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20 THE HARTFORD AUGUST4, 2005 ophie Okonedoseemed to come out of nowhere to snag a best-supporting-actress nomination for but been busy in Britain since the early 1990s, mostly on television. (Koch Vision, 2003) is one of her credits, and areally, really good one it is. Written by Paul Abbott it concerns a catering worker who goes back to a party house to pick up her purse and finds the master of the house dragging the body of a guest. Seems the master had an after-party argument with the man, took a swing at him, and he hit his head on something. Maybe.

Michael Kitchen plays the distraught, nearly delirious killer. Okonedo believes him, feels sorry for him and offers to help get rid of the body and make up a story. Thus starts a richly tangled tale of deception and redemptionin which Okonedo, forced to take charge, proves to be the real master of the house. Not rated. WILLIAMS Good video hunting Movies worth searching for: runo Ganz is probably best known to American audiences as the angel in Wim of That may change with in which Ganz plays Hitler as never been captured on film before.

He looks like Hitler, sounds like Hitler and dies like Hitler. Ganz studied rare film of Hitler in a relaxed, private situation to see how he would behave in the intimacy of the Berlin bunker. And, of course, there was plenty of film of Hitler orating, spittle flying, as he denounces the Jews. When Hitler lashes out at the generals who insist on telling him Berlin is doomed, he imitates the newsreel Hitler with uncanny accuracy. career performance is the main attraction in this latest of a number of movies depicting last days, but the film succeeds on many levels.

It populates the Fuehrerbunker with the generals, Nazi officials and servants who really were there and bases events on two authoritative books, one co-written by TraudlJunge, secretary, whose memories were the subject of a 2002 documentary, The story begins with the real Junge, in an excerpt from that film, talking about going to work for Hitler in 1942, then fades to the dramatization with Alexandra Maria Lara as Junge. Most of the story is told through her, as she was close to both Hitler and Eva Braun, who married Hitler hours before they killed themselves. evident from the beginning that Hitler is falling apart, physically and mentally. He cannot accept that the war is lost. Some generals tell him the truth, but he continues to order attacks by divisions that have already been decimated.

(A historical subtext is that the generals were German aristocratsand secretly looked down on the uncouth Hitler. Now that lost his touch as a military tactician, the generals as careful about stifling their snobbishness. One officer even scolds Hitler for being disrespectful.) As the Russians close in, discipline disintegrates, until most of the brass are sitting around getting hammered on what remains of the liquor supply. Above them, teenage soldiers fight a suicidal battle against Russian artillery and waves of ground troops. When a general laments the of young lives, Hitler snaps, what With Junge telling the story, her loyal service to one of worst villains is depicted nonjudgmentally.

She bother to look beyond her personal experience with him. Indeed, the doddering old Hitler (though only 56) seems harmless. It helps to keep in mind as you watch that he was chiefly responsible for the deaths of 55 million people in six years. Life in the fuehrerbunker SONY PICTURES BRUNO GANZ gives a brilliant performance as the fuhrer in his last days in RELEASE OF THE WEEK NEW IN VIDEO DOWNFALL 2004 historical drama, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel; based on books by Joachim Fest, and Traudl Junge and Melissa starring Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Juliane Ulrich Matthes, Heino Ferch, Corinna Harfouch and Thomas Kretschmann.A Sony Pictures release. Running time: 156 minutes.

Rated for strong violence, disturbing images and some nudity. In German with subtitles. WILLIAMS This week: Rider Named Next week: of Fu the at Other releases video Documentaries Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie (Goldhil, 1995) Made to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this documentary about nuclear testing is back for the 60th. While old film of atomic-bomb tests set to classical music is somehow both beautiful and frightening, it gets tedious. nothing else here except the narrator and a few experts dryly reciting the history of nuclear tests.

a 3-D short (glasses included), but strictly a gimmick. Not rated. Invisible Ballots (Reality Zone, 2004) Imagine an election in which the ballots are counted by a corporation aligned with one of the candidates. He wins, of This 32-minute film asks 11 questions, the most provocative being whether the Bush administration was complicit in the attacks, not merely negligent or incompetent, but abetting the attackers. Are the filmmakers out of their minds? always been my reaction to these theories, which seemed as credible as a Sasquatch sighting.

But some information in this video that makes me wonder. a lot we still know, for sure. Movies Alexander (Warner, 2004) Oliver Stone re-edited the theatrical version, hoping to rescue one of the few flops of his career for DVD. Though a few minutes shorter, it still clocks in at nearly three hours of tedium. R.

Associated Press Reissues Island in the Sky (Paramount, 1953) Critic Leonard Maltin says this is an overlooked gem on John Overlooked, yes. Gem, no. the pilot of a transport plane during World War II that goes off-course and lands on a frozen lake in northern Quebec. He and his crew struggle to survive while his brother pilots search for him. But the movie be rescued from its overacting, bad dialogue and a really laughable fake beard on one guy.

Not rated. WILLIAMS course, and when you ask to inspect the ballots, told been destroyed. As this film reveals with disturbing clarity, that nightmare is coming true. Computerized voting systems that allow recounts are the wave of the future. The companies that make them are resisting demands to redesign them to produce a paper that could be recounted.

Congress has dithered for three years while bills to compel the redesign have languished. This video was made by Oscar nominee William Gazecki The Rules of and G. Edward Griffin, a lifelong John Birch Society member. Tellingly, the only conservative in the film. (Available, for purchase only, from store.yahoo.com/- Aftermath: Unanswered Questions From (Guerrilla News Network, 2003) MARINES witness the detonation of an atomic bomb in Nevada in 1952.

U.S. MARINE CORPS SHORT TAKES.