A film by Vanessa Lapa
Duration 97 Minutes, 2020, German, English and French with English subtitles
Albert Speer is an enigma. The highest-ranking Nazi in Nuremberg to be spared the death sentence, Speer was one of Hitler’s closest confidants and his chief architect, tasked with rebuilding Berlin as the capital of a global empire. As Reichsminister of Munitions, Speer was responsible for 12 million slave laborers. And yet, even now, he has the reputation of being “the good Nazi” – a myth he carefully constructed himself. “Speer Goes to Hollywood” meets its protagonist in 1971, while Speer was working on a screenplay for Paramount Pictures, based on his bestselling wartime memoir “Inside the Third Reich”. Based on months of audio cassettes, recorded by screenwriter Andrew Birkin, it features Speer’s callous attempt to whitewash his past in a feature film. The audio narrative is supplemented by rare archival footage, taken before and during World War II and later, during Speer’s retirement as a semi-reclusive country gentleman.
Vanessa Lapa
Vanessa Lapa is an Israeli Academy-winning director and producer. She started as an accomplished journalist, who produced and directed over 100 news reports for Israeli TV. In 2006 she founded Realworks Ltd., an independent production company, specializing in documentary film. Her first TV documentary, Olmert: Concealed Documentary (2009), about Israel’s former Prime Minister was hailed as a uniquely insightful achievement in cinéma verité. Eight years in the making, the award-winning documentary The Decent One (2014) - a glimpse into the mind of SS chief Heinrich Himmler, based on his personal diaries - was officially selected for Panorama at the Berlinale.
Vanessa returned to the Berlinale in 2020, officially selected for “Berlinale Specials”, with Speer Goes to Hollywood, a feature documentary about another Nazi official - Reichsminister Albert Speer, one of Hitler’s closest confidants - told in his own words. She was awarded “Best Director” from the Jerusalem Film Festival 2021. Moreover, the film won “Best Documentary” at the Israeli Academy Awards (“Ophir Awards”) that same year.
This programme is open to all on a first come first served basis at the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata.
COVID protocols applied.
You can also watch the film online on the Goethe-Institut Kolkata Facebook page on the scheduled date and time.
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