Look Who's Back

The movie shows Hitler in a current day setting. Which at first is very humorous, but during the movie it turns from just funny into awkward and beyond. There are great scenes in which the movie refers to other movies about Hitler, like "Der Untergang", but also hilarious scenes in which the absurdity of a present day Hitler are just fun. The turn of the movie is subtle and fascinating. You only notice it after it has already happened, which to me reflects the real way this would occur. It even happens that at some point the audience questions its own laughter. This movie is fun to experience, but also confronting in the upcoming changes in political landscape.

So watch out, it is not just a comedy!

"Even Poland still exists! This war has been useless!" erupts Adolf Hitler not too long after the movie has started. This is one of the many instances one has to fight the urge to spit one's drink all over the place. A fish out of water if there was ever one, Look Who's Back puts an outrageous twist on the stuff of legend (Elvis not dead, neither Marylin, or MJ) and precipitates a resurrected Hitler in contemporary Germany. The Fürher still thinks he's on command; harsh reality quickly enlightens him: he is a laughing stock, with a future in stand up comic.

This movie is way better that it should be, a miracle walk on a very, very tight rope. The first reason is of course the delightful performance of Oliver Masucci, unrecognisable behind his moustache. Compared to him, the rest of the cast is a bit run-of-the-mill, but most of the scenes involving public appearances have been improvised, and what the common German people have to say about a Hitler comeback is as hilarious as it is frightening.

What could have been a series of vignettes à la Sacha Baron Cohen takes the trouble of developing a plot and various characters, to whom Hitler reacts with a mix of genuine passion for "the German people" and a sly denial of anything racist or xenophobic. He's the perfect politician, with an answer to any question and at least three escape routes planned for any quagmire.

Carefully editing a mix of newsreel (the Angela Merkel cameo, gratified with "the charisma of a cold noodle", is priceless), movie references (the Leni Riefenstahl opening title, the now-iconic Bruno Ganz' bunker scene, except it's oh so cleverly attributed to the villain of the piece) and guerrilla-style impromptu meetings, Look Who's Back manages to balance serious issues (far too many to list) and fleeting fads shedding a cruel light on our social networking culture. From an online "Adolf Hitler make- up tutorial" to a "I hate everyone but Hitler" tweet and the demonstration that Facebook is useless at recruiting Hitler Jungen, naturally springs the conclusion – it shames one to write it – that "no one ever stay mad at Hitler for very long".

Chaplin's The Great Dictator was a brave movie because it was fighting on the front of an ugly war. Look Who's Back adapts this sense of emergency and combativeness to our desperately stupid modern times. The worst thing Hitler can do is kill a puppy. Gasing whole families was "all a joke", as asserted by the latest generation of one of said families.

What to think of the world we live in, the duty of memory, the atrocities that constellated the 20th century, when one pees itself watching the most reviled person in history punctuating his nazi salute by the phrase "See you soon, Nigga"? If this blog has a meaning at all, it has found his first authentic modern monster. Bad news is it's a real one; good news is it's desperately funny.

...And that's why it was so scary.

This is a thriller. The premise is Hitler has some how come through time and believes fate has brought him here to clean house (again). However, the film was actually using this metaphor to describe the coming of the next Führer if we're not careful. If we let down our guard we absolutely WILL see the rise of the next Adolf Hitler.

The character of Hitler spoke the truth, mostly. His rhetoric cut to the heart of today's problems. It was a German production so, obviously, he spoke directly to German issues but again, Germany was just the stage and Hitler the puppet. The puppeteers were revealing a global truth wrapped in a local narrative.

Recall the time Angela Merkel, today's German Chancellor, called G.W. Bush on 9/11 and the subsequent "War on Terror" saying something to the effect of, "We've seen this before...!" THIS is what the movie is getting at.

This film is filled with amazing though often chilling street interviews featuring Hitler interrogating work-a-day people. Many of the younger of these people so open to the apparent humor or irony were embracing him, taking "Hitler selfies" - other older spectators and interviewees apparently LONGED for someone to take the reins and whip (Germany) into shape, getting rid of "suspicious-looking, bearded Salafists", etc. And these were not actors. The film was illustrating for you how Hitler rose to power the first time and how easily and quickly it could happen again.

This was a beautifully done movie. I have the book as well and I prefer the movie.

