This is Jimson Heng from T2B2 and I will be talking about Leni Riefenstahl, a German film director, photographer, actress and dancer who was most well known for directing the Nazi Party propaganda film, Triumph of the Will, and for being the first female film director to achieve critical acclaim.
Leni Riefenstahl was born in Berlin into a German Protestant family as Helene Bertha Amalie on 22 August 1902. (Riefenstahl 3) When she was 16, she started dance and ballet classes at the Grimm-Reiter Dance School in Berlin, in accordance with her mother’s wishes for her to go into show business. (Riefenstahl 11) After graduating, she became a self styled and well-known interpretive dancer, touring Europe by the age of 22 and being employed by Max Reinhard. After injuring her knee, she discovered filmmaking and was fascinated by the sorts of possibilities it opened up to her, leading to the start of her acting career. (Falcon)
At this time, she stepped into the attention of one Adolf Hitler, being a prominent actress in some of his favorite films, such as SOS Iceburg. ("Economist") After becoming interested in athletic photography and filming, Leni Riefenstahl was then given the chance to direct Das Blaue Licht (The Blue Light), shooting it as a romantic and mystical tale that she thought suited the terrain. (Muller)
When Leni Riefenstahl read Mein Kampf, an autobiographical manifesto by Adolf Hitler, she was fascinated by it, stating that she “felt a man who could write such a book would undoubtedly lead Germany.” (“Daily Express”) Following this, she wrote to Hitler, requesting a meeting. The meeting led to an impressed Hitler offering her the chance to direct Sieg des Glaubens (Victory of Faith), a propaganda film about the fifth N...
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...ersonal projects, were not as well known, or as great as her films when she was set a goal. Leni Riefenstahl was also not afraid to use groundbreaking and new techniques in film, such as using tracking shots to follow the athletes in Olympia, or using slow motion shots to make the athletes seem like birds in slow, graceful flight.
In conclusion, Leni Riefenstahl is certainly a complicated person and director. She has made films that are considered among the greatest films of all time, but yet was almost universally reviled for making them with the support of the Third Reich. She made a reputation for herself as the “Nazi Director” and could never break away from that reputation. In the end, she has had a great impact on filmmaking, with her pioneering techniques and camera movements that nobody else did at that time. She is clearly the greatest female director yet.
Kershaw later depicts a comment made by Hitler discussing the dire need to deport German Jews, away from the ‘Procterate,’ calling them “dangerous ‘fifth columnists’” that threatened the integrity of Germany. In 1941, Hitler discusses, more fervently his anger towards the Jews, claiming them to responsible for the deaths caused by the First World War: “this criminal race has the two million dead of the World War on its conscience…don’t anyone tell me we can’t send them into the marshes (Morast)!” (Kershaw 30). These recorded comments illustrate the deep rooted hatred and resentment Hitler held for the Jewish population that proved ultimately dangerous. Though these anti-Semitic remarks and beliefs existed among the entirety of the Nazi Political party, it didn’t become a nationwide prejudice until Hitler established such ideologies through the use of oral performance and
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.
On Hitler’s Mountain is a memoir of a child named Irmgard Hunt and her experiences growing up in Nazi Germany. She herself has had many experiences of living during that dark time, she actually met Hitler, had a grandfather who hated Hitler's rule, and had no thoughts or feelings about the Nazi rule until the end of WWII. Her memoir is a reminder of what can happen when an ordinary society chooses a cult of personality over rational thought. What has happened to the German people since then, what are they doing about it today and how do they feel about their past? Several decades later, with most Nazis now dead or in hiding, and despite how much Germany has done to prevent another Nazi rule, everyone is still ashamed of their ancestors’ pasts.
A Child of Hitler by Alfons Heck is an autobiographical account of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 from his perspective as a member of the Hitler Youth. Heck’s autobiography is abundant with emotional treatise and recollections from his childhood. Published in 1985, the book is targeted toward an adult audience. The overarching theme focuses on repentance and the overwhelming power of propaganda and the resulting passion produced by NSDAP indoctrination. Using this theme as guidance, Heck argues that Nazi propaganda was highly efficient and produced an indoctrinated generation that was consumed with Aryan and Third Reich superiority until the defeat of Germany in 1945.
...he library. I think she did a fantastic job of depicting the character's thoughts and emotions throughout the Holocaust just as a Jewish person at that same time period would feel.
The text was quite and interesting as it presented the views of not only Audrey but of other historians. The text gave me both views of the debate over Leni. It also helped me in determining my standing over the debates surrounding Riefenstahl. I used quotes from the text and used it in my reports.
