Triumph of the Will
Germany, 1935; 110 mins.
Directed by Leni Riefenstahl

The summer of 1934 was a difficult time for Adolf Hitler, though ultimately triumphant. In June the Führer and Chancellor of Germany felt compelled to order the murder of dozens of his current and former associates in the "Night of the Long Knives"; afterwards he had to face down public murmurings about this. Early in August he got away with two bold (and illegal) steps: proclaiming himself President in addition to his other titles when the aged President Hindenburg died; and then demanding a personal oath of allegiance from the Army. As the annual Nazi Party Rally in September at Nuremberg approached, Hitler was determined that it should be a brilliant display of the qualities of his regime. To make sure of this he personally recruited a favored young architect, Albert Speer, to manage the setting and decor of the event, and a favored young director, Leni Riefenstahl, to make a celebratory film of it as propaganda for the new regime.

Leni Riefenstahl, then 32 years old and known mainly as an actress, had only recently begun to direct popular genre films. Ambitious and politically indifferent, she was flattered by the attentions of Goebbels and Hitler, both of whom saw film as a key medium for their political message, so she readily agreed, though she had no previous experience of this kind of film-making. She turned out to be a genius at it. She took part in planning the Rally, which was staged with the cameras in mind; and the regime made extraordinary resources available to her (some 30 cameras with 120 technicians). When some original footage turned out to be spoiled, she was even able to reshoot scenes with top Nazi leaders after the Rally. This is, then, by no means simply a passive record of an event just as it happened, let alone as it might have happened without the cameras being present.

Ironically, the film was not much watched by the German public, confirming Goebbels' shrewd belief that propaganda was more effective if it was insinuated into entertainment films. But it has become a classic film, and it remains one of the best ways to get a sense of the Third Reich's self-image and the public face that it sought to present to the German populace.

Riefenstahl made a second grandiose film of the same type, this time glorifying the Berlin Olympics of 1936. Olympia, in two parts -- also made with extraordinary resources, and also to some extent staged rather than documentary -- is another classic of the genre. After the war she never understood why she was treated as a suspicious character, even a pariah. After a time she was able to resume a career in documentary film, but nothing she has done in the remainder of her long life -- she is still living -- has come close to these two achievements. A recent film about her, The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, is well worth seeing if you get the chance.