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La caduta degli dei
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La caduta degli dei (1969) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.4/10   2,165 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 10% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Luchino Visconti
Writers:
Nicola Badalucco (story) and
Enrico Medioli (story) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for La caduta degli dei on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
18 December 1969 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | War more
Plot:
The dramatic collapse of a wealthy, industrialist/Junker family during the reign of the Third Reich. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins & 1 nomination more
User Comments:
Rigorous classicism. more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Dirk Bogarde ... Frederick Bruckmann
Ingrid Thulin ... Sophie Von Essenbeck
Helmut Griem ... Aschenbach
Helmut Berger ... Martin Von Essenbeck
Renaud Verley ... Gunther Von Essenbeck
Umberto Orsini ... Herbert Thallman
Reinhard Kolldehoff ... Konstantin Von Essenbeck (as René Koldehoff)
Albrecht Schoenhals ... Joachim Von Essenbeck (as Albrecht Schönhals)
Florinda Bolkan ... Olga
Nora Ricci ... Governess

Charlotte Rampling ... Elisabeth Thallman
Irina Wanka ... Lisa
Karin Mittendorf ... Thilde Thallman
Valentina Ricci ... Erika Thalman
Wolfgang Hillinger ... Janek
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Die Verdammten (West Germany)
Luchino Visconti's The Damned (USA) (poster title)
The Damned (Götterdämmerung)
more
MPAA:
Rated R for violence, nudity and aberrant sexuality. (edited version)
Language:
Italian | German
Color:
Color (Eastmancolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.66 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
Ireland:18 | Spain:18 | Italy:VM18 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Norway:16 (original rating) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R (cut version) (1979) | USA:X (original rating) | West Germany:16 | UK:X (original rating)

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Footage shot during the "Night of the Long Knives" sequence but never shown previously in the United States is restored in the 2004 DVD release. It is in subtitled German and expands the running time to 157 minutes. more
Goofs:
Anachronisms: In the massacre scene of SA men, the SS are shown using MP-38 sub-machine guns. However the movie is set in 1934, 4 years before the MP-38 were in production for the German armed forces. more
Quotes:
Sophie Von Essenbeck: It's not a joke. Enormous interests are at stake, and Martin thinks...
Konstantin Von Essenbeck: As far as I know, it's the first time Martin ever used his head to think!
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Money Programme (#3.3)" (1972) more
Soundtrack:
Nachts ging das Telefon more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
37 out of 46 people found the following comment useful:-
Rigorous classicism., 1 April 2004
10/10
Author: FilmSnobby from San Diego

Pauline Kael famously called this movie "hysterical" (she was contrasting it to Bertolucci's *The Conformist*, which was supposed to be more "lyrical".) Well, a movie about decadent Nazis is bound to be a little hysterical -- what, were you expecting something tasteful? Hysteria is probably the best mode with which to treat the Third Reich. What's astounding is that director Luchino Visconti forced his sweaty, hysterical visuals into a rigid classical structure. The set-up is pure clockwork: one betrayal leading to another; one devastation opening up an even deeper abyss for another perpetrator.

Basically, Visconti is taking on *Macbeth*, here. Dirk Bogarde plays the Macbeth figure, an up-and-coming industrialist who's sleeping with an evil Grande Dame of Nazi finance, Sophie von Essenbeck (Ingrid Thulin, having an absolute ball), heiress to a munitions conglomerate. (The von Essenbecks are loosely based on the Krupps, but don't take this as any sort of literal historiography.) Thulin eggs on her lover Bogarde to commit a few politic murders and a frame-up or two so that he can take over the family business, with herself as the power behind the throne. But she doesn't count on the pathology of her grown son from a previous marriage, the hideous little monster Martin (Helmut Berger, acting terribly but it sort of fits in an Udo Kier-sort of way). Martin is your typical Nazi: a closet pedophile, a drug addict, a transvestite, a momma's-boy, a you-name-it. The scenes involving his seduction of a 9- or 10-year-old girl who lives in a shabby apartment complex are some of the most disturbing that you'll ever see in cinema . . . and along those lines, I seriously wonder about the state of mind of some of the commentators here who find this movie to be high camp, to be watched with drinking buddies. If you think molestation is funny, you'd better see a shrink, pal.

Anyway. The plot is so Byzantine that it finally defeats a brief summary. Let it suffice to say that Visconti manages to cram his complicated story neatly within the historical context of the period between the Reichstag Fire and the Night of the Long Knives, thereby maintaining a nutty observance of Classical Unities. All the while, he films the thing in Hammer-horror Pop color, with intense contrast between shadow and light. The first scene, by the way, is a shot of the blasting furnaces of the munitions factory -- a fitting intro to the horrendous vision of depravity which soon follows. Everyone's sweating in this movie: drops of perspiration trickle down temples, and beads of sweat glisten on upper lips throughout, as if the flames of Hell are licking up at the soles of their collective feet. *The Damned* is a feverish masterpiece. You'll never forget it. Highest recommendation.

(A tip for viewing of the DVD: I recommend that you watch the movie with the English subtitles ON. While everyone speaks English in the film, only Bogarde is clearly intelligible. Owing to the complicated plot, you'll need to know what's going on in order to fully appreciate Visconti's thematic design.)

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