The Empty Mirror

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The Empty Mirror

Directed by	Barry J. Hershey
Produced by	William Dance David D. Johnson Jay Roach
Written by	Barry J. Hershey R. Buckingham
Starring	Norman Rodway
Music by	Unknown
Distributed by	Lions Gate Films
Release date(s)	1996
Running time	118 minutes
Language	English
Budget	Unknown
IMDb profile

The Empty Mirror is a 1996 film set within a world where Adolf Hitler and his closest cadre of followers survived, this speculative psychodrama attempts to explore the dark, twisted mind of the mad ruler as he converses with Eva Braun, Hermann Goering, Josef Goebbels, and Sigmund Freud. It is a decidedly minimalist film set in a secret subterranean bunker where Hitler spends endless hours watching films of his best years flicker over his blueprints for the new Berlin. Though he lost the war, Hitler still believes himself successful in becoming an immortal figure. His conversations add insight to his grand schemes, his obsession with blondes, and his moral justification for genocide. At Freud's prompting, Hitler also looks into his own neurosis and fears.[1]

[edit] Casting

Norman Rodway as Adolf Hitler
Camilla Søeberg as Eva Braun
Peter Michael Goetz as Sigmund Freud
Doug McKeon as The Typist
Glenn Shadix as Hermann Goering
Joel Grey as Josef Goebbels

[edit] Influences

While not cited in the movie or its credits, the movie is, for all intents and purposes, a dramatized version of Robert Waite's psychohistory of Hitler, The Psychopathic God (1993, Da Capo Press). For example, the movie includes several psychological theories (Hitler's speculated fear of decapitation) and his enjoyment of the artwork of Franz Stuck, theories which only Waite has put forward.