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TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Rodrigo Amaro Exploring the roots of the Nazi-Fascism rise in Germany of 1930's, Luchino Visconti and his "La Caduta Degli Dei" ("The Damned"), the first of the German trilogy ("Ludwig" and "Death in Venice" completing it) , is an impressive and carefully constructed epic about an aristocrat family's destruction, shattered with perversions, with a repulsive hunger for power in a society that changed its values like someone who changes his clothes.The von Essenbeck family story starts in 1933, during the Reichstag fire which happened on the same day as the birthday of Essenbeck's patriarch Josef (Albrecht Schoenhals), owner of a powerful weapon industry. After some deliberation and after this new happening in the country Josef decides to step away from his duties as president of the company, passing it to one of his relatives, Konstantin (René Koldehoff). From this point on all we're going to see a battle for power that slowly destroys each member of the Essenebck family. Murder, betrayal, fight for a higher status in this new Germany and other things will be decisive to unscrupulous people like Martin (Helmut Berger, great actor), one of the troubled and young members of this aristocratic family, and the one who'll be decisive in the way things move in the country and with his mother (Ingrid Thulin) and her husband Frederick Bruckmann (Dirk Bogarde), who are also trying to make their way in the family business, helped by Aschenbach (Helmut Griem), who carefully builds the web of deceptions in this game, joining one side at one time, then the other in a more appropriate time, depending of the circumstances.This year, it appeared in my hands a book of the script from this film plus an interview with the creators of it where they justify the film and the things they wanted to evocate with it by dealing with the seeds of Nazism and the way this was spread on a fragile Germany. What I saw in there was amazing, the thoughtful interviews and the greatly written script (drastically reduced in the filmed version). But what I've seen in the completed cinematic form was a little bit confusing, with few unexplained things (the presentation of the characters weren't so good just like the one of the written work, just an example) but a majestous work of art and history. Its grandiosity was beyond anything I've seen in a while, here's a spectacular tragedy of limitless dimensions that even if part of it is not real just looks and sounds a lot real to many of us. It's an accomplished and tragic epic full of blood, perversions, twisted personalities, insanity, greed, lust and other torments of the body and soul.For all I've seen and all the relevant things it had to show and say, I consider "La Caduta Degli Dei" a very good film on the pre WWII subject with outstanding acting by the cast, impressive art direction and impeccable costumes. A story to be seen multiple times to be fully comprehended and absorbed. 9/10

sol **SPOILERS** With the National Socialist, or Nazi, party taking over Germany the head of the powerful Essenbeck Iron and Steel Works Baron Joachim Essenbeck, Albrecht Schoenhais, is forced to throw his lot in with the Hitler regime which is against his better judgment. Joachim a member of the old Prussian Aristocrats feels that Hitler and his fellow Nazis are nothing but a bunch of low class peasants stock whom he has,by always exploiting them in his factories, nothing but scorn and contempt for.As thing turn out Baron Joachim is murdered in his sleep with his #1 man in running his steel industry Herbert Thallman, Omberto Orsini, framed for for the crime. This sparks a power struggle between Baron Joachim's nephew Konstantin, Reinhard Kolidehoff, and the power crazed vice president of Essenbeck Iron & Steel Works Fredrick Bruckmann, Dirk Bogarde. While all this is going on Baron Joachim's somewhat strange grandson Martin, Helmut Berger, with the help of distant Essenbeck relative, and now Nazi SS officer, Aschenbach-Helmut Griem-makes a power move on both Konstantin and Fredrick to take over the family business.It's really Ascenbach who's the brains behind the hostile takeover of the Essenbeck Industries by him using both Martin and Fredrick to do all his dirty work. Konstantin who got involved with the Nazi SA, because of the good times they were always having, ended up at getting killed during the infamous Night of the Long Knives-June 30-July 1 1934-together with some 100 top SA men as well as their leader Ernst Rohm. Getting caught with their guard as well as pants down the SA boys ended up getting massacred by the Nazi SS who, on Hitlers orders, did them in because they were a thorn in the butt as well as bitter rivals of the German Army and its General Staff. It was the German Army that Hitler needed to gain complete control, at the time he was only the German Chancellor not Fuhrer, of the country.Fredrick who took part, as an Nazi SS officer, in the slaughter of SA men, that included Konstantin, himself ended up on the short end of the stick with both Martin and Aschenbeck setting him up for the kill, by having him stripped of all rank and power, later in the movie. We see in the film La Caduta Degli Die-or "The Damned" in English-just how far people will go to both get and stay in power both in politics and industry. Even though Martin was nothing close to a die in the wool Nazi he used the hated Nazis whom he, like the rest of his Aristocrat family, had nothing but contempt for his own greedy and selfish gains. In that the vast majority of the members of the Nazi Party were made up of-unlike Martin and those that he associated with-people of the lowest social and educated classes. Still it was the Nazis who, by wiping out all those who stood in his way, that Martin gave his unbinding and unconditional loyalty to. A loyalty that in the end lead to the total destruction of his country and even worse the destruction of the Essenbeck Iron & Steel Works which Martin worked, by blackmail murder and even incest, so hard to gain control of..

jonathanruano "The Damned" is a masterfully horrific film about the decline of a family of wealthy steel magnates – the Essenbecks – in Nazi Germany. Director Luchino Visconti's main interest in making this film is in showing how evil corrupts Friedrich (Dirk Bogarde), Martin Essenbeck (Helmut Berger), and his mother (Ingrid Thulin). "The Damned" features a number of horrors, including brutal murders, a molested child driven to suicide, and a brutal rape. There is almost a temptation to criticize these scenes for displaying unmotivated violence. Yet Visconti does have a reason for presenting "The Damned" in this way. He wants to depict Nazism as decadent, narcissistic, and erotic. The ideas of Wilhelm Reich are also at play here. Martin is a repressed homosexual transformed into a pliant drug addict by his mother. The film's message appears to be that Martin's repression of his homosexuality leads him to embrace Nazism and become an SS officer. Yet Nazism does not contain Martin's uncontrolled sexual impulses, but merely perverts them. Martin becomes a sadistic brute who sexually molests a young girl. He seeks emotional and even sexual comfort in the bosom of the state, which he subconsciously equates with his mother. This strange association explains why Martin, in true Reichian fashion, brutally rapes his mother.Martin is not the only character to fall from grace. Friedrich's (Dirk Bogarde) ambition to become the president of the Essenbeck steel works and marry into the Essenbeck family leads him to form an unholy alliance with a number of unscrupulous Nazis, including Aschenbach (Herbert Griem) whose idea of socializing is to pontificate on the virtues of the Nazi ideology. This Faustian pact with the Nazis turns out to be a big mistake, opening the door for the Nazification of the steel company and the moral corruption of key members of the Essenbeck family. Then there is the mother (Ingrid Thulin) who feeds Martin's addiction to drugs and plans to marry Friedrich. Visconti's message here seems to be that Friedrich and the mother are not only unpleasant, but that their continued descent into evil results in their own destruction. Friedrich is already showing regret about his collusion with the Nazis in a very awkward love scene with the mother, but by then it is too late.Like all of his films, Visconti shows himself to be a master of cinematography. The camera moves skillfully along with the characters. The images are deliberately grim, suggesting evil and darkness at every corner and sometimes even a manic insanity. "The Damned" is not a masterpiece, but it is engrossing.

M. J Arocena The great Luchino Visconti concocts a stunning banquet of horrors with some of his favorite gourmet dishes: the corruption and decadence of the upper classes, incest, mamma's boys and monstrous/fascinating mothers. The setting this time is National Socialist Germany where the perversions find their perfect home. There is, however, a slight but disturbing enjoyment of the whole putrid thing. Visconti's extraordinary attention to detail requires more than a couple of viewings. Ingrid Thulin's hairstyles are a masterpiece on their own. After Ingman Bergman, Visconti gives her her most showy role. She's a pervert's mother if I ever saw one. Magnificent in her over the top understatement. Creepy Helmut Berger is perfect here. Even his real voice adds to the luridness of his character. In "Ludwig" he was dubbed by Giancarlo Giannini transforming his third rate talent into something,seemingly, transcendental. Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Umberto Orsini plus the gorgeous Renaud Verley and Florinda Bolkan contribute considerably to the rigid and humorless vision of one of the greatest aesthetes the movies have ever known.