Bruno Ganz: five key films

His masterful incarnation of Hitler in the film “Downfall” was one of many memorable performances by Swiss actor Bruno Ganz, who was also a renowned stage actor.

– ‘The Marquise of O’ (1976) –

In one of Eric Rohmer’s early and acclaimed films which won the Jury’s Special Grand Prix at Cannes, this adaptation from a Heinrich von Kleist novella revolves around the mysterious pregnancy of a Marquise. Bruno Ganz is the Russian count who at first seems her saviour, but this period drama set in the Napoleonic Wars is laced with darkness.

– ‘The American Friend’ (1977) –

In this eerie noir adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel “Ripley’s Game” by Wim Wenders, Ganz played a man dying from leukaemia who is drawn into the murderous web of Tom Ripley, Highsmith’s most famous sociopath brought to life chillingly by Dennis Hopper.

– ‘Wings of Desire’ (1987) –

A black and white classic from Wim Wenders that won him Best Director at Cannes where it was also nominated for the Palme d’Or, Ganz was an angel with white fluffy wings flying over Berlin watching over its lonely inhabitants — until he fell in love with one of them.

– ‘Eternity and a Day’ (1998) –

For this Palme d’Or by Greek director Theo Angelopoulos, Ganz was a solitary and laconic famous writer with little time left to live, but who embarks on a journey to take home a young illegal immigrant he meets from Albania.

– ‘Downfall’ (2004) –

In the first film to intimately explore Hitler’s last days, Ganz captured the Nazi leader at his most paranoid, tyrannical and pathetic — holed up in the suffocating confines of his bunker in 1945. Studying archives and audio recordings to capture the trembling voice of the dictator, Ganz received praise for his performance, but the film also provoked controversy and notched up just one Oscar nomination.