From the Cleveland Museum of Art’s website:
“The Goebbels Experiment” (Germany/Britain, 2005, color/b&w, DVD, 107 min.) Directed by Lutz Hachmeister. Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), Hitler’s propaganda minister and the second-most-powerful man in the Third Reich, is seen through his own eyes in this revealing portrait that combines lengthy excerpts from Goebbels’s personal diaries (kept from 1924-45 and read here by Kenneth Branagh) with clips from little-seen German newsreels and propaganda films. “A rare and chilling glimpse into a brilliant but toxic mind” - The New York Times.
The movie was pretty good. It presumed the viewer had a LOT of knowledge about Nazi Germany and Goebbels’s rise to power; there were too many needless holes in the narrative. Branagh’s readings were right on the money, though - skillfully captured JG’s ego, amorality, anti-Semitism, megalomania, waspishness and relentless ambition. An evil man, fully exposed. JG was rapturous when he first met Hitler, practically in love, but had his peevish moments too. At several points he was irritated that Hitler didn’t more actively run the Nazi Party and knock heads together.
I got the impression that JG wasn’t always in the Fuhrer’s inner circle, even after becoming head of propaganda. It almost seemed that he was surprised by the invasions of both Poland and the USSR, and had to scramble to adjust the regime’s propaganda to reflect new realities.
Lots of great archival footage, particularly of Goebbels’s family. Adorable kids who met a horrific end. Some info on JG’s last days in Berlin would have been very helpful - the movie leaves you to figure that out for yourself (I knew a bit already, from my own reading).
Anyone else seen the movie? Reactions?
