)
Engelbert Dollfuss	...	Himself (archive footage)
Wilhelm Frick	...	Himself (archive footage)
Josef Goebbels	...	Himself (archive footage)
Magda Goebbels	...	Herself (archive footage)
Hermann Göring	...	Himself (archive footage)
Veit Harlan	...	Himself (archive footage)
Rudolf Hess	...	Himself (archive footage)
Heinrich Himmler	...	Himself (archive footage)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (archive footage)
Alfred Hugenberg	...	Himself (archive footage)
Joe Louis	...	Himself (archive footage)
Benito Mussolini	...	Himself (archive footage)
Augustine Alfred Joseph Paul-Boncour	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Joseph Paul-Boncour)
Leni Riefenstahl	...	Herself (archive footage)
Theodore Roosevelt	...	Himself (archive footage)
Heinz Rühmann	...	Himself (archive footage)
Max Schmeling	...	Himself (archive footage)
Franz Seldte	...	Himself (archive footage)
John Allsebrook Simon	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Sir John Simon)
Franz von Epp	...	Himself (archive footage)
Paul von Hindenburg	...	Himself (archive footage)
Franz von Papen	...	Himself (archive footage)
Harry Giese	...	Narrator (voice) (uncredited) (archive sound)

Directed by
Lutz Hachmeister

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Lutz Hachmeister		writer
Michael Kloft		writer

Produced by
Nick Fraser	....	executive producer
Sharon Grimberg	....	series producer
Lutz Hachmeister	....	producer
Thorsten Pollfuss	....	executive producer
Mark Samels	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Hubert Bittman

Cinematography by
Hajo Schomerus		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Susan Bellows
David Espar
Guido Krajewski
Günther van Endert

Production Design by
Allison Kennedy		(series designer)

Production Management
James E. Dunford	....	series manager
Glenn Fukushima	....	post-production manager
Daniela Geneikis	....	production manager
Malika Rabahallah	....	production manager
Carla Schild-Kreindl	....	post-production manager
Greg Shea	....	post-production manager
Katrin Steuder	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Christian Wagner	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Tilo Busch	....	sound mixer
Marcello Busso	....	sound recordist
Rainer Gerlach	....	sound recordist
Kevin Granahan	....	sound recordist
John Jenkins	....	sound mixer
Hans Schumann	....	trailer sound designer
Daniel Weis	....	sound designer

Camera and Electrical Department
Oliver Bungert	....	grip
Marco Disturini	....	grip
Nikole Erksmeier	....	assistant camera
Arnd Geißheimer	....	assistant camera
Sascha Kaiser	....	assistant camera
Antje Neumann	....	lighting technician
Karim Rahmani	....	assistant camera
Thomas Schäfer	....	Steadicam operator

Editorial Department
Spencer Gentry	....	on-line editor
Mark Steele	....	on-line editor

Music Department
Mark Adler	....	composer: theme music

Other crew
Keith Bartlett	....	translator
Bill Brummel	....	assistant researcher
Maria Daniels	....	news director
Federica D'Urso	....	voice
Nancy Farrell	....	series project administrator
Jay Fialkov	....	legal
Vanni Gandolfo	....	voice
Pamela Gaudiano	....	project administrator
Frank Gensthaler	....	researcher
Mary Fran Gilbert	....	translator
Sherene Ing	....	project administrator
Ravi Jain	....	series project administrator
Maureen Jordan	....	legal
Neil Kreppel	....	assistant researcher
Arno Krüger	....	assistant researcher
Francesca Leita	....	voice
Susan Mottau	....	production coordinator
Daphne B. Noyes	....	publicist
Sonali Patel	....	series project administrator
Lauren Prestileo	....	publicist
Christian Remiger	....	title designer
Vanessa Ruiz Ezersky	....	project administrator (as Vanessa Ruiz)
Anja Siebertz	....	assistant researcher
Rebekah Suggs	....	project administrator
Susan Trabucchi	....	marketing director
John Van Hagen	....	business manager
Mathias von der Heide	....	researcher

Distributors

• Cinema Delicatessen (2006) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• First Run Features (2005) (USA) (theatrical)
• Polyband (2009) (Germany) (DVD)

Also Known As:

The Goebbles Experiment (USA)

Runtime:

Germany:108 min

Country:

Germany | UK

Language:

German | English

Color:

Color | Black and White

Certification:

Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Bavaria, Germany

Movie Connections:

Features Panenství (1937)

Train-wreck fascinating!

SPOILER: The Nazis lose World War Two.

For my quids, Paul Joseph Goebbels was far and away the most interesting and complicated of the Nazi leaders. Goering and Himmler were motivated purely by self-interest; so was Speer, but he was also caught up in Hitler's cult of personality. Goebbels, on the other hand, was no mere stooge. He was an accomplished playwright and poet, who was committed to the National Socialist cause even before Hitler emerged as that cult's leader. In the diary which Goebbels kept from the 1920s until shortly before his death, he frequently questioned Hitler's leadership, and wondered if the movement was travelling the wrong way. (I'm astounded that Goebbels saved those diary entries after Hitler had consolidated his power.) Goebbels married a beauty queen, had six children off her, and juggled simultaneous affairs with multiple mistresses ... quite different from his boss Hitler, who was terrified of physical intimacy. If Goebbels had been the head Nazi, things might have ended very differently.

The simple but riveting film 'The Goebbels Experiment' is constructed round a brilliant idea. Silent newsreel footage — depicting the rise of the Nazi movement, the Third Reich, its glorious zenith and then its inglorious downfall — is shown on screen while Kenneth Branagh reads entries from Goebbels's diaries in chronological order, making no attempt to 'perform' the text as a dramatic role. Goebbels's chilling words speak for themselves.

For me, the most startling moment in this documentary occurred early on, when the Nazi party have successfully manipulated Germany's national election, becoming the duly-elected political force ruling Germany. When this happens, Goebbel openly exults (as did Hitler), saying that the last time he felt this excited was when the Kaiser declared war in 1914. I quite believe that Goebbels sincerely felt this way, but I was pulled up short by it ... because Germany's adventure of 1914 turned out to be a huge mistake, bankrupting the nation and destroying its national currency, as well as toppling the German royal family and humiliating the nation.

Did Goebbels never for one instant stop to think that the Nazi triumph in the national elections might turn out to be as much of a 'victory' as the Kaiser's war declaration ... in other words, an utter failure? Evidently not. We know what happened next. There are no surprises in 'The Goebbels Experiment', but this documentary is train-wreck fascinating, and I strongly recommend it. A full 10 out of 10.