The Architecture of Doom (1989)

Media (1)

Kajsa Hedström
+46 8 665 11 22
kajsa.hedstrom@filminstitutet.se

Read more about this film in our article "En utskälld film fyller 70" (in Swedish)

Watch this film in the Mini Cinema in our Stockholm library

Original title	Undergångens arkitektur : Skönhetskult och barbari i Tredje rike
Swedish release title	Undergångens arkitektur
International title	The Architecture of Doom
Distribution title	Architektur des Untergangs (Tyskland) L'architecture du chaos (Frankrike) The Architecture of Doom (USA)
Title for Swedish Video release	Undergångens arkitektur

Director	Peter Cohen
Screenplay	Peter Cohen
Producer	Peter Cohen
Director of Photography	Mikael Cohen Gerhard Fromm Peter Östlund
Film Editor	Peter Cohen
Production Mixer	Klas Dykhoff
Research	Peter Cohen Stig Jonasson
Color Timer	Björn Strandell
Negative Cutter	Karin Giernoth
Sound Editor	Klas Dykhoff
Re-recording Mixer	Lars Lundberg
Other Crew	Stig Jonasson (faktagranskning)
Narrator	Rolf Arsenius Jeanne Moreau (franska versionen) Bruno Ganz (tyska versionen)

Production Company	Poj Filmproduktion AB
	Stiftelsen Svenska Filminstitutet
	Sveriges Television AB Kanal 1
	Sandrew Film & Teater AB
Distributor in Sweden (35 mm)	Sandrew Film & Teater AB	1989
Distributor in Sweden (DCP)	Stiftelsen Svenska Filminstitutet	2017
Distributor in Sweden (buy video)	Sandrew Film AB
Re-recording Mixer	FilmMixarna AB

The film explores the obsession Adolf Hitler had with his own particular vision of what was and was not aesthetically acceptable and how he applied these notions while running the Third Reich. His obsession with art he considered pure, in opposition to the supposedly degenerate avant-garde works by Jewish and Soviet artists, reveals itself to be deeply connected to Hitler's equally subjective and strict ideal of physical beauty and health. A series of so-called degenerate art exhibitions were sponsored in order to depict modernist painting and sculpture as expressions of mental illness and general depravity. Classical art that reinforced Hitler's personal taste, from Roman statuary to Dutch oil paintings, was scavenged from across Nazi occupied Europe. Hitler is shown as an amateur architect, planning new building designs for the Third Reich that express his vision of a Nordic empire to rival those of classical antiquity. He is said to be intimately familiar with the grand opera houses of Europe. He visits Paris with a group of architects and artists who will be tasked with rebuilding Berlin to suit the Nazi aesthetic. Designs for new structures include depictions of the ruins they will make for distant generations. The film posits that Hitler's affinity for Greek and Roman antiquity is also expressed in his insistence of a totalizing strategy of war. In what Hitler imagined to be the style of Sparta and Rome, war was meant to annihilate the enemy, enslaving the population and erasing the history of the vanquished. (Source: Wikipedia)

Censorship number	128707
Date	1989-10-09
Classification	Allowed from age 11
Original length	3368 meters
Notes	Aktlängder: 590-545-500-557-521-527-128 m.

Aspect ratio	1.37:1
Sound type	Sound
Sound system	Dolby Stereo
Colour type	Black and white + colour
Carrier type	35 mm
Frames per second	24
Length in metres	3368 meter
Length in minutes	124 min
Reels	7 reels
Dialogue	Swedish German

1988-09

1988-12

Release in Sweden	1989-10-13	Sandrew	Gothenburg	Sweden	123 min	(den tyska dialogen svensktextad)
	1989-10-13	Grand	Stockholm	Sweden	123 min	(den tyska dialogen svensktextad)
TV showing	1992-05-05	Kanal 1		Sweden	118 min
Cinematheque screening, archive copy	1995-01-04
Video release	1995-04			Sweden	118 min
Cinematheque screening, archive copy	1997-10-10
Non Swedish theater exkl FIAF	2018-02-10

