Out of curiosity, I watched the first ten minutes (the whole thing is approximately two hours) of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph des Willens on YouTube. It begins in the sky, almost as if from Hitler's POV. He is in a plane, and all the viewer sees is the vast expanse of clouds. After a few minutes, the plane lands, and Hitler disembarks from it. He is apparently in Nuremberg, and there are thousands of people lining the streets to see him. As he makes his way to wherever he is going--he is going to make a speech--the crowd is waving, shouting, and smiling. Everyone, even toddlers in their mother's arms are doing the Roman Salute. Beginning the film by showing Hitler in the sky symbolizes that he is high above all other Germans. Not only is he above them, he can see them; maybe he wanted it to mean that he was "watching over" them. The cinematography, although I am not that experienced or knowledgeable in that area, seemed to be very well done. For example, the beginning. Some of it was shot from above, some of it was shot from below (looking up at the buildings, the flags, the sky). There were close-ups of faces. I have to admit, whenever she zoomed in on Hitler, and if he turned to the camera so his face was visible, I got chills. Even though I only watched ten minutes, it seems as though it would be effective propaganda.
Did Riefenstahl believe that Hitler was a good leader? It seems like most of the Germans at the time thought he was, so it's not so surprising that she agreed to make the film. I wonder how she felt after the war was over and Hitler's true nature was revealed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPAxaFxjiDk
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment