The Snowflakes Won't Know What Hit Them Saab 9-2X Linear LEASE A 2005 SAAB 9-2X LINEAR propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, described the problem: "As an actor, you need to let the charac- ters — even the ones that you have in your mind as monsters, as evil demons — you need to be able to portray them as people. You can't `play' evil. Goebbels didn't consider himself to be evil, and that was the great difficulty for me, to put aside my moral judgment as an aware human being and play the role of an actor." Alexandra Maria Lara, who played the 22-year-old Traudl Junge, had an easier time with her real-life counter- part, Hitler's private secretary, because Juliane Kohler as Eva Braun and Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler in "Downfall" by reading the book Until the Final Hour, Lara decided that the real-life Junge "made it clear that youth was no excuse, and that if she knew noth- ing about the extermination of the Jews, then it was because she didn't want to know about it. "She did not try to elude the blame, and after the war, she never felt that she had been innocent. I respect Traudl Junge," Lara concluded. "[She] was ready to confront herself and change herself through the reflection." Ganz plays Hitler with less charis- matic vigor than most of his predeces- sors. There is a slight droop in his shoulders, a slight hesitation in his stride, a slight apprehension in his expression, as if he had at last begun to sense that the end was near. The production notes tell us that "Ganz, though Swiss, captured Hitler's voice, not by parroting the ranting of his speeches, but studying a one-of-a- kind seven-minute magnetic tape made of Hitler chatting after a dinner party, secretly recorded by a Finnish diplomat and smuggled out of Germany during the war." The bunker interiors were shot in a Munich studio, but for the exterior scenes representing Berlin in April 1945, the filmmakers scouted loca- tions across Europe, from Bulgaria to the Czech Republic and Romania, before settling on a few streets in St. Petersburg, Russia, that bore a resemblance. As Eichinger, the writer- producer, recalls, the "'deeper dynamic of work- ing in St. Petersburg" was the destruction that the city experienced at the hands of the Nazis in the Second World War. The production notes amplify this point: "In late 1941, the German army cut off St. Petersburg, then Leningrad, from Moscow. During the winter of 1944-42, the city was totally isolated and there followed one of the most terrible famines in history. More than a million peo- ple succumbed to starva- tion. Leningrad died a slow and horrible death. At the beginning of the war the city had a popula- tion of 3 1 /2 million. Only 600,000 survived." Yet even with the human slaughter of 6 million Jews and more than 2 1 /2 million Russians in Leningrad alone lurking in the film's background, the immediate impact of the scene in which Frau Goebbels systematically poisons her six small children is undi- minished. In this minuscule horror show is a shocking vision of the evil of political fanaticism. El $99* MO./24 MOS. 12,000 MILES/YEAR* $3,625 due at signing $ 225* Saab 9-3 Linear LEASE A 2005 SAAB 9-3 LINEAR MO./24 MOS. 12,000 MILES/YEAR* $1,500 due at signing INSURANCE LNST11UTE MINEMENBRIBI IIHS Double Best Pick! Saab 9-5 Arc Sport Sedan LEASE A 2005 SAAB 9 5 ARC SPORT SEDAN - $325* MO./24 MOS. 12,000 MILES/YEAR* $1,500 due at signing Drive a new Saab and receive No Charge Scheduled Maintenance; world-class safety features and available OnStar. Welcome to the state of independence People who test drive a Saab usually buy a Saab. S e e'B Based on GM pricing w/Oldsmobile owner loyalty. Plus tax, title, plate & destination.All rebates to dealer. Security deposit waived based on credit approval. GM Bonus money used in pymts. 24 mo. lease has total of 24.000 miles. $1.000 Olds owner already included in pricing. GLA'SSMOM On Telegraph Road At The Tel-12 Mall, Southfield - Mon & Thur 9am – 9pm I TWF 9am – 6pm I Open Saturdays 10am – 4pm 1-888-306-5188 www.glassmanauto.com 2, 2350 'A-PERFORMANCE FOR THE AGES! **** **** -Roger Ebert. CHICAGO SUN-TIMES -Michael INmington, CHICAGO TRIBUNE uio- TFA BEST WAR MOVIES EVER MADE! ...on par with SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and DAS BOOT in every regard." Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Featurewell.com all rights reserved. Downfall rated R, is in German with English subtitles and is cur- rently playing at the Landmark Maple Art Theatre in Bloomfield Township. (248) 263-2111. . -HOLLYWOOD REPORTER STARRING BRUNO GANZ APRIL 1945, A NATION AWAITS ITS... A BERND EICHINGERTRouuctioN ^,i, , . • AN OLIVER HIRSCHBIEGEL FILM • l'ik, VV1f,,dtme,fnfat:'ithefihn,<:otr, EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT PLAYI LANDMARK'S MAPLE ART 4135 W. Maple Road • (248) 263-2111 CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES OR CALL FOR SHOWTIMES 951620 3/17 2005 53