ew agin to Nurebery to review the SS SStnmts of hie fatal followers: fxty~ Seen sine he (ye before mang Teach) wiped ost ie ow Lat tna 6 ep cr to tstory a $S Ratsen fry ve years ace Risfenetabl semi hn ear of tag Sent th Sch Congrens ofthe Nationa MV German Workers’ Party, and thereby 1 Samed for here a svemiogly dilodee- ‘Ele place in te auterine penton l| ten yer ince the nrous busines S| ofthe Ricenstal industry began. The >| Ge to recmidee her and Tramph of 1R| the win oog pe Ste recived opinion of Leni Rifen- Q)| seahts Socumentrien to that they are S| Works, ot, great arate power hich nbouy "a Vicloue ideology They were kl Shue by en authentic genie ine Cas El ber own’ but they were also made by San arta of an inmenoely naive political Si fatar ignorant of the outside word Vi! Apart fr the velounese of the ideo. {egy Ce icoasnens which Riefenstal hax “2, never dinevowed), none of this can tand "h cursory Knowledge of how file are rade reveals” the hits of applying fiterittheon’ to works, shot rd dsm thie ws, by many hand. The Iconography of Triumph of the Will tot accidentally fac (by ito 08 ‘i ast subject matter) But 8 able gotroe and. true reflection of Next pictorial peferenss, which were ‘On September 5 1994 20 years attr tho outbreak of fhe World War 16 years ater he start o¢ German slfering afer the bei Feary att def er few gusto Nive Seve fhe else of is htt flower’ Opening Titles Triumph des Wilens (Triumph of the Will) ————_ Ricfenatats preferences ato. Given our tants for the spectacle ofthe debuman Hedman that part of fact weebtio thick we ll share, shot f 20,000 men In ons formation become impremive not through the fact of Bing, but Decne of te formation sel Rieonetahl ab toprenive the not flaca when fhe bas that sort ‘of spectacle sry but Tramp of the Wil, wih ite ours of medieval Nusember, it folk Daradea and boy scout horsplay ite Thilem drives and dull speeches, ot forthe moet pet that Alli al what ‘harctsiea tbe 107 mines of i trpialy frit pati, lack of pro ‘orton, a ialre to know mb tp. RECONSIDERING ‘TRIUMPH OF THE WILL’ WAS HITLER THERE? It is only in the selection of speeches and incidents that Riefenstahl revels & Teal skill She is at least the equal of ‘Contemporary American political image ‘Shakers for Priumph of the Will contains fin orchestrated defence of | Hitier’s ‘tctigns after the Rohm Pusch which ould hardly have been organised ax such bby anybody other than a Tully conscious politica enimal ’As to the flm’s effectiveness as prope- sande, i was not widely used in Germany tthe time, being crass and boring end {oo obviously about Hitler's dificalties ‘With the sa, It is probebly fir to ea that Tor every fascist convert the film has ‘made (and these do. not, of course, include Rifonwtahl’s cintaste admirers who, to 4 man, reintain their ability to Tesiot her mesoege), there must be many more who have learned from dhe fin fomething of the central rottenness of the world Hitler and his party created. then it wan re-edited by the remiea of Nazidom and used against them. This e's strange accolade to be Big nthe Herts on's mawarect of fl propeganda’, ‘the most success- fay moat purely bropganiae ln "Above all, pethaps, Riefenstahl’s manipulation of materia, ¢ manipulation fone Binds surprising given the resources ber command, stretches the limits of ‘Siting (and, to's lesser extent, recon Structional) practices to a point where i {ecoren permisstle to ask-~if one knew "Wes Hitler really there?” ay soranye weatatae eet cee pean, eee a = oo instructive pice Togiticn super sound from oa Tike = maniac doing? how abe ing and holler rmanisc, she wa Hom then dle amotnt of mae focas or refran that they did nc suggested by ch han received. 0 marching coliz the City of Tea standards in Ceremony of Ipecause such m futomatically + sequences not apparent i sb from tle to ‘occasional. yar ‘object of the sith one of B. Rlehase Schievements« ‘re unimnpressh "This is not there is most prosaic principles of ‘beyed. But twth tia it the overall aes? boing created | documented "The somber Berean Uti ee alg 1 gaery Sete ese et eminant, fewarel gem (ior aound) Ris ‘anspeeches ‘Peas ‘qual of Frage ‘eataina “Hitlers Bwhieh ies such 1 propa: Sermany fing and ‘Beale ‘ey thst hae course, Ingely left to their own deviees, On Tehurtph of the Will Riefnstahl had a ‘minimum of forty-nine cameramen, many from