Sonata for Hitler (1989)
As with so many early films by Sokurov, this film has two dates: the first is the date of its creation (the film was then banned), the second is the date of the final edition and legal public screening. The film consists of German and Soviet archive footage of the World War II — to be exact, from the end of the war. An attempt to make a large–scale documentary on this subject had been undertaken in the Soviet cinema of the 1960s: the film — “Ordinary Fascism” — by the outstanding Soviet film–maker Mikhail Romm had become a classic retrospective investigation of fascism. But Sokurov uses the expressive power of the documentary image in an absolutely different way. He does not amass materials for a large–scale picture of Nazi crimes.
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Best movie of this year hands down!
The Worst Film Ever
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
"Sonata for Hitler" is a 10-minute black-and-white documentary movie. Aleksandr Sokurov, one of Russia's most famous directors currently, made this one still pretty early in his career, namely back when he was in his late 20 in the 1970s. Because of the content, however, it took quite a while till this one finally got released. The contents are basically what the title says. We see video recordings of Hitler and hear classical music. We also see people cheering for the Fuehrer and some of his closest political allies here in Germany. However, I am really surprised this was banned as it's basically just a historical documentary. Maybe some mistook the combination of the video and audio for the wrong conclusion that Sokulov considered Hitler's reign a form of art. I am fairly interested in the 3rd Reich and World War II, but this film did not tell me anything new or keep me really interested. Watch a real documentary instead. Not recommended.