Moloch

Starring:Yelena Rufanova, Leonid Mozgovoy, Leonid Sokol, Yelena Spiridonova, Vladimir Bogdanov, Anatoli Shvedersky
Director: Aleksandr Sokurov
Studio: Koch Lorber Films
Product Type: DVD

Description

In an ominous fortress perched high above the clouds, everything seems in order for a reposing 24 hours. It is the spring of 1942 and Eva Braun (Elena Rufanova) is the only voice that dares to contradict the Fuhrer. She gets caught up in the complexities of a man incapable of human intimacy, making her as volcanic as her beloved Hitler. (Leonid Mosgovoi)

Customer Reviews:

Subtitles.......2006-02-27

The subtitles of the lyrics of the march "Von Finnland bis zum Schwarzen Meer" are mis-translated as "From England to the Black Sea."

Hitler on High.......2006-02-27

Sokurov has taken the C20th's Bad Seed, Adolf and made a study of a 24hour stanza at his infamous retreat during 1942, not a particularly bad year for him, I believe. It's a frollic at high altitude, with more than the rarified air contributing to Herr Hitler's mental state. The director's trademark feel for romantic, forboding landscape frames Hitler's campy manouvres and rantings. A picnic fiasco in rocky terrain is particularly disturbing. Rocks and soldiers, one apparently contemplating an assasination of Adolf, conspire to render a lunatic landscape. The rank and file seem less enthused by their emporer's new clothes. The dinner-table thoerizing about food fetishes and racial types are all meekly mirrored by an entourage of freaky, servile types that would best be confined to sideshow alley.

How to view this film.......2006-02-04

Moloch is a poetic study of power. It is not a portrait of Hitler in any sense - I can't understand the reviewer who said the acting was believable. It is a self contained work - a drama - that examines the relationship between an individual and, in this case a world of power, through the activities of one day. This is not a study of evil or madness as such but examines the collective delusion that contains all of us. It is also a kind of metaphor for the film making process rather like the film Man Bites Dog - director as dictator. It's profundity is that it doesn't try to be profound but exposes the inadequacy of our view of the world and how social relations distort that view. You don't look to Shakespeare for a true portrait of Richard III. Don't look to Moloch for a portrait of Hitler - rather view it as a mirror.

Moloch.......2006-01-05

I was only able to make through about 20 or so minutes of this movie before simply giving up on it. The scene where the Goebbels famliy shows was reason enough not to take this movie seriously whatsoever. Seriously, what is with Goebbels looking like a munchkin-extra off of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? I'm not even sure the actor was male. I don't know, but that scene was just horribly painful and embarassing to watch. Then the scene with Hitler lying in bed and wanting Eva to "talk dirty" to him pretty much finished up the movie for me. Please,if you are interested in a character study of Hitler and the Third Reich which doesn't involve munchkins, and at least has some bearing on reality and historical fact, then go see Downfall and don't waste time on this "foaming at the mouth" idiotic rubbish. I must admit, "Russian Ark" was an amazing film, but I haven't been able to finish viewing a single other film from this director.

Aleksandr Sokurov Examines the Mind of Hitler: A Study of Insanity.......2005-11-30

MOLOCH (translated as 'a demon in the shape of a man') is a film that shows yet another aspect of Aleksandr Sokurov's approach to filmmaking. As in his splendid 'Russian Ark', 'Mother and Son', and 'Father and Son' he manages to say more in his silences and interplay of his characters with nature and their environments that in his spare scripts (this script is by Yuri Arabov and Marina Koreneva). His movement is slow, like an adagio, his eye is constantly on symbolism and irony, and his filming/camera technique is always experimental. Given these factors 'MOLOCH' is a fine example of how Sokurov works his magic: whether or not the viewer will relate to this bizarre film depends on how willing one is to enter Sokurov's vision. This film about Hitler is very much a Russian product and given the history of the relationship between Russia and Germany, that fact is necessary to know.

1942, in a fortress in the clouds of Bavaria, we find Eva Braun (Yelena Rufanova) cavorting balletically both inside the forbodeing stone 'dungeon' and out on the dangerous parapets. She is visited by a strange entourage: Hitler (Leonid Mozgovoy), Dr. and Mrs. Goebbels (Leonid Sokol and Yelena Spiridonova), Martin Boorman (Vladimir Bogdanov), and a priest (Anatoli Shvedersky). The action takes place in a single day and during this time the actual war is not discussed. We are to understand this is a retreat for relaxation, but as we get to know the characters we find that many hints of the evil and insane minds of all of them. They talk: Auschwitz is mentioned and Hitler apparently has never heard of it; Hitler pontificates on power; the Goebbels demonstrate their abject worship of Hitler; Eva Braun is the sassy journalist who is the only one who can talk back to Hitler, teasing, seducing and acquiescing to his inability to demonstrate intimacy. They dine (Hitler's vegetarian mentality deplores the 'corporal soup' his dinner partners devour), they watch old grainy black and white newsclips of war machines, new tanks, soldiers, and oddly a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony with Knappertsbusch conducting. Then the guests retire, and Hitler is joined by Eva Braun in a bizarre boudoir scene. In the morning the entourage leaves and Eva remains, retuning to her strange world of dancing through the fortress.

Throughout the film the music is that of Wagner - Siegfried's Funeral Music, and other passages from ''Die Götterdämmerung' (Twilight of the Gods!) accompanied by some banter about Furtwangler and Bruno Walter as well as Knappertsbusch. The acting is somewhat stylized which adds to the bizarre mood the story creates. In the final analysis this appears to be Sokurov's image of a mind gone mad with power and visions of immortality and it is only at the very end when Eva Braun whispers that he cannot defeat death that there is a moment of vulnerability in the historical Hitler.

This is a slow moving 108 minutes of film and not for everyone's taste, but if you are an admirer of Aleksandr Sokurov it is a mesmerizing journey through the cerebral passages of one of history's worst molochs. Grady Harp, November 05

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