I was traveling in Berlin a year ago when I first saw someone reading the eponymous book on which this movie is based. It stuck in a corner of my mind, so as my travels brought me back to Berlin and posters were advertising "Er ist wieder da", I had to give it a go.

The challenge, as with previous comedic movies themed around Hitler or the Nazi regime, is treading the line of reasonable taste and still being challenging enough to gain some relevance. One of the best known spoofs of the times, The Producers, uses it as a pivot to tell an engaging story about several memorable characters, so that works well. But here, there's little to pivot from, as Hitler, in realistic attire and demeanor, narrates his experience of present day Germany. So the twist, in part, is to make it a mockumentary in the spirit of Borat, see how people react to Hitler walking the streets and delivering his calculated critiques of the political system, the media - life in general. When it's not doing this, the film provides a decent dose of slapstick and irony to its more obviously scripted parts. Distinguishing one from the other is not really the key to enjoyment; the key lies in accepting this faithful representation of Hitler as a grotesquely humorous caricature of the symbolic power he holds over modern history in its most extreme moments. It was a bit harder than I thought it would be at the beginning, but one settles in well, after a while.

Narratively, not much really happens, other than the fact that the protagonist pops up in Berlin and gets acquainted to what the world is like nowadays. To help him in this, a few support characters act as guides; none believe him to be "the real thing", but rather a comedian or a satirist. So, in a sense, it's not really a very ambitious film, because the degree to which it engages with the moral dimension of the situation is limited. But it is ambitious in that it tries to keep a straight face even through the more ghastly, touch-and-go moments one would relate to a Hitler movie. It is at its best when it does this, but then the occasional piece of slapstick hits you in the face are you're back into the reality of a mildly amusing film that people have only heard of because it is polemic.

An important part in the whole thing coming together reasonably well is thanks to Oliver Masucci, who offers a strong performance to keep the "pots" in balance. Perhaps one could critique this in particular: the implication is that any piece of fiction told in the first person will make the viewer empathize with the character, hence humanizing the historical figure. But the historical figure itself is merely a representation of the man and "Er ist wieder da" tries to contextualize this - make away with what you know and imagine this were pre-1933. As mentioned, it doesn't go very deep with it and it would be quite problematic to do so. It's just a thought experiment which concludes in a slightly open and ambiguous fashion.

To address the real question though: did I laugh? Yes, I did. Did I enjoy it? Yes, I did. The film managed to create an amusing environment which plays off the character of Hitler, without making it the other way around (all the time). As for the big picture, I might not agree that the world is, collectively, where it was seventy years ago, in spite of the troubles we are currently facing, especially in Europe. Or that we would make the same mistakes all over again. But that's another story of me visiting Berlin.

How to make a comedy out of very tragic events and characters? Adrian Brody did it in "Life Is Beautiful" about life in a concentration camp. "Look Who's Back" does it via the premise that Adolf Hitler returns to modern day Germany. Of course everyone believes that he is an actor - one who disturbingly never steps out of character. The audience knows that he cannot - as he actually is Hitler. Much of the film is humorous as Hitler tries to reestablish himself as "The Fuhrer" and tries to understand and cope with modern day technology and attitudes.

Oliver Masucci is brilliant as Hitler -playing the role so straight that he became very scary near the end. The brilliance of Hitler was aptly demonstrated as people began responding to the hate - filled rhetoric he employed on various television shows. In real life the industrialists supported Hitler because they were sure they could control him - they could not. The church supported him because they thought he would be useful to them and that they could control him - they could not. Finally the German Army threw in with him because they wanted to get rid of their rivals - Hitler's "brown shirt" Army - the Sturmabteilung (SA). He got rid of Strasser and Rohm and thousands of others as he dismantled the organization which carried him to power. But alas the Army also could not control him.

In the movie, he becomes a media star because of viewership and ratings. We see glimpses of the audience saying like "I think I agree with him, and he makes a lot of sense." The TV moguls are building their careers on his outrageousness and resulting popularity.

His grasp on people is creepy, insidious and feels quite realistic. This film shows you how riveting he could be - and gives you a glimpse into how he came to power.

So, beyond laughs - the message clearly is that this could happen again. We must be aware of potential dictators in our midst. A few people in the movie saw that he really was Hitler - and they were discarded at the end of the movie.

This movie is not a condemnation of Germany - past or present. Hitler in the movie postulates at the end of the film that we cannot get rid of him - because he is a part of us. I hope that is not true.