Having directed and acted in many films, Leni Riefenstahl has become a major figure of the Nazi film industry. Her most well-known film Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens, 1935) is still considered the greatest propaganda film of all time. While Riefenstahl claims that the film is a documentary and based on “history”. Susan Sontag's response is that the film it is seen as a portrayal of a fascist society. A Nazi propaganda tool and not necessarily intended as a fascist viewpoint. Sontag reasons that the film techniques used by Riefenstahl confuse the viewer into believing otherwise, Susan Sontag argues that the relationship between Leni Riefenstahl and the Nazi leadership as well as the consistent illustration of fascist themes found in the film establishes that Triumph of the Will is fascist and intended to promote and preserve the Nazi ideology.
During the rise of power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party's in the 1930's, Leni Riefenstahl became a household name as a film director, her claim to fame was putting a public face to Hitler. During this time period, it was very rare for the
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For example, at the beginning of the film Riefenstahl creates a view of Hitler as a divine figure head sent from above to renew ancient Nuremburg and liberate the German people using a movement of racial awareness. Riefenstahl would use this motif continuously throughout the film. For instance, when Hitler would give a speech, the camera angle would be from below to give him a certain aura of godliness as the viewer is made to look up at him. The structures built to accommodate the rally are also reminiscent of a unique reality depicting a new world order of the German nation. Envisioning an ethereal view of the nation through the use of mist, or silhouettes against the clouds when the viewer looks closer to see the buildings is left with an aura of a truly fantastic 'point of view' most subtly imposed upon the
The film illustrates the common social and sexual anxieties that the Germans were undergoing at that period of time. It also employs cinematic aesthetics alongside with new technology to create what would be considered as one of Germany’s first sound-supported films. Furthermore, it was the film that popularized its star Marlene Dietrich. The film is also known for combining elements of earlier expressionist works into its setting without becoming an expressionist film itself. It is important also to point out that the visual element has helped to balance the film easily against the backdrop the nightclub lifestyle that Lola leads the professor to fall into.
Rita Crundwell was the trusted comptroller and treasurer of Dixon, Illinois with a passion for horses. She took advantage of her trust and responsibility to commit the largest known municipal fraud in the history of the United States. This fraudster has surprised and astounded people around the world by the amount of the fraud and for how long it went. Rita served the small town of Dixon from 1983 to 2012 until sentenced to nearly twenty years in federal prison for embezzling an astonishing $53.7 million. The story of this Dixon Commissioner shocked her small town and is studied by auditors all over.
The Silber Medal winning biography, “Surviving Hitler," written by Andrea Warren paints picture of life for teenagers during the Holocaust, mainly by telling the story of Jack Mandelbaum. Avoiding the use of historical analysis, Warren, along with Mandelbaum’s experiences, explains how Jack, along with a few other Jewish and non-Jewish people survived.
The presence of an overwhelming and influential body of government, dictating the individuals of contextual society, may potentially lead to the thoughts and actions that oppose the ruling party. Through the exploration of Fritz Lang’s expressionist film, Metropolis (1927), and George Orwell’s politically satirical novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1948), the implications of an autocratic government upon the individuals of society are revealed. Lang’s expressionist film delves into the many issues faced by the Weimar Republic of Germany following the “War to end all wars” (Wells, 1914), in which the disparity between the upper and lower classes became distinctively apparent as a result of the ruling party’s capitalistic desires. Conversely, Orwell’s,
By 1945 over 6 million Jews were killed as a result of the genocide launched by Nazi Germany. The Holocaust has been documented and depicted by various visual images revealing the atrocities of this tragic period. The film posters of Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful produced in 1997 and Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List produced in 1993 utilize various rhetorical appeals to present starkly different visual arguments about the Holocaust. For the purpose of this rhetorical analysis, viewing these images from the standpoint of a viewer who is exposed to these posters for the first time, with the acute knowledge that these posters are related to the holocaust is necessary. From this standpoint, it is clear to see how images that depict that
In 1932 the political situation in Germany was intensifying. The Republic was crumbling and the great depression was taking its toll on the German people. Leni was not greatly affected by the depression and saw little of the violence that was occurring. In Berlin she was persuaded by friends to attend a political rally at Sportsplatz where Hitler would give an address. Instantly Leni had become spellbound by Hitler as he did upon thousands-‘He radiated something very powerful,’ she later observed, ‘something which had a kind of hypotonic effect.’ Inspired by Hitler, Leni ...
Where Schlondorff, Wenders, Herzog, Fassbinder and Kluge once investigated the extremities of the German character and the Americana that infested West German culture through the New German Cinema of the late 60s, 70s and early 80s, the Germany of today has through its cinema acknowledged past hardships but with a more positive emphasis placed on the possibilities of forgiveness, redemption and hope for what can be made of tomorrow. Bibliography A Reversal of Fortunes? Women, work and change in East Germany. Rachel Alsop.
