Hitler - ein Film aus Deutschland

Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's epic portrait of Hitler, Nazi Germany and the origins of the Third Reich, originally made for German TV, recreates the period as a theatrical pageant, a series of 22 tableaux set on a soundstage that evokes the period through operatic exaggeration, myth, art, delirious monologues and humor. Certainly not a conventional epic, it's an imaginative interpretation of the history and culture and ideas surrounding the rise of Hitler and the nationalistic fever of his followers, tossing aside realism for impressions, and backing it all with the heroic romanticism of Wagner's music and radio broadcasts of Hitler speeches and rallies. It's more like performance art than traditional narrative. This two-disc set, supervised and produced by Syberberg, appears to be mastered from video rather than film and is a little soft but vivid. Note that the narration is not subtitled (though the rest of the spoken German is); English audiences must switch audio tracks to English language narration. Also features a 21-minute featurette "Extracts on the New York Premiere" (in English and German with English subtitles, and taken from a fuzzy VHS tape), and an accompanying 55-page booklet with essays, notes and interviews.