Visual language in Downfall

This is really a depressing movie. During the class, it spreads a feeling of oppression and despair in the classroom. And I had difficulty getting recovered from that depressed feelings after the class dismissed. In that sense, it is an impressive film, because it successfully conveyed messages to the viewers through a series of visual languages.

1. High walls

Most part of the film is taken inside of enclosed rooms. Hilter and other main characters were living and working in a seamless underground building. And there are even high building around the small exit house of the basement. Until the end of the film, there was no sky, no green trees and other things which can make people feel alive.

2. Small rooms

Hilter and his soldiers lived in a small basement where they had to stand closely to have meetings. And the metal doors don't insulate sound well, so that people can hear each other clearly, which provided a lack of privacy and safety.

3. Monotone colors

The theme color of the film is gray or some color close to gray. The soldiers wore gray blue and gray green uniforms, secretary ladies wore gray yellow or gray shirts. And the basement had gray metal doors, gray walls; the street and battlefield were full of gray smoke of gunpowder. As a result, the whole city was in gray, even the air looked gray.

Additionally, people's faces looked more and more close to gray in their last days, especially for Hilter. His face was terribly pale at the end of the film. This poster also has gray as its theme color.



4. Different colors

However, there are two women wearng clothes different from gray, who are Eva Braun and Magda Goebbels. And they appeared and behaviored differently from other women characters.

Eva showed up in several different pretty clothes in the film, and she was almost always smiling even when she knew she was going to die with Hilter. She was the one who prevented nothing wrong happened, and had herself enjoy the last fun of her life.

Magda wore a dark red woman's suit throughout the film, and she also wore earrings and necklace all the time. She behavoired in good manners, the children followed her, and she got a special award from Hilter. It looked like she always had things in control. Even when she killed her six children by herself, she finished it with a great composedness of mind.

Their dressing hinted their special status in Gemany and close relations with Hilter. And it is a little scary for these two women to dress themselves well under that circumstances. Their dressing gives viewers the impression that they were crazy. If Eva was not crazy, how could she kept dancing when bombs explored outside? If Magda was not crazy, how could she kill her six children one by one? If they were not crazy, how could they dress like everything was like before?

5. Close shots

Close shots were heavily used in the film, especially when it told stories about Hilter. According to Kress and Leeuwen, close shots invoke personal attachment between the roles and the viewers, which helps the viewers consider characters as human beings. In other words, through the heavy use of close shots, the film maker wants to represent Hilter and other roles as common men and women who also have fears and worries.

When looking at Hilter's face so closely, we can easily see the dark circles around his eyes, the deep wrinkle on his forehead. Sometimes he just looked like a small old man suffering from insomnia instead of a Nazi monster. On the other hand, it leaves a question for people to think about--if an old man can become a sanguinary killer, what can those ambitious young men do when they got the chance?

6. Close shots to Hilter's hands

There are a lot of close shots to Hilter's hands in the film. When the first bad news came, Hilter's hands cannot stop shaking and drawing circles. When he went into the hall to attend the big meeting, his put his hands behind his back so that they wouldn't be seen by other people. But the camera went to his back and took a close shot to his hands, which enabled the viewers to see Hilter's weakness.

And when Hilter went out of the basement to meet young men staying to defend Berlin, the camera focused on his shaking hands again. No matter how Hilter pretended to be calm and self-collected, he cannot help to be nervous and restless, because he is a human after all.

7. The war medal


That medal appears in the film for a lot of times. The Nazi Generals wear it on their collars; the child volunteering in the street battle won one; and in the battle hospital, soldiers were given that kind of medal before they went to the final battle.

That medal was the sign of battle achievement in the past, and it became the stimulus of self sacrifice which encourage people to participate in a hopeless battle for the sake of Nazi Germany. At the same time, the meaning of the medals was greatly reduced.