In the years between 1933 and 1945, Germany was engulfed by the rise of a powerful new regime and the eventual spoils of war. During this period, Hitler's quest for racial purification turned Germany not only at odds with itself, but with the rest of the world. Photography as an art and as a business became a regulated and potent force in the fight for Aryan domination, Nazi influence, and anti-Semitism. Whether such images were used to promote Nazi ideology, document the Holocaust, or scare Germany's citizens into accepting their own changing country, the effect of this photography provides enormous insight into the true stories and lives of the people most affected by Hitler's racism. In fact, this photography has become so widespread in our understanding and teaching of the Holocaust that often other factors involved in the Nazi's racial policy have been undervalued in our history textbooks-especially the attempt by Nazi Germany to establish the Nordic Aryans as a master race through the Lebensborn experiment, a breeding and adoption program designed to eliminate racial imperfections.
Frida Kahlo nació el 6 de Julio 1907 en la ciudad de México. Ella les dijo a muchas personas que nació el 7 de Julio 1910 porque quiso parecer más joven a los otros. Aunque sus padres fueron judíos, Frida nació en México. Frida fue una artista surrealista y sus obras vió de sus emociones de la tristexa y la cólera de su vida. Ella le encantó decir los chistes, reír, y sonreír. Frida Kahlo llevó las ropas de la cultura tradicional de México porque pensó que las ropas fueran una forma del arte. Todo el mundo admiró mucho a Frida, a causa de sus obras y su actitud.
During the Holocaust, around six million Jews were murdered due to Hitler’s plan to rid Germany of “heterogeneous people” in Germany, as stated in the novel, Life and Death in the Third Reich by Peter Fritzsche. Shortly following a period of suffering, Hitler began leading Germany in 1930 to start the period of his rule, the Third Reich. Over time, his power and support from the country increased until he had full control over his people. Starting from saying “Heil Hitler!” the people of the German empire were cleverly forced into following Hitler through terror and threat. He had a group of leaders, the SS, who were Nazis that willingly took any task given, including the mass murder of millions of Jews due to his belief that they were enemies to Germany. German citizens were talked into participating or believing in the most extreme of things, like violent pogroms, deportations, attacks, and executions. Through the novel’s perspicacity of the Third Reich, readers can see how Hitler’s reign was a controversial time period summed up by courage, extremity, and most important of all, loyalty.
“ Hitler used propaganda and manufacturing enemies such as Jews and five million other people to prepare the country for war.” (Jewish Virtual Library), This piece of evidence shows Hitler’s attempt of genocide toward the Jewish race a...
men in any way. “Once some SS men pushed our sound van into a ditch;
Frida was an amazing artist and courageous women. Through all the heartaches and tragedies she went through during her life, she managed to stay strong and follow her dreams of being a well know artist and painter. She was a beautiful and incredible artist with such creativity and heart. To see such raw emotion come from someone who went through hell and back, she remained true to herself. I wish I had half the passion she did for life.
Pick, Zuzana M. "An Interview with Maria Luisa Bemberg." Journal of Film and Video 44. 3-4 (Fall-Winter 1992-93): 76.
Isadora Duncan was born in 1878 in San Francisco, CA. Her mother believed it was exceedingly important to surround Isadora and her siblings with art, music, Shakespeare, and poetry. This was Isadora's awakening to the arts (Terry 9). She trained in ballet as a young girl and was exposed to Delsartean principles that influenced her greatly later in life (12). In 1896, Isadora and her mother traveled to Chicago to further Isadora’s budding career. While there, she met Augustin Daly who then took her to New York and gave her roles in theater productions such as A Midsummer Night's Dream where she was first recognized by the press (25). While in New York she trained with ball...
Mary Pickford is a good example. She started a little girl in theater, and by her talent continues to work in movies. People called her “The Muse of the Movies”. She inspired others by her energy and passion. But she was not a just usual beautiful woman, who inspired only one artist. She was an artist, a professional. David Griffith was the first who discovered her talent and, with him, they started the movie industry which, actually, plays the significant role in the development of this direction. And then she started influence on other great artists like Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin. Together, they created the world of cinema actors, who were so popular that they have to move on the separated and close area. But after several decades movies started associated with money. And here inspiration and creative part of this process started to die. Films become stereotyped, separated by genres, which actually a limitation freedom of thinkers. Muses became a very specific and rare. Audrey Hepburn is a one of these examples. She opened her talent with main goal to survive, due to Audrey Hepburn have to act in movies. She and her mother were refugees during the World War II and they starved a lot. Only one thing that helped Audrey to survive and not to go crazy is dance. After the World War they moved in Amsterdam