Holocaust Hero: A One of a Kind Man. What is a hero? A hero can be classified as a number of things. A hero can be a person who, in the opinions of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal.
men in any way. “Once some SS men pushed our sound van into a ditch;
Simon Wiesenthal life and legends were extraordinary, he has expired people in many ways and was an iconic figure in modern Jewish history. Szyman Wiesenthal (was his real named and later named Simon) was born on December 31 in Buczacz, Galicia (which is now a part of Ukraine) in 1908. When Wiesenthal's father was killed in World War I, Mrs. Wiesenthal took her family to Vienna for a brief period, returning to Buczacz when she remarried. The young Wiesenthal graduated from the Humanistic Gymnasium (a high school) in 1928 and applied for admission to the Polytechnic Institute in Lvov. Turned away because of quota restrictions on Jewish students, he went instead to the Technical University
The Second World War brought forth not only physical destruction to Germany, but also cultural destruction, particularly in its film industry. The film industry of West Germany, in particular, went under the inevitable control of the United States (US). American films became popular among the West German public, while prominent West German directors and actors chose to leave West Germany to pursue their careers in Hollywood, with many of them becoming highly successful. Yet, it did not take long for West Germany to become self-reliant in terms of reinvigorating its domestic film talents amidst the continued dominance of American films. The economic recovery, West Germany experienced in the mid-1950s, enabled its film industry to produce more domestic film outputs as it continuously featured American films, which enjoyed great commercial success during the period. The domineering control of the US over the distribution of American films in West Germany prompted the West German government to render support to domestic filmmakers – a move supported by the growing economy of the nation that time. Although West German films did not fare well commercially in the domestic market due to the continued dominance of American films in West Germany, international success did follow through the international acclaim of domestic filmmakers, many of them having gained working experience in Hollywood. The emergence of New German Cinema in 1962, through the Oberhausen Manifesto, was characterized by support coming from the West German government, the economic resurgence of the nation and the shift from nonpolitical and positive themes that somewhat denies the sordid political mishaps of Germany prior and during t...
Linda Wagner-Martin provides an opinion that Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” confronts the two challenges of a woman in that time’s life, in regard to balancing wifehood, motherhood, and womanhood whilst in a patriarchal culture. The most troubling of those roles being motherhood claims Wagner-Martin as the loss of self-identity is consistently inevitable in new mothers as the tasks required by a sole parent, that generally fell on the mother’s shoulders, are endless. Wagner-Martin references two authors of books on the experience maternity has on women, and through that sympathizes with “The Yellow Wallpaper’s” narrator having recently become a mother by saying that society has expectations of women to be fulfilled in motherhood and that is oftentimes not the case seen in women’s fear of childbirth, women questioning
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter, born on the July the 6th, 1907. She was born in small town on the outskirts of Mexico, called Couyocan. Her family lived in a house they built themselves, La Casa Azul, or “The Blue House”. It’s name comes from the structures bright blue walls, and now stands as the Frida Kahlo Museum. At the age of fifteen, Kahlo was enrolled in the National Prepatory School of Mexico, where she was one of only a thirty-five female students. With the dream of becoming a medical doctor, Kahlo studied sciences at the school. But, on Septemer 17th, 1925, Kahlo experienced the fateful accident which changed her life forever. She had been riding on a bus with her boyfriend, Alejandro Gomez Arias, when the vehicle collided with a tram. The accident had left several people dead, and Kahlo with many injuries. Some of which were broken collar bone, fractures in her right leg, a crushed foot and a broken spinal column. The injuries left her in a full-body cast for months on end and was confined to her bed for this time. Kahlo also was left with fertility complications after handrail had pierced her uterus. The tragic event left Kahlo in a world of unbearable pain and also boredom. It was during her bed-ridden recovery where she took up the practice of painting, with herself as the subject. Her mother had made her an easel to paint in bed, where she developed her skills of painting. Her first self portrait, “Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress”, was her first serious piece which she painted in 1926. She painted it as a present to her boyfriend, Alejandro Gomez Arias. The artwork was fairly muted in colour and was quite a traditional European-style artwork. But, as Kahlo continued painting her works transitioned from the acade...
A smaller emphasis is put on the development of plot and characterization, but rather on symbolism and the possibilities that lay beneath the surface of each piece within the movie. Reality is created through the use of obscure objects that renders events in a distorted way. Everything in the background is off center and in disarray, using sharp angles and odd shapes to showcase beauty in imbalanced proportions- fitting the ideals of German expressionism perfectly. The film’s setting includes all kinds of unnatural shapes and asymmetric visuals, while also manipulating light for extreme contrasts in light and shadows. This film uses its supreme expressionistic qualities to do as German expression art is
The relationship between the leaders of the United States of America and Germany has always been an awkward one. The countries have fought on the opposite sides of two World Wars, and for most of the late 20th Century, Germany was a divided nation. Today, the two countries are allies, but the leaders have a large gap to bridge to stay on good terms. In 2014, that is up to Barack Obama, the first black President of the United States of America, and Angela Merkel, the first female Chancellor of Germany.