The Damned (1969)

Ambition, greed. double crossing, betrayal and evident thirst of power!

This sublime masterwork of Visconti explores with careful detail the multiple insights about the fall of a steel empire since Reichstag affair in 1933 and the fatidic "Night of the broken crystals" in 1934.

The fall of the Gods narrates the decay of an aristocratic German family (The Eschenbek) since the Nazism's raise begin. In the middle of this political confusion, there are encountered positions among the members of the family.

So, slow but progressively, the process of deconstruction will undermine the moral basis of this family, in which the unsaid discrepancies will devastatingly emerge until the final solution. One to one of these members is suppressed with leonine ability by a Nazi officer, close friend of the family who induces and makes an astute plan through double crossing, flattering here and there according his own convenience.

Nominated to the Academy Awards as Best Script in 1969, this is one of the most frightening and chilling movies ever made around this spiky issue. It's useless to remark the astonishing illumination and touch of class, distinction and refinement inside this mansion that would seem to run parallel with the moral degradation and the oppressively unbearable atmosphere.

Magisterial script, superb cast, careful customs and brutal realism make of this film one of the most emblematic and monumental achievements of this peerless director.

Don't miss this jewel of the cinema. Running time. 150 min.
September 4, 2008

A celluloid monstrosity

Luchino Visconti's "The Damned" is probably one of worst big budget films of the twentieth century, and certainly one of the most overrated. The script is horrible, the dialogue wooden and canned. With one exception--Helmut Griem, who also happened to be Visconti's real life lover--the acting is awful, with no obvious effort on the players' parts to give depth to their characters. Dirk Bogarde's Friedrich is pure weakling, Ingrid Thulin's Sophie pure conniver (by the way, it breaks my heart that Thulin, who put in so many breathtaking performances in Bergman films, got mixed up in this horrible mess), Rene Koldehoff's Konstantine pure boor. Charlotte Rampling, who's one of our finest actors today, is a novice in this film who hasn't yet mastered her art. Finally, the directing and editing vie with one another for which can be the most horrendous. The SA purge scene drags on and on and on; camera angles obscure or cut faces in two; the post-wedding dance sequence towards the film's end is sleep-inducing. Film students could use "The Damned" as a textbook on how not to make a film.

In addition to its cinematic disasters, the film is so heavy-handed in getting across the wickedness of National Socialism that it defeats its own purpose. As Hannah Arendt pointed out, there was a certain banality to Nazism, an everyday evil that penetrated all aspects of life without necessarily displaying itself as monstrous. Visconti's insistence on parading every conceivable vice across the screen to allegorize Nazism's darkness is not only cartoonish. It utterly fails to express just how damnable--because just business as usual--the Nazi regime actually was.

I've watched this film at least five times over the past thirty years, really wanting to give it a chance to grow on me. But I have to say that I disliked it more each time I viewed it. This will be my last time. August 23, 2008

"Not Subtle"

Walking home with the friend with whom I first saw this film in the theater, in 1983, I went on and on about how much I enjoyed it. My friend looked at me, said he didn't like it. "It wasn't subtle," he said. But subtelty is not available when it comes to showing Nazism as an evil fungus clinging to the walls of and eventually permeating and destroying an already decadent family. Having some knowledge of the Krupp family history is useful, but the film is just as enjoyable without it. Charlotte Rampling is absolutely gorgeous in the picture. June 4, 2008

Evil triumphant

"You must realize that today in Germany anything can happen, even the improbable, and it's just the beginning, Frederick. Personal morals are dead. We are an elite society where everything is permissible. These are Hitler's words. My dear Frederick, even you should give them some thought."

Visconti's tale of evil triumphant, The Damned is much better than it's given credit for. Beginning with a birthday party on the night of the burning of the Reichstag, the first of the Nazis many excuses for a little internal and external housekeeping, and using the fall of an aristocratic family of German industrialists who think they can control the Nazi Party for their own advantage to mirror the vicious power struggle between the SS and the SA as the Party corrupts and then destroys those who help it to power, it's certainly sensational - incest, child abuse, rape, murder, transvestism, homosexuality and, in the brutal recreation of the Night of Long Knives, mass murder are all on the menu. Nor are there any really sympathetic characters in this nest of vipers: even Umberto Orsini's sole voice of protest is raised too late to do any good in a family where no-one opposes and no-one stands together as one by one they meet their doom at each others' hands. Even those who actively plot to steal power - Ingrid Thulin's Lady MacBeth figure and Dirk Bogarde's executive desperate to marry into the family and become the heir apparent only to gradually realise that he has accepted a ruthless logic he can never get away from - become victims of their own internecine machinations. Their wedding becomes a macabre union between two of the walking dead, the reception a soulless affair filled with hookers and hangers on that stands as the complete antithesis of the lavish ballroom scene in The Leopard. In this atmosphere of moral decay and corruption, only the emptiest and most amoral can thrive in the form of Helmut Berger's disturbed paedophile, because he alone among them has no delusions of mastery or even thinking for himself: as long as his desires are fed, he's only too happy to be told what to think and what to do. Throughout, Helmut Griem's Mephistophelean SS puppet master never coerces or forces, he merely facilitates as they bring about their own destruction.

A few anachronisms aside, it's a chilling précis of how the ruling class - and by association the German population at large - willingly sold their souls and brought about their own destruction under Hitler, and Warners' DVD offers a good widescreen transfer of the uncut version that restores the extended build-up to the Night of Long Knives cut from the English-language prints, although only in subtitled German. Along with the trailer (which, along with the poster image of Helmut Berger dragged up as Marlene Dietrich, shows just how clueless the studio were how to market the film), the only other extra is a brief promotional featurette about the making of the film from 1969.
November 13, 2007

Classic "Must-See" Visconti Masterpiece

It does not get much better than this in film. Visconti, a master film maker, exhibits his genius in this jaw-droppingly beautiful, exotic foreign classic. The Damned introducted Mr. Visconti's male partner, Helmut Berger, to the screen. Mr. Berger's acting is effortless as he is surrounded by stunning beautiful scenery, costumes and experienced foreign classic actors, who portray this screen play, partially written by Mr. Visconti. The camera work is not-to-be missed. You will be intrigued by the story and mezmerized by the beauty of the surroundings in each frame. The sumptuous decors are perfect to the last detail. Prepare yourself for a film experience which is among the finest available. All of Mr. Visconti's work should be seen. They don't make 'em like this anymore ! August 13, 2007

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