Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests








Sunday, November 5, 2023

Triumph of the Will - A 1935 Propaganda Film Directed by Leni Reisenthal- 1 hour 32 Minutes

Americans, Japanese and English film makers all produced propaganda movies designed to create a sense of patriotism among their citizens.  

Available on Dailymotion.com 

Triumph of the Will is a 1935 German Nazi propaganda film directed, produced, edited and co-written by Leni Riefenstahl. Adolf Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer; his name appears in the opening titles. It chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 Nazi supporters. The film contains excerpts of speeches given by Nazi leaders at the Congress, including Hitler, Rudolf Hess and Julius Streicher, interspersed with footage of massed Sturmabteilung (SA) and Schutzstaffel (SS) troops and public reaction.

Triumph of the Will premiered on 28 March 1935 at the Berlin Ufa Palace Theater and was an instant success. Within two months the film had earned 815,000 Reichsmark (equivalent to 4 million 2021 euros), and Ufa considered it one of the three most profitable films of that year. Hitler praised the film as being an "incomparable glorification of the power and beauty of our Movement." For her efforts, Riefenstahl was rewarded with the German Film Prize (Deutscher Filmpreis), a gold medal at the 1935 Venice Biennale, and the Grand Prix at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris.


Legacy: Triumph of the Will is considered to be one of the most influential propaganda films ever made. It has been studied by filmmakers and scholars alike, and its techniques have been imitated by other propagandists.


The Holocaust Encyclopedia has an excellent account of Riefenstahl career, why Hitler wanted her to produce films for the Nazi Party 


https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/leni-riefenstahl


Leni Riefenstahl (Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl, August 22, 1902 – September 8, 2003) was a German film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, photographer, and actress who rose to prominence in the 1930s. She is best known for her highly stylized propaganda films made for the Nazi Party. Riefenstahl's work was technically innovative and influenced filmmakers for decades. However, her association with the Nazis has led to her work being highly 


Riefenstahl was born in Berlin, Germany, into a wealthy middle-class family. She was a talented athlete and dancer, and she began taking acting lessons as a teenager. In the early 1920s, she appeared in several films and dance productions.


In 1924, Riefenstahl was inspired to take up mountaineering after seeing a poster for the film Mountain of Destiny. She quickly became an accomplished mountaineer, and she made several films about her experiences in the mountains.


In 1932, Riefenstahl made her directorial debut with the film The Blue Light. The film was a critical and commercial success, and it established Riefenstahl as one of the most important filmmakers of the 20th century 


In 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. Riefenstahl was already a well-known figure in Germany, and Hitler was impressed by her work. He commissioned her to make a film about the Nazi Party's 1934 Nuremberg Rally. The resulting film, Triumph of the Will, was a masterpiece of propaganda. It used innovative cinematography and editing techniques to create a powerful and persuasive image of the Nazi Party.


Riefenstahl went on to make several more films for the Nazi Party, including Olympia, a documentary about the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. These films were all highly successful, and they helped to cement Riefenstahl's reputation as one of the most important filmmakers in the 


After World War II, Riefenstahl was denazified and banned from working in the film industry. She spent the next several decades working as a photographer and writer. She also continued to make films, but her work was never as successful as it had been in the 1930s.


Riefenstahl died in 2003 at the age of 101. She remains a controversial figure, and her work continues to be debated by scholars and filmmakers.


Riefenstahl was a complex and contradictory figure. She was a brilliant filmmaker who created some of the most iconic images of the 20th century. However, she was also a willing collaborator with the Nazi regime, and her work helped to spread Nazi propaganda.




2 comments:

Lizzy Siddal said...

Thanks for this, Mel. It serves as a reminder to dig out Karen Wieland’s Dietrich and Riefenstahl, buried somewhere in the stacks. I’ll not get to it this #germanlitmonth, but I will get to it in 2024.

Buried In Print said...

I really appreciate all the historical context you offer here.