1. Bruno Ganz As Adolf Hitler Downfall
Newmarket FilmsOliver Hirschbiegels brave look at the final 10 days of Hitlers leadership is an incredibly focussed, measured and intricate study of one of historys most infamous tyrants. Hirschbiegels film is claustrophobic in its entirety, unflinching in its portrayal of events and staggeringly compassionate in its perspective. The film is imbued with a sense of chilling authenticity, thats born in equal parts out of its focus on the minutiae and its rigorous historical accuracy. Bruno Ganzs Hitler is like no other hes crushingly melancholic, ruthlessly psychotic and uncomfortably human. Where before, actors and directors have worked tirelessly to give audiences a version of Hitler that completely lacks any recognisably compassionate side, Hirschbiegel and Ganz have tried to present Hitler as a fundamentally broken man, not as some supernatural demon. The result is a film that eschews any attempt at a judgement on the Nazi regime. Downfall offers audiences a glimpse into the madness that had consumed so many lives it refuses to state the obvious, and Ganzs performance is the epitome of that goal.