rwint 6 out of 10 A pure interview movie if ever there was one. There are no effects, no cutaways, photographs, or anything else resembling anything of cinematic value. The picture merely focuses on Traudl Junge talking and recounting her years as Hitler's secretary. It is shot on videotape an almost looks like someones home movie. The subject is captivating enough, but calling this an actual film is a real stretch. Even a TV interview have better visuals. In some ways this is good and almost a novel idea because it avoids the distractions that come about when too many visual 'enhancements' are thrown in. It allows the viewer to totally focus in on what the subject is saying and allowing them to create their own mental pictures. However the framing, setting, and editing all look horribly amateurish. The editing is especially a problem. Black frames pop up to cut from one interview segment to another and it gets distracting even a bit disconcerting. It also hurts the flow of the picture although this seems to happen more at the beginning and by the end pretty much drops off. Content wise the stories are interesting, but really don't offer any major revelations. Junge seems to be given free rein to talk about anything she likes in anyway that she wants with no direction. A more crossfire type interview may have allowed it to be better structured and more of a impact. At best her stories can be described as being revealing and even slightly amusing. If anything her portrait of Hitler is different from anyone elses. His comments towards her during her interview for the job is down right stunning and memorable. Her accounts of his actions and reactions to things during the last weeks of the war will really surprise some people. In fact some of it seems so weird that it is almost too hard to imagine. Overall despite it's humble production values it still has some good elements. Those that are interested in history and psychology should find this the most interesting. Junge seems a very affable and unpretentious individual that displays some amazingly good insight. Her accounts of the final days of the war are the most vivid and captivating part of this picture. The only thing that is missing is a little more on Junge the person especially with her adjustments after the war ended.

brad_h I would hardly call this a film. It is at best a book on tape. While the topic is very important and interesting, the filmmakers involved show very little respect. The entire video consists of about three shots, mundanely cut together in order to tell this woman's incredible story. I think this is probably the worst documentary I've ever seen. I've never seen such a shameless attempt by a director to capitalize off of an important historical figure. There was hardly any work put into this video. All they did was tape one (maybe two) sessions with Junge, slap some titles on it and call it a film. Not to mention the filmmakers also try to take credit by calling it the first time Junge went on record, when in reality she gave a much better account, on record, in the 1970's! It comes off as being very boring and lifeless, when the story itself is amazing. I call it, at best, lazy and shameful filmmaking. Would have been much better if it was a book.

leerssen André Heller is one of the most original and daring artists of post-War Austria. Singer/songwriter, circus organizer, garden architect, multimedia artist and more, he has maintained a highly personal style (a postmodern baroque) which never slid into routine. This interview film sees him once again doing something quite unlike his previous projects, and the idea - to have Hitler's private secretary talk uninterrupted as in a solitary anamnesis - is valuable, remarkable, admirable. But why does everyone fall for the hype formula that this is the time when the film's subject, Traudl Runge, broke a silence kept for almost sixty years after the fall of the Third Reich? I have seen this Traudl Junge give inside views of Hitler's household staff in earlier documentaries on the top Nazi echelon and the Third Reich. They were made-for-TV documentaries shown on the National Belgian (Flemish) television, as well as Super Channel. So while the testimony given here is valuable, it is not totally new. The film over-sells itself on that score.

beta_ok ok. the idea is good, hitler's secretary is alive and it is certain that she has lots of memories to tell. but through the film we just listen to her. she sits right in front of the camera and talks continuously. and this makes the documentary very ordinary. and there are some noises in the background (sometimes children laugthers)so there is no isolation, perhaps the conversation takes place in an apartment building. 2 out of 5.