To Be or Not to Be

My Führer – The Really Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler (German: Mein Führer – Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler) is a 2007 German comedy film directed by Dani Levy.The setting is World War II, around New Year's of 1945. This comedy tells the story of Adolf Hitler and his preparation for a big New Year's speech. Hitler is too depressed to speak, so a Jewish acting coach is called in to tutor him.Levy said he was influenced by the theory of Swiss-based psychologist Alice Miller, published in 1980, that something must have gone wrong with Hitler in his childhood.Director Dani Levy himself is from a Jewish family.Ulrich Noethen also played Heinrich Himmler in Downfall (2004).Sylvester Groth would play Joseph Goebbels once again in Inglourious Basterds (2009).

Persona is difficult to characterize in simple terms, but it may be helpful to describe this complex film as being an exploration of identity that combines elements of drama, visual poetry, and modern psychology. The central story revolves around a young nurse named Alma (Bibi Andersson) and her patient, a well-known actress named Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann). Elisabet has stopped speaking, and the attending psychiatrist treats the actress by sending her to an isolated seaside cottage under Alma's care. There the nurse, who must do all the talking for both women, becomes a little enamored of the actress. One evening Alma tells Elisabet about some exhilarating sexual experiences she once had and their unpleasant aftermath. Soon after sharing this confidence, the nurse reads a letter Elisabet has written and is shocked to learn that the actress thinks of her as an amusing study. The relationship between the women becomes tense, and they wound each other.

A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer. Alma eventually confesses her secrets to a seemingly sympathetic Elisabeth and finds that her own personality is being submerged into Elisabeth's persona.

Gary Sinese directed this respectful re-telling of John Steinbeck's classic novel, with Sinese as the wily George and John Malkovich as the brutish, simple-minded Lennie. Set during the Depression era, the film opens as George and Lennie are running from a woman with a torn dress, who has sent a gang of ruffians to chase the two out of the county. After a long bus ride and a ten-mile walk, George and Lennie arrive at a migrant farm in California's San Joaquin Valley, where they seek work. George dreams of putting together enough money to buy a small piece of land where he and Lennie can build a home; he hopes that in California the two can realize their dream. Unfortunately, the foreman of the ranch, Curley (Casey Siemaszko), enjoys tormenting Lennie, while Curley's frustrated wife (Sherilyn Fenn) entices Lennie with her sexual allure. George warns Lennie to steer clear of Curley's wife, but Lennie follows her to a barn where a tragedy occurs and George and Lennie's dreams are shattered.

Bene’s version of Hamlet celebrates the power and beauty of Shakespeare’s theatricality, while attempting to strip the piece of the morbid piety that has come to cling to it over the centuries. The film radically condenses most of the action of the play and further deforms the text: lines are repeated; original passages inserted; the “To be or not to be” soliloquy is not delivered by Hamlet but read – in an extremely abbreviated version – by Horatio; Polonius quotes Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams. This film then is perhaps the best example of what Bene called his aesthetic/strategy of contestation. Bene also incorporates a critique of the play’s sexual politics: the male characters sport elaborate and even ludicrous costumes, while the women wear outfits that reveal more than they cover.