“It is now really in the sky above Berlin”, said the director of the Berlin film Festival, Dieter Kosslick, to pay tribute to Bruno Ganz, immense actor disappeared Saturday, February 16 so that saw the end of the 69th Festival. “ The sky over Berlin ” ( Der Himmel über Berlin ) is the original title of Wings of desire , Wim Wenders, the film that has done a lot for the internationally renowned Bruno Ganz, 1987.

” READ ALSO – Bruno Ganz, who played Adolf Hitler in the film Downfall, has died

Bruno Ganz has received a tribute during the 69th Festival. HANNIBAL HANSCHKE/REUTERS

He played the angel Damiel, a figure of understanding and compassion, the opposite of another of his great roles, that of Adolf Hitler in The Downfall, Oliver Hirschbiegel (2004). The film tells about the last days of the Führer was besieged in his bunker in Berlin, and Bruno Ganz gives a stunning portrait of both its likelihood and its complexity. To the point that one accused the film of”humanize” Hitler. What Bruno Ganz replied that it was a human being.

He confessed, however, have balked at the difficulty of the task: to explore the archives and historic research to describe the person as precisely as possible, without making it a demon schematic, without inducing indulgence. I have used all my courage to give a human face to Hitler, , was entrusted with the actor. All the tyrants, alas, are they not also men who caress their dog and kiss their wives?” He had stated in an interview for the site, The Arts Desk : “The fact of not being German helped me, because I could put my swiss passport between Hitler and me.”

early Vocation

This is Zurich, in effect, that Bruno Ganz was born on march 22, 1941, in a modest family. His vocation as an actor is early, and he leaves quickly to the school, but it is necessary to circumvent the opposition of his father, a mechanic, and going it alone. He found small jobs to help a bookseller or ambulance while following studies in dramatic art, which lead him to Berlin. He would become one of the key players of the famous Schaubühne was founded in 1962, which will act including stage directors, Peter Stein in the 1970s and, since 1999, Thomas Ostermeier. Bruno Ganz is will acquire the full extent of his talent is both powerful and nuanced, capable of melting a density of marble, and sensitivity with vibrant humanity.

Bruno Ganz was known in 1987 for his role of the angel Damiel in “wings of desire” by Wim Wenders. Tamasa Distribution

“Icon of the theatre in German-speaking” and “outstanding teacher of the dramatic art international”, according to the expressions of the secretary of State of the German Culture, Monika Grütters, he had received in 1996 the ring Iffland: a jewel, a possession of the austrian State, which distinguishes the greatest stage actor of German-language and is transmitted directly by the person who owns it.

In France, his last memorable appearance on stage dates back to 2012, at the Odeon, in The Return , by Harold Pinter, staged by Luc Bondy. In our columns, Armelle Héliot greeted then the subtlety of its composition in the role of Max, “the man of instinct that has chosen the realistic gross and brutal but retains one does not know what a dream of elegance”.

Two French films

in The film, Bruno Ganz argues really from the 1970s. Before becoming the interpreter of Wim Wenders in The american Friend (1977) and Wings of desire (1987), he played in two French films in 1976: Light , Jeanne Moreau, and especially The Marquise of O , Éric Rohmer, grand jury prize at Cannes. To interpret his very rigorous adaptation of the new Kleist, Rohmer has brought together actors from the Schaubühne, such as Edith Clever and Bruno Ganz.

Bruno Ganz embodies Hitler during the final days of the Fuhrer in his bunker in the film “The fall”. A stunning portrait of both its likelihood and its complexity. Newmarket Films

At the turn of the Twentieth and Twenty-first century, another great director, Theo Angelopoulos, offers very beautiful roles to comedian switzerland, in the Eternity and a day , which won the palme d’or in 1998, and in The Dust of time (2008). Crossings of the existence and of the european continent in which Bruno Ganz gives a deep breath, in charge of culture and of memory.

” READ ALSO – The fall, The american friend, The marquise of O… Bruno Ganz in five films

We also saw this particular in The Man without age by Francis Ford Coppola (2007), most recently in Cartel Ridley Scott’s Amnesia of Barbet Schroeder, in 2015. In the same year, he played the grandfather of Heidi, an eternal heroin of switzerland, and his country had awarded him in 2017, the honour prize of the swiss cinema. It will make a last appearance after his death in the film Terrence Malick’s Radegund .

Bruno Ganz, interpreter d?Adolf Hitler in the movie “The fall” is death – Watch on Figaro Live