This is a very unusual way of demonstrating repression in common people. The film does this in a slightly comical way, without being ever outright funny. And that is perfect, because it keeps the attention on the story and why it is told in that way.
Filmed in mostly static scenes, an old man in Munich tells about his friendship with a young Adolf Hitler, who used to be his neighbor and soon to become his best friend. He calls him affectionately Adi and proofs his friendship in showing the visitor (us) his collection of home movies he has done with him. He introduces Hitler as an artist and never mentions any other aspects of his professional interests.
The whole film, even the "new" material, has the look of a very common home movie and this is because it is entirely filmed in Super 8. When not showing the "documentary" footage, the new material consists of color shots of present day Munich and Upper Bavaria showing places where Hitler and he had a good time. Over the whole film runs permanently the comments of the old man, reminiscent his antics with "Adi" and other friends.
In the "old" home movies we see the director of the film, Romuald Kamarkar, posing as Hitler, who behaves sometimes embarrassed and sometimes relaxed. Most of the stuff (with one striking exception) is plain and completely "normal". This is very much enhanced by the never ending monologue of his "friend". Together, the text and the pictures create the very interesting atmosphere that "nothing of importance ever happened" at that time. Although we, the viewer, know very well, that this years, the story spans from 1922 till 1933 were very important in Hitlers life. By completely refusing any reference to who his best friend is to the rest of the world, Kamarkar shifts the attention slowly from Hitler to the guy who claims to have been his best friend at that time.
Many of the little anecdotes he tells sound very suspicious until the introduction of Hitlers nice Geli, who is a historic figure and often been an object of speculations, since she was a favorite of Hitler and she committed suicide. Kamarkar refuses to show us Geli, although he let other friends of Hitler be played by actors.
The only time the vault of his friend offer any real surprise is, when he announces and shows a little porn film he did with Adi at his request. Throughout the film references are made that Hitler tried to get in sexual contact with women. He fantasizes of doing a porn film with Geli, who is furious and refuses, and he ends up with a prostitute. This little episode is filmed very drastically and comes as a shock. So far everything else was more or less filmed in a tongue-in-cheek way. But suddenly we get a real porn scene to watch!
The ignoring of the historic Hitler by his friend reduces Hitler to just a man with no luck with the ladies. Told in broad Bavarian dialect, the whole friendship seemed to have been without any real meaningful events. The apotheosis of this repression is in the very ending of the film, when his friend tells us, that after Hitler left for Berlin, he "never heard of him again"!
Filmed in mostly static scenes, an old man in Munich tells about his friendship with a young Adolf Hitler, who used to be his neighbor and soon to become his best friend. He calls him affectionately Adi and proofs his friendship in showing the visitor (us) his collection of home movies he has done with him. He introduces Hitler as an artist and never mentions any other aspects of his professional interests.
The whole film, even the "new" material, has the look of a very common home movie and this is because it is entirely filmed in Super 8. When not showing the "documentary" footage, the new material consists of color shots of present day Munich and Upper Bavaria showing places where Hitler and he had a good time. Over the whole film runs permanently the comments of the old man, reminiscent his antics with "Adi" and other friends.
In the "old" home movies we see the director of the film, Romuald Kamarkar, posing as Hitler, who behaves sometimes embarrassed and sometimes relaxed. Most of the stuff (with one striking exception) is plain and completely "normal". This is very much enhanced by the never ending monologue of his "friend". Together, the text and the pictures create the very interesting atmosphere that "nothing of importance ever happened" at that time. Although we, the viewer, know very well, that this years, the story spans from 1922 till 1933 were very important in Hitlers life. By completely refusing any reference to who his best friend is to the rest of the world, Kamarkar shifts the attention slowly from Hitler to the guy who claims to have been his best friend at that time.
Many of the little anecdotes he tells sound very suspicious until the introduction of Hitlers nice Geli, who is a historic figure and often been an object of speculations, since she was a favorite of Hitler and she committed suicide. Kamarkar refuses to show us Geli, although he let other friends of Hitler be played by actors.
The only time the vault of his friend offer any real surprise is, when he announces and shows a little porn film he did with Adi at his request. Throughout the film references are made that Hitler tried to get in sexual contact with women. He fantasizes of doing a porn film with Geli, who is furious and refuses, and he ends up with a prostitute. This little episode is filmed very drastically and comes as a shock. So far everything else was more or less filmed in a tongue-in-cheek way. But suddenly we get a real porn scene to watch!
The ignoring of the historic Hitler by his friend reduces Hitler to just a man with no luck with the ladies. Told in broad Bavarian dialect, the whole friendship seemed to have been without any real meaningful events. The apotheosis of this repression is in the very ending of the film, when his friend tells us, that after Hitler left for Berlin, he "never heard of him again"!