the newsreels dressed in £4 {informa wandering at wil, but nineteen fof them senior einem: the mainstream of th Fiefonatahl credit for what they photo- [qraphed is to stretch the auteuriat conceit Lo breaking point. One of her Olympic fi crew, Henry Jaworsky, attested in fan interview (Film Culture, 1973) that the had a good grasp of technicaliti ‘Thin Is not surprising, given the years the hed spent in the business ab en ttctrene and director and the co-operative fnature of location work on her early mountain filme. But his description of Ther behaviour, which presumably also applies to Triumph ofthe Will a more Inatructive piture ofthe fil director as {ogisticn supervieor: ‘She would ‘rush leround from one cameraman to the other like a maniac seying—how are you ddoing? how about this and this? ssrear- {ng and hollering, of she was an absolute ‘maniac, she was wild” ‘How then did her cameramen do? The ‘amount of material which i either out of focus or reframed in mid-shot suggests ‘Dut they di not doa well xis normally suggested by the ertial alam the fm hhas received. Of course the aerials ofthe marching columns, the general view of {the City of Tents the arrival of the battie Standards in the Luitpold Hall and the ‘Ceremony of the Fallen are impressive, because auch masciveness impresses itelf automatically on us. But even io these Sequences not all the operation is good. ‘Rrother points in the fim the spray gun technique of tbe newstes] men is more fspperent in abota which crab and track ‘om bite’ to ews. ‘There is alao the ocasional yank to contre frame the Sbjeet of tho shot. One can only agree ‘wih one of Ricfenstah' Teading apalo- sta, Richard Meron Baram: “The Schiovements of Riefenstah's large crew ‘re unimpressive” : "Phin is not true of shot composition, as there is almort no moment even in the most prosaic of shots when the aesthetic principles of the Greeks are not being Sbeyed. But before crediting Riefenstabl ‘rth this it would be aa well to remember {he overall aeethetc atmoephere that was being ereated around the party, which it ocumented in Art in the Third Reich eee [Hediana Unieetiey Pres, 1970 gives in one ae dee amnainbered grou (rom the ey ew hfe cera aad alee S seme crew fm ebie FETS" Rieeneant has even 10 camer ee Za sormally be pre Bs mi toe mcand camera 1 hy the gre Sen saad fe oe Clearly are teame sie Riionine tat Left: the banners of Nuremberg. Above: Leni Riefenstahl with ac brounshire uniform; Hitler on the platform.by Berthold Hin Ax aesthetic prac perm, her cameramen could hove boon pecad, even, without her” explicit {etruction, to frame deliberstely let ot right of, above all, to look constantly Awards, not just st the FUlrer but at {he enive ca of characters including bit players and extrem, eopecally i thooe {xtra ee i uniform. ‘One ofthe central problems of fascia, su both Hing and Susan. Sootagy have pointed out, that ie aatheies offer no Bscontinaiy inthe aesthetic. devslop- tment of our culture, Fascist aesthetics ite product of Western aesthetics. This {'ehy the Riefenstal industry can be fcnamoured of the form of Triumph of the Will while desperately trying to da- fvow ita content, ‘That eannot be done; {ind consideration of the low ange, the ‘moet prevalent compositional technique Chef, neatly Uhstrates why not. “The original technique of low angle viewpoint "wes used in the Renata i drewing diel wat, Since thee statuee mere twvally routed 00 Des: Leni Riefenatahl with Hit SEEM ot eed that ty wee 20 Rifentohl with Hier ne soerteele ice. Renin. In Risfenstah's own contemporary hotel are for the most part just well history, pare TERUANy of he sublime added to (ghorted) description of the film itis, enough exposed for one to aoe the bad. st stake bere is HeereRie tect (Berthold Hing, “The Fuhrer above all Above the tremen- new of the post-synchiog. which it should Riefenstahl ind ‘The viewpoint places the abeerver level dous symphony of crowds, marching be ead is time. Taide decades dutifll ei E F i E etter job was done— nature of bet syith the fet of the statue; whichis, as columns, meetings, io, Files points out, ‘an accurate reflection marches and congremes’ How she but that auditorium can be considered et nied Speer's aout reality in the nae that a Kick achieves this opposition isa second snd a studio, and one which bad been avail: ‘ras confused. Heer eictant threst’ ‘Thus a more signifeant reason, beyond a sim- able for planning for at least seven farted ‘0 claims pre-fasct artistic convention, with spe- lite view of content, why the Riefen- months, Slmed Streicher. Piss connotations, i» taken tp by the stabl industry cannot avoid or separate Moro astonishing, n view ofthe sixty: or because of farcits and ‘those’ connotations ate out in come wey the inherent fasciam of one hours of material, is the fact that ‘To forget Ste thereby extended, ‘The reault ls aot an the film, there are few out of focus shots in the ‘Seurmer. the Gomi sevulaion in the novfascitt "The sequence in the tent ‘ity of aol- lm and that those are of the Fthrer, In the Nazi leaders ‘idwer on the contrary, the shared aes dere and workers'—a city of masa blu. other words, not one of all ber catnerat ‘considered no si Thue’ cflectivly covebta, the viewer. ‘ions, masa consumption of saunage and could give Riefenstahl a good shot of Tnevitaby, given our aesthetic history, black bread, the labour of logring and Hitler at a couple of crucial moments Tee se evel Gominaten Triumph of the the horseplay of wrestling and blanket- ‘The most crucial ip when the plane lands wins toning—is the film's moat perfect us. in the first sequence, The shot begine tration of Sontag's situations of control, with two out of focus Lufthansa stewards Its not an inconsistency that Lean both submissive behaviour and extravagant running for the door; Hitler steps out ony Risteosteh's real fesponsibility for effort’ This i the nearest the film comes and the camera does not focus up unt Ghe'camotawock yot claim that the flim to looking behind the scenor, but Riefen- Goebbels stops out after him. It is not eflects her onences with fascat aosthet- stabi is ot interested in documenting antl five shots after his frst appearance {es This is because, an Susan Sontag has the organisation ofthe Rally. She lenves that we sce him infocus, Riefenstabl het TBeamented, Riefesatahl'e preoccupation the beauties of the city and the formal never disputed Siegfried Kracauers eReeaN oneprenty and themes cow surface of ceremony and mecting to con- reading of the significance of her opening Light, "ber TR RatT inte the 20n Un 1973, centte on such things ns muscular sequence, that it is e god descending: telested io 1932 (OE encan documentary, one. is young men. standing ox ach other ‘The whole ching would fll pert Hitler tid, The man ‘Bicunded to bese her describe tbe extras backs and racing, ike the charioteere in ia atthe end of it all discovered rend Bela Balsa. He Wr cne‘Gt her fle as "coming from the Ben-Hur. ‘This a not without signif. on the round. Hence, sft shots "Refonstal is Wusctom the Gothic -- Weat Gothic, cance. ‘The egret. expressed. by. the Apart from being forced ta ube out of fect that none Past they, have decedent faces; long, Ricfenstahl industry that there’ i» focu sots, Rifensiabl wa also req locutors ever el sate ey nave bigs. taco.) neatly ineradicable relationship between to eshoot some other material. Ths i ‘There are two nhac secthetis, i Sontags words, Leni Riefenatahl end Nazim’ would be, revesled by Albert Speer in his memoirs not mesh toget nae eet mccceupation inthe ight ofthese choices, abrurd were Inside the Third Reich. The introductory» ale Of (MIN situntionn of contre submisive ienot vo distasteful speech of Hees and the statements of he lectern was Seheviour and. extrmagant effort the This tnt city sequence aio contaia Rosenberg, Frank and Steicher were the background Seana people inte things; the mui. further evidence ofthe limitations of the fled, he says, Inter in Belin. Speet fend the lectern Hae ee a sod Groupings of flming."The camera pana resolutely away cai, with that self-serving naivety all Paeetthiogs exchnd an Gil powerful from some wrestling action to frame a surviving Nazis eeem ta adopt that be Pee ectes give or force Fascist line of tenta Obviouly the crew than wae upset by Hee’ ability to duplicate TaPEeiiesmarentericezalte mindlee- spotted the wrestling and repositioned toon the duplicate set in Bein, in, the MEEOTNG Malet par of thin quotation fl 8, ing reloctors craly to light absence of the PUbrer, exactly the exe overs the dominant {ho boye Thin cradenear i of w piece pasion he had called up in Nurember, withthe other lighting inthe fz. Te ia But, be say, ‘Frau Rifenetahl on te Hitler end be