Original title	Cola Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen
Composer	Richard Wagner	(1842)
Lyrics	Richard Wagner	(1842)
Musical Arrangement	Sven Ahlin	(bearbetning)
	Peter Cohen	(bearbetning)
Orchestra	Sveriges Radios symfoniorkester
Conductor	Okko Kamu

Original title	Requiem, kör, orkester, op. 5
Composer	Hector Berlioz	(1837)
Musical Arrangement	Sven Ahlin
	Peter Cohen
Orchestra	Sveriges Radios symfoniorkester
Conductor	Okko Kamu

Festival Award	São Paulo	1992			(kritikerpriset)
	Valladolid	1991			(1:a pris i dokumentärfilmklassen)

Kleinkrieg (1938)	Cited in	The Architecture of Doom (1989)
Der ewige Jude : Ein Filmbetrag zum Problem des Weltjudentums (1940)	Cited in	The Architecture of Doom (1989)
Opfer der Vergangenheit (1937)	Cited in	The Architecture of Doom (1989)
Bilden av förintelsen (1998)		The Architecture of Doom (1989)

The information given here refers to film material in the Swedish Film Institute’s archive. Access to the archive’s stock is given on request, for research, other film archives and rights’ holders. For enquiries please contact filmarkivet@filminstitutet.se

Element type	Print
Carrier type	35 mm

Element type	Print
Item base	Acetate
Carrier type	35 mm

Element type	Print
Item base	Acetate
Carrier type	35 mm

Element type	Duplicate positive
Carrier type	35 mm
Length	3368

Element type	Original picture negative
Carrier type	35 mm

Element type	Original picture negative
Carrier type	35 mm

Element type	Original picture negative
Carrier type	35 mm

Element type	Original picture negative
Carrier type	35 mm

Element type	Sound negative
Carrier type	35 mm

Element type	Sound negative
Carrier type	35 mm

Element type	Sound negative
Carrier type	35 mm

Element type	Sound negative
Carrier type	35 mm

Element type	Intermediate audio recording
Carrier type	35 mm

Element type	Final mix
Carrier type	35 mm

Element type	Final mix
Carrier type	DAT

Element type	Final mix
Carrier type	DAT

Element type	Video tape digital
Carrier type	Digital Betacam (PAL)

Element type	Video tape digital
Carrier type	Digital Betacam (PAL)

Element type	Video tape digital
Carrier type	Digital Betacam (PAL)

Size	About 70 x 100 cm
Quantity	2

Type	Press Cuttings

Script type	Inspelningsmanus
Script title	Undergångens arkitektur (arbetsnamn). Peter Cohen.
Extent	22 s. + 10 s. illustrationer. Introduktion (5 s.) och researchresultat (4 s.) ingår.
Language	Swedish

Script type	Inspelningsmanus
Script title	Undergångens arkitektur. Peter Cohen.
Extent	41 s. + 22 s. illustrationer. Introduktion (5 s.) och researchresultat (4 s.) ingår.
Language	Swedish

Script type	Dialoglista
Script title	Undergångens arkitektur. Textlista.
Extent	12 s.
Language	Swedish

Script type	Dialoglista
Script title	Undergångens arkitektur. Textlista.
Extent	9 s.
Language	German

Script type	Dialoglista
Script title	Undergångens arkitektur.
Extent	62 s.
Language	Swedish

Script type	Dialoglista
Script title	Architektur des untergangs
Extent	68 s.
Language	German

Script type	Dialoglista
Script title	A film by peter Cohen. Narrated by Bruno Ganz. The architecture of doom.
Extent	60 s.
Language	English

Script type	Dialoglista
Language	English

Black and white print	5
Album	No

Type	Program/Reklamtryck

Sound type	Sound
Colour type	Black and white + colour
Carrier type	DCP
Length in minutes	124 min
Dialogue	Swedish German

Element type	Digital audio
Carrier type	WAV

Element type	Digitalt visningsmaterial
Carrier type	DCP

Element type	Digitalt arkivmaterial
Carrier type	MAP

Element type	Digitalt arkivmaterial
Carrier type	MAP

Element type	Digitalt visningsmaterial
Carrier type	ProRes

Element type	Digitalt visningsmaterial
Carrier type	H264