Director Of The Hitler Downfall Movie Likes The Hundreds Of Parody Clips

from the go-forth-and-parody dept

Perhaps if you’ve been living under a pop culture rock for the past few years, you were unaware of the popular hobby of creating subtitled videos of an angry Hitler reacting to something going on in the world today, using a clip from the German movie Downfall. For example, here is Hitler responding to NBC’s snafu with late night television programming with Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien:

While there have been reports of takedown notices sent on these videos, apparently the director of the original movie quite likes them. davebarnes alerts us to a short interview with Oliver Hirschbiegel, the director of the movie, and he’s a fan of the clips:

“Someone sends me the links every time there’s a new one,” says the director, on the phone from Vienna. “I think I’ve seen about 145 of them! Of course, I have to put the sound down when I watch. Many times the lines are so funny, I laugh out loud, and I’m laughing about the scene that I staged myself! You couldn’t get a better compliment as a director.” Some of Hirschbiegel’s favorites are the one where Hitler hears of Michael Jackson’s death, and one in which the Fuhrer can’t get Billy Elliot tickets

Of course, as director, and not producer, he probably does not hold the copyright and has no say in whether or not the clips are allowed — but it is worth noting that he seems to quite enjoy them.

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Comments on “Director Of The Hitler Downfall Movie Likes The Hundreds Of Parody Clips”

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24 Comments
stephen says:

he just bought a t.o. jersey

my favorite is the one about hitler going nut because the giants beat his cowboys in the playoffs. but the line in this about about starting the war in order to bomb andrew lloyd weber’s house is pretty priceless.

as to downfall being a comedy: nazis going crazy in the bunker as the russians close in? that’s pretty funny. very very good movie.

nclow says:

I had not heard of the Downfall movie until the video meme came onto my radar. I watched NBC/Leno version of the video and laughed my pants off, and went straight onto hunting others. I looked up the movie on imdb so I could read the synopsis, and it sounded like something I would really enjoy so I added it to my watch list, which means I’ll be getting it from netflix or some other source within the next week.

The thought process behind the takedown notices is totally alien to me. Both the videos linked from the wired article are gone. Since when did free press for your product stop being a tremendously wonderful thing? That would seem to be a fact you could pick up in business 101. I’m a living example of someone who is now interested in the product by the very process that the copyright holders of that product are fighting to destroy, and I truly can’t imagine what goes through their heads when they take action like this. It’s more than a generational gap. It’s like they’re from another planet.

Jack Momma says:

“No one is going to confuse Downfall with a comedy, and these parodies aren’t taking any money away from the real film.”

“as to downfall being a comedy: nazis going crazy in the bunker as the russians close in? that’s pretty funny.”

I’m really quite impressed that you inferred that plot solely from the parody clips. Or maybe you know German. Many others, however, could not and do not (respectively).

Ben Scott says:

I’ve always been a fan of these Hitler subtitle parodies (Hilary Clinton realizes she’s going to lose the Democratic nomination is my favorite), but somehow when I watched the actual movie a few months ago I didn’t realize until moments before the famous scene that I was watching the source movie for all these parodies. Watching that scene in context in the middle of the movie is pretty surreal after you’ve seen all these parody videos.

Good movie though, highly recommended.

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