ones of the crowd. The claimed that Rieferstahl was pioneering other hand thought the acted, scenes Tiel thts opposition a tranepareet. a numberof location lighting techniques; better than the original presentation ‘ideology ofthis opposition is transparro fg reclla of these experimenia are For Riefonstahl this revelation wat & Fie Aa ETRE Ae beeely ince nthe nl cat But lor, bncaune oben aan aves mer, (Banton, New Yok, 39)” throwing a searchlight across past of a that daepite the fact she is grat artist Sontag, "Fascinating, Fuachm’ New, York crowd is simple, ineffective and ulti she did nothing mor ‘et Nuremberg than ewe of ois te, Rept, MEE! Gainly nck very adventurous, Those Sn the event ‘Nok a sngle scene i fornia Pr 178). Tight ahota of the bund outade”Hitler' staged. Everything is geouine ... Tt is 104history, pure history” What i crucially At atake here i her credibility with the Riefenstabl industry, who have for two scades dutifully reported the ‘acta!’ ‘nature of her coverage. First she simply {enied Speers stories, claiming that be ‘was confused, ‘Thon in the 1id-70s ehe Ttarted to claim that she infact only Fe- flmed Streicher, because abe forgot hin, fr because of camera ful, To forget Streicher, publisher of Der ‘Stirmer, the moat rabidly antisemitic of the Novi leaders, would of course be fomiered no sin, But if abe did forget flim it wan Because his obsession, with cal purty wan not the first order of Dbuniness et the 6th Congres. is anyway unlikely that she did any euch thing Streicher wes Gauleiter of the Gau of Franconia, Io which Nuremberg lien. He twos credited by her with, co-operation Turing the making of the film, Ieluding the provieion of crew accommodation. More than that, im a legal dispute with her cowniter and director on The Blue Tight, ber first independent. feature releaned in 1992, she invoked Streicher’s tid. The man in depute with her was ‘Bela Beleza, Ho was a Jew. “Riefenstahl is helped by the simple fact that none of ber credulous inter focutors ever closely examines the film. ‘There are two shots of Hess and they do not taeth together, in one the sertied ranks of men behi the lectern was facing Hitler the background la light with a Sagpole tnd the lectern seems to be facing the fall. This speech of Hess has Ube worst Syne, apart from the music, in the film. Th tact there are seven patterns of light ‘on the backgrounds of the twelve speak (tr in thin aequsnce. ‘Two of thove ‘mentioned. by Speer a» having been ‘eshot in Berlin share exactly the same Deckground ee Eno others not mentioned. Four have completely individual back rounds, and of these, ogain two are Shentioned by Speer and two are not. Tt Fr probebly enfe to asume that only the four ho share one pattern of back: fqround lighting end are not mentioned Bp Speer are im the Laitpols Hall, For “Horseplay in the tent ‘city of soldiers and workers’ the reat it must be an open question, Riefenstah's protesta not ing Since the filming was neither affective bor totaly ‘actual, Rifenstabl’s skill os tan editor becomes a main plank of the Fisfenotahl industry's platform. Let us turn to that claim, beginning with the f thole che limited sub- ject matter, the Elm is inordinately long find erushingly repetitive, marching ind. marches, meetings, ond —$—$—$—_$—_———— 6A poet among hacks? — Richard Meran Barsam ——————— concerned with creating ‘hills and Walleye Her notion of what these might be fe attenuated. Take the great march described. even by Bersam ax Rengehy’. Tt asta eighteen minutes, and four seconds. But it is preceded by equence~the Ceremony of the Fallen— ‘Sitch lata eleven minutes and seventeen. [Teconds, well over half of which is taken ‘up with marching about; and itis fol owed by the cling sequence of the film {nthe Laitpold Hall, which begins with pers (and tpeech of the il). Hr nation of «valley Trcludes one over ten minutes across in ‘which w alely shot tour of Nuremberg in the early, morning is fllowed by the goings-on in ‘Tent City and concludes ‘pith badly cat coverage of men, women ind children in fll costume progresing, ome of ther eventually being presented ta Hider "The fln’s reputation as a work of immense power depends—it seems to me fucilly depende—on thove public omain printe which ave of Title more ‘Baking judgment (a failure, i) part, Tapetted in ber next two documentarice Fost der Volkes and Fest