The International Reception of <i>Downfall</i> (<i>Der Untergang</i>, 2004)

Nearly twenty years after its premiere, Downfall still constitutes, among German theatrical features, the most significant media event since fall of Berlin Wall. The highest-profile sort (co-)production with a relatively big budget approximately €14 million, well-known source material, tie-in to sordid national history, saturation exhibition strategy in Germany and (within five months September 2004 premiere) release over 40 countries worldwide, sought – received wide press public attention like almost no other film before it. This article uses discourse analysis survey anatomise international journalistic reception Downfall, focusing on four major territories for (USA, UK, Germany, France). Although there are some peculiarities reception, general argues that critical can be distilled into three main, overlapping, themes/debates: perceived (in)authenticity representation history; aesthetic moral implications representing Adolf Hitler, particular questions sympathy; as subject itself, often coupled perceptions novelty vis-à-vis history. Even if variety topics diversity opinions regarding remain modest, Downfall’s supplies powerful peculiar reminders about how commercially aspirational films contentious or sensitive historical events were early twenty-first century. In particular, first all, reactions reveal lived experience identity whether status professional filmmaker, specialist historian, established critic simply member certain generation community became proxies taste cultural authority