The Damned [Criterion Collection]

This disturbing story of emerging Nazi brutality is symbolized by a wealthy steel magnate and his dysfunctional family. The Essenbeck family is headed by the Baron (Rene Kolldehoff), but daughter Sophie (Ingrid Thulin) wants her Nazi boyfriend to take over the business. Soon the Baron is dead and Bruckman (Dirk Bogarde) becomes company president. Son Martin (Helmut Berger) is the dope-addicted teenager who sleeps with his mother and drags her into her own dependence on drugs. The family and the rest of the country follow Hitler blindly in a series of events that leads to decadence, destruction, and World War II in this disturbing feature. This Italian -German production is another example of the two countries trying to purge themselves of their national guilt over wartime atrocities.