der Sehonhett): the in a in love wth Her own material 3 ‘he average Slo student, Thus it was Gh “tramph of the Will was far £00 {ong to serve any useful purpose, except to influence thove alreedy committed to Resin. And in, 1024/95 there was a Droming reason why such a flm might be "The structure of the film is obviously crudely to contrast formality and (com erative) informality, night and day, Biarch and apeech, to have ‘hills and ‘elloye. But that isnot the Ting requirement. Neither thet ‘Hitler has come from the Kindle ancient Nuremberg with the pri tal Teuton Se, to liberate the energy {ind apisit of the German people’ (Ken Kelman, Film Culture, 1972). This sor. Of statement of the obvious does not ‘plain why the fin is the way itis and iy what cai, in tal. These questions TW caly be answered by looking closely tithe oetual politcal mensage ofthe fn {nite ime. ‘he Rally was held seventy days after the Rahm Putsch, The én ‘far cat and released an the purge of Left Sn men continued chroughout Germany. For Riofenstahl to maintain her status os tie arta, it ie necessary for ber con- ‘Santly to claim that abe had no idea ‘Shout the internal situation ofthe party {Although what Herbert Sechofer, the Same credited on the film as party Props: anda consultant, talked to her about Sfost thereby remain unclear) She says J interviews, I have fot one moment thought of Roba, and ‘T told Hitler that Tote know what i284 and what is $8 ‘t's important to establish what tarms Riefonstahl clits she agreed with Hitler for the making of the Bim. ‘Nobody of the party, including Goebbels, including Hiver, bas seen one metre.” She was flowed to shoot, edit and premiére the ‘with no interfrence (except of our that the 6lm was registered ith he censorship apparatus before public ereening), She cli in her interviews ‘oking her at her word, the careful and ‘oherent political structure of the Sim ecomes « purse, It is of course possible for her to have arrived at this political Structure by accident. "The fist line Importance of the 6th Annual Party Congress and. Ghorefore, of Triumph of the Will Fetsaine in the account both the event ‘ia the fla offer of the aftermath of the ‘ohm Putsch, A contemporary American Hlatist quoted in Hinton's The Filme of den pbfenatahl describes the scene at tise Ceremony for the Fallen thus: Hitler {faced hie 3a strmtroopers today for the Grat time snoe.the bloody DUES ‘There wes considerable tension in the (fodiu and f notied that Hitler’ own tran drawn wp in front of him, Cepatating “hon from’ the mass of brownabire”Hitler did. not iso fo the occasion: "Men of the sa and tbe 88, A fow months fo. « black shadow spread over the movement. Neither the 5a nor any other Institution of the party, has anything to 0 with thin shadow «-- And if anyone ‘ine against the spirit ofthe sa, thi will ft break the $4 but only those who dare {oan ageinet them. Only a lunatic or a Golibeente liar could think that I, oF fnybody, would ever dissolve what we ‘ourselves have built up over many long gears: The eyewitness reports that the Ex" Seemed unimprensed. Riefenstahl helps along this rather poor performance of the big lie in aetion by emphasising ‘the dazzling spectacle ofthe setting. One rut of couree sympathise with Hile's torical problem on this occasion. Even ft be spoke thousands of lower level $4 ‘cadres ‘were being dismissed from the penty and some arested. Between two find four hundred bad already been kale. "Yet Riefenstal knew nothing of this ‘That Hitler is seen in the fm more io brown shit sa uniform than any other is f fact of history. That she chooses to begin the speeches in the Congreae—for obody waa ordering her—vith Wagner ‘reading Hitler's proclamation that, ‘no evolution could fast for ever without Jeading to total anarchy’ was an accident. It was a politiesl accident and purely artatic that every speaker inthe film but three and Hitler on each occasion that be ‘speaks in some way or another deals with the threat from the left posed by the sa FRovenberg speaks of today’s ‘special ‘youth (the 8h was dominated by 20-year. ‘Bids well ax achoolteschers and civil fervants) who ate “torapestuously charg. Ing forward’ and who "wil one dey be Caled upon to continue the efforts berua. in the stormy years of the 1918 Munich revolution’ (My italics) “One day’ the fecial revolution then implied will con tinue—but not now! The speeches of ‘Todt, the chief autobahn engineer, Rein- hardt, hee of the speech training school ‘of the party, Dart, the agriculture min- {Star and Hie! of the Reich Labour Service all emphasise the progress that has boon made in reviving work. Ley, the leader of the Reich Labour Front, sums itup.