Blind Spot suggests instead that Hitler, in his secretary's eyes, was a rather banal, warm, protective figure who loved his dog Blondie passionately, was chivalrous, hated cut flowers (they reminded him of dead things), honored ideals of pristine beauty and athleticism, and suffered from persistent digestive problems.
Early on, Junge admits, she felt a security and sense of paternal protection working for Hitler that helped make up for a lack of a caring male role model in her own childhood. That personal impression of Hitler helps to explain a historical phenomenon of why the man was so charismatic and appealing to the masses that rewarded him with unparalleled devotion. Junge's welcome subservience to Hitler only echoed the nation's blind allegiance. Like children, Hitler's intimates maintained a code of polite denial that protected him from the reality of what he was doing to the Jews. Hitler, Junge admits, operated within a world of abstraction that allowed him to think in ideals while denying individual suffering and human weakness.
Like the manic sons of Capturing the Friedmans who can't shut up, who talk and talk and talk underneath the gaze of the camera, Junge seems similarly unburdened by her talking cure. The deeper Junge gets into her story, the more frantic and rushed her recollections become. By the time she describes her nightmarish last days with Hitler, she is rendered nearly breathless in the rush of words.
The "blind spot" of the film's title is the lack of perspective that proximity to a thing can create (also evident in Capturing the Friedmans). Junge admits she was simply too close to the real, day-to-day, ordinary Hitler to make some crucial psychological connections with his role as mass murderer. The obedient ersatz daughter until the very end, Junge considered suicide along with Hitler when they holed up in his bunker as the war wound down.
Seemingly fearful of exploiting, sensationalizing or humanizing the material or the man, filmmakers Andre Heller and Othmar Schmiderer have done everything in their power not to make Blind Spot fascinating. But even spoken directly into the camera, with little change of camera angle, Junge's detailed recollections and the film itself are nevertheless hypnotic.
Though Blind Spot's aesthetic minimalism initially seems strained from striving too hard for an emotional neutrality, it turns out to be an incredibly effective strategy.
Felicia Feaster is a film critic for Atlanta's Creative Loafing.