I haven't seen this is twenty years or so, and I can't remember it in detail, but I'm compelled to comment on it anyway because I found it to be so gripping -- amazing, really. And a German production at that.
The reason that this film has haunted me for so long, is the almost complete disjunction between the substance of the Wannsee Conference and the gemütlich ethos of the meeting itself. Here they are, a dozen or so guys, most of them in smart uniforms, sporting eight PhDs among them, talking about how to get rid of Europe's Jews without being too obvious or too messy or too inefficient about the "getting rid of" business.
At the same time, this meeting of minds takes place in an atmosphere of politesse and camaraderie. Everyone is polite and chuckles over witticisms. They take breaks to help themselves at the buffet table groaning with strudel and canapés and loaves of bread and hams. They drink cognac. Heydrich stumbles over a table leg and makes a joke about it. Heydrich, a handsome fellow, laces his business with a dry wit, and of course everyone at the table laughs appreciatively. He flirts with the pretty secretary. It's almost a party in which the participants just happen to be talking about classifying Jews and half-Jews and killing them.
And it's a knotty problem. What do you do with mixed children, one of whose parents is Aryan and the other Jewish. Will the Aryan blood enrich the offspring or will the Jewish blood pollute the purity of the race? What about the children who are only one quarter Jewish? How about the Jews who are in the Army? It's a striking movie in which the character we root for the most argues only for involuntary sterilization.
I can't remember the characters any longer, but I recall Adolph Eichmann as a minor character. He oozes pleasantries, smiles generously, and has the figures worked out. Heydrich is the genial leader who represents the Führer. Only in the last few minutes, when most of the participants have left, do two guests remain behind and balk openly, angrily.
Hannah Arendt made famous the phrase, "the banality of evil." But what we see here isn't banal. It's an effective combination of pleasure and of business efficiency. These aren't small minds dealing with small issues. And they aren't repulsive-looking bald monsters, as they're so often depicted in fiction. They're mostly ordinary, efficient, good-natured, intelligent men who just happen to have embraced some of the worst ideas that Western civilization has ever produced.
How nice it would be if we could judge people by their appearance. There was at one time a popular school of psychology called "physiognomy," which proposed just that. Alas, the worst of us can be as handsome and charming and the best of us.
The reason that this film has haunted me for so long, is the almost complete disjunction between the substance of the Wannsee Conference and the gemütlich ethos of the meeting itself. Here they are, a dozen or so guys, most of them in smart uniforms, sporting eight PhDs among them, talking about how to get rid of Europe's Jews without being too obvious or too messy or too inefficient about the "getting rid of" business.
At the same time, this meeting of minds takes place in an atmosphere of politesse and camaraderie. Everyone is polite and chuckles over witticisms. They take breaks to help themselves at the buffet table groaning with strudel and canapés and loaves of bread and hams. They drink cognac. Heydrich stumbles over a table leg and makes a joke about it. Heydrich, a handsome fellow, laces his business with a dry wit, and of course everyone at the table laughs appreciatively. He flirts with the pretty secretary. It's almost a party in which the participants just happen to be talking about classifying Jews and half-Jews and killing them.
And it's a knotty problem. What do you do with mixed children, one of whose parents is Aryan and the other Jewish. Will the Aryan blood enrich the offspring or will the Jewish blood pollute the purity of the race? What about the children who are only one quarter Jewish? How about the Jews who are in the Army? It's a striking movie in which the character we root for the most argues only for involuntary sterilization.
I can't remember the characters any longer, but I recall Adolph Eichmann as a minor character. He oozes pleasantries, smiles generously, and has the figures worked out. Heydrich is the genial leader who represents the Führer. Only in the last few minutes, when most of the participants have left, do two guests remain behind and balk openly, angrily.
Hannah Arendt made famous the phrase, "the banality of evil." But what we see here isn't banal. It's an effective combination of pleasure and of business efficiency. These aren't small minds dealing with small issues. And they aren't repulsive-looking bald monsters, as they're so often depicted in fiction. They're mostly ordinary, efficient, good-natured, intelligent men who just happen to have embraced some of the worst ideas that Western civilization has ever produced.
How nice it would be if we could judge people by their appearance. There was at one time a popular school of psychology called "physiognomy," which proposed just that. Alas, the worst of us can be as handsome and charming and the best of us.