You know that feeling when a new hyperfixation* takes root in your brain and you are like, fully aware that it's happening and there's no way to refuse it ...
I think I've been watching this scene from Das Boot like at least 20 times per day this week, apparently it just really does something to the chemicals in my brain that makes me unable and unwilling to stop. I just love the way it was directed, and how everything comes together so perfectly, the cinematography, the acting, the soundtrack, the practical effects and so on. I think the reason why this scene specifically stood out to me though (because there are so many other great ones throughout the entire mini-series), is because it's one of the first scenes that at least for me causes this very specific type of tension, that I honestly don't think I've experienced in any other film or series, at least not to the extent that I noticed it this much. It's just unsettling in this specific way, especially whenever the view through the periscope is shown, and no matter how often I've seen it and know exactly what will happen, I still get jumpscared every time that destroyer suddenly shows up out of nowhere (before watching the series I wouldn't even have thought that it was possible to get jumpscared by a fucking ship). I don't know how they did that, but I just think that's massively impressive from a filmmaking perspective.
And I find it so fascinating how the immersion into the story is done generally, without seeming like it purposefully tries hard to accomplish that? I know that technically Leutnant Werner is supposed to be somewhat of a viewer insert that the audience can relate to, because in the beginning he also has no idea what it's really like to live and work in a submarine, the reason why he's there is literally to be an observer. But while watching, I often experienced the feeling almost like actually being some part of the crew, not an established character, but literally just some guy who was drafted and really doesn't want to be here, but you simply cannot leave because you're in the middle of the Atlantic, or at some point later in the story, literally stuck at the bottom of the sea. Like, you don't even have to "root" for the characters (after all, they still serve the Kriegsmarine and their actions aren't exactly good, even if many of them have to do those against their will) or feel bad for the things happening to them (though whether they as individuals were deserving of their fate is probably a whole other philosophical discussion), and yet you still intrinsically experience those feelings of stress, anxiety and later raw desperation, as if you yourself had to go through that.
I wonder if this actually is touched on in the behind the scenes material or the audio commentary on the directors cut, I just recently bought the complete edition on blu-ray, which apparently has over 3 hours of bonus material (physical media be praised!), also it has all 3 versions of the film, the original cinema version, the directors cut and the mini series, plus also the soundtrack and an audio book version of the book that it was based on. I've already read a bit of the production history and about some of the wild things and issues the film crew had to deal with, like things breaking down, a few actors accidentally getting injured during filming, how in the scene where the character Thomsen is giving his drunk speech the actor was apparently drunk for real, and some more, but I really want to find out more.
I also finally got the chance to hear the English version for the first time now (because while the series is also on Netflix, for some reason it has only the German audio and subtitles available, at least for my location). I have to say on one hand I think it's really cool that most of the main characters' actors voiced the dub themselves, so their voices sound the same, but on the other hand it does sound somewhat artificial at times (maybe because it was harder for them to convey the emotions while also focusing on pronunciation, even though the actors really speak good English). As a native speaker I just feel like the emotions come across much better in the original, also some things like wordplays or the nuances of the different accents are hard to translate. I personally would definitely recommend to watch it in German, with subtitles if you don't speak the language. I have to say though those are not always perfectly accurate either, like for example in this clip that I posted, when the Kaleun (the captain, he's usually addressed with a short form of his rank, Kapitänleutnant) goes like "no, a destroyer" in the subtitles, he's actually saying "Scheißzerstörer", which literally translate to "shit destroyer", but when translating based on what it's meant to express, the most suitable would probably be something like "fucking destroyer", especially considering how pissed off he sounds (the prefix "Scheiß-" in German generally often expresses something similar like "fucking [insert whatever]" in English).
I'm probably writing way too much stuff here that very few people will care about (I think there's probably like 5 people posting about it here on Tumblr, if even, unless I get to drag some of y'all with me hehe), and I also have a master's thesis in animation to write so I probably don't actually have time for such trivial things like researching the technical specifications of type VII C submarines, but given how heavily this is occupying my brain right now I'll probably still do it.
*Not fully sure if it's appropriate to use the term as haven't been professionally diagnosed with any form of neurodivergence (yet, I actually have an appointment with a psychologist the coming week as I write this, so maybe this is going to change at some point), but the way it feels to me fits the definition of a hyperfixation pretty well.