Hitlers of world cinema: which of the actors looked the most convincing in the role of the Fuhrer

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Perhaps not a single film about the Second World War was complete without the image of Adolf Hitler, who was played by dozens of actors in both Soviet and foreign cinema. And each time they faced a dilemma: how to play the role of an unambiguously negative character, so as not to repeat themselves and not make him schematic and "cardboard"? Someone portrayed him, not sparing satirical colors, someone represented a maniac and an obsessed devil, someone tried to humanize, showing weakness. In your opinion, whose Hitler is more impressive?

One of the first actors to embody the image of Hitler on the screen was Charlie Chaplin. His film "The Great Dictator" was called the only successful attempt on the Fuhrer. Filming began in September 1939, just a week after the outbreak of World War II. And by the time filming ended, France had already been captured by the Nazis. The idea to play Hitler was born to Charlie Chaplin largely due to the external similarity between his hero Vagabond and the Fuhrer, in addition, both of them were born in April 1889, both grew up in poverty and were forced to struggle for survival - albeit using different methods.

The actor was horrified by the persecution of Jews in Europe, and he decided to shoot a political satire on the Nazis. Hitler performed by Chaplin (in the film he was called Adenoid Hinkel) looked funny and pathetic - the actor was sure that the dictator can only be defeated with the help of laughter. However, later, having learned about the scale of his crimes, Chaplin admitted: "". Chaplin's film was notable for being his first soundtrack and only one of two American films that condemned the Nazis before the US intervention in World War II. The actor filmed "The Great Dictator" at his own expense, spending $ 1.5 million, as Hollywood was afraid of losing money if he supported this project. After Hitler saw this film, he declared Charlie Chaplin to be his personal enemy.

The first actor in Soviet cinema to play Hitler was Sergei Martinson, known for his comedic roles (for example, Duremar from The Golden Key in 1939). He played the Fuhrer several times and created a grotesque image that caused laughter and disgust at the same time. Director Grigory Alexandrov said about Hitler Martinson: "". The actor created the image of a madman, obsessed with megalomania and persecution at the same time.

This tradition of ridiculing the dictator continued into the post-war period. The grotesque line was continued by actor Vladimir Savelyev, who in the films "The Fall of Berlin" and "The Secret Mission" portrayed Hitler as a complete hysteric, schizophrenic and maniac. The actor seemed to sharpen all his negative qualities and bring them to the point of absurdity.

The most famous Hitler of Soviet cinema and "the main Hitler of the twentieth century" was not a Soviet, but … a German actor! Fritz Diez lived in Germany and hated the Fuhrer. Even at the beginning of his career, he made a parody of it: he went on the cabaret stage with a mustache and raised his hand in a familiar gesture, the people shouted to him: "" And Diez answered: "". In 1932, the actor joined the German Communist Party, which is why he was soon fired from his job, and then forced to leave the country.

After the war, he returned to the GDR and played Hitler in several films from the 1950s and 1960s. Then the Soviet director Yuri Ozerov drew attention to him, who suggested that he again appear in this image in the film "Liberation". At first, the actor refused - he was afraid to become a hostage to one role, but on the urgent recommendation of Honecker he had to agree. In the 1970s. he played Hitler in the films Soldiers of Freedom and Seventeen Moments of Spring. Director Tatyana Lioznova invited different actors to audition, even Leonid Kuravlev auditioned for the role of Hitler, but he was called: "".

Yuri Vizbor, who played Bormann, recalled that in the final scene of Seventeen Moments of Spring, everyone was uncomfortable with how monstrous and terrible Hitler was performed by Dietz. As a result, he was named the best performer of the role of the Fuhrer in the cinema of the twentieth century, who portrayed him as an evil genius of war and paranoid. In addition to Ditz, Stanislav Stankevich played the role of Hitler several times in Soviet cinema ("Blockade", "Insolence", "General Shubnikov's Corps").

In foreign cinema, there were also actors who played the role of Hitler several times. Even before Fritz Dietz, the Fuhrer was played 5 times by the American actor Bobby Watson. After the end of the war, he portrayed him 4 more times, however, none of these films became classics of Hollywood cinema.

British actor Alec Guinness played the Fuhrer in Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973). He so wanted to get this role that he even arranged a photo shoot in this image right on the streets of London, and prepared so carefully for filming that he even adopted Hitler's everyday habits: he began to drink mint tea and quit smoking.

In 1981, Hitler was played by Anthony Hopkins. Traditionally, it is believed that the main villain in his performance was Hannibal Lecter, but the actor himself did not agree with this statement: "". Many viewers were outraged by the fact that the actor was trying to “humanize” the Fuhrer, to which Hopkins objected: they say, first of all, he was an ordinary person, which is most terrifying. Hopkins' partners in the film claimed that the actors who played the German soldiers instantly stood at attention as soon as he approached them - so convincing was his reincarnation!

At the beginning of the new century, many new films were made about Hitler: in 2003, Scottish actor Robert Carlisle played the main role in Hitler: The Rising of the Devil.

In 2004, the role of Hitler was played by Bruno Gantz in the film "Bunker", in 2009, in "Inglourious Basterds" by Quentin Tarantino, Martin Wuttke appeared in this role, in 2015 in the film "He's Here Again" the audience saw Oliver Mazucci. Noah Taylor and Tom Schilling starred in the films about Hitler's youth Max and My Struggle.

Hitler himself at one time understood how effective cinema can be in the process of propaganda: How the last propaganda film of Nazi Germany was filmed.