-One thought slone must dominate tllour mork: to make the German worker fan upetanding proud citizen enjoying equal righta withthe reetof the nation” ‘Fis octal trust dominates Risfenstab's election to the point where other topics tn the perty agenda are almost forgotten. "Apatt from this sequence of speakers, only on one occasion do we see @ gather being addressed. without Hitler. Wtze, one of the leart affective of Nazi speakers, the man who had sveceeded ‘Hokm, is beard to utter these (immor- tal?) words: "Comrades, many of you who lie here tonight know me from thote Brat gear. of our movement when T matched with you in your rank and file (ban ss man. Tam ex much of an 54 fan now as Tas then. We SA men know only one thing: fidelity to and fighting for the Fobrec. ‘Neither the import of the message nor the quality of the shots suggests a reason for the inclusion of this sequence. Had ‘we not Riefenstah’s denial, we could “Hitler drives into Nuremberg. Mercedes with @ mage windscreen” ‘perhaps understand it. the last apeoch UF the fla, Hitler returns to the task: "in the past our adversaries, through suppression and "persecution, have ‘leaned the party from time to time of the rabbish that began to appear. Today two must do the mustering out and Giscaog of what Rave proven to be "Riefenstahl's frat defence to this case that the film has an obvious and domi hhant politi! Hine fs to claim she knew nothing because che was out of Germany ‘ver the summer of 1934—ea if radio and ‘ewspapers were yet to be invented. ‘T fas at tia ime in Spain. look, in the ‘whole film as Hitler is speaking to the 54 he mentions in one moment the R8hm ‘fei, Hitler mentions this because it twas coming out from this and #0 be tiona this, But Thave not thought to make this .-. itis only soparate. Even Hitler hag spoken only a very few words bout thin’ (Film Culture interview, 1973) ‘The film, as we have see tured around Hitler's immediate need to contain the mumericaly powerful but Iaderiesh sa. In ao far an the a were contained and in 90 far eo Triumph of the Will operated in that containment, thus far it as succesful a p Let Risfenstahl know nothing of Rahm. other thi SEI don't want tobe linked with eoncen- tration carps, [have never seen ther. 1 hhad nothing to do with them” Normative editing ules area contract, it were, betwoen film-maker and audi- fce as to the nature and quality of ‘the realty’ on offer, Yet, with forty-nine oF {more cameras, Rfenstahl brenks every tliting rule in the book. She hacks pan fo pan, abe reverses actiop (crosses the Ting), she jump cuts eyne. action, But mont signticant ofall Ube fact that ll hove cameras yield a scant half-dozen matched cuta in the entire lm (end roost Gf those are flbe—in the blanket-tossing Sequence) The matched cot i in & fmulticamera shoot at least, a sort of fuarantee on the contact implied by the Siting. Tostesd Riefenstahl uses the Cutaway to cutaway atyle of Rutimann's Berlin: die Symphanie einer Grossstadt, Siyle invented not t0 thet the norma: five rules of narrative editing might be bupended but rather that they might be twhen the footage was non repetitive ‘actuality’ The cutaway to cutaway technia destroys the pouiblity of the view eaing off the rlationship of any shot (o any other shot except here an ‘hvious interruption takes place. The ult is that “the concrete “reality” of Turemborg. becomes tenuous’, a8 even ‘he Riefenstabl industry has noticed. Of ‘course one knows that, al ninety feet 8 ‘minute, on portable cameras long takes srere then dificult. And one also knows ‘does i to carry on tht process with such dlioregerd for Ube maintenance of cost! fully of time and place that abe reaches ‘an extreme, "Toke the opening of the film: Hitler's plane plane we never see Hitler in— Tscende through heavy cloud and et the ame time canta a sharp edged shadow 02 the ground below, a metrorological sit tion not often encountered. All normative eadinge of narrative suggest that the hcowed columna are marching 10 meet the, plane, They never get there, The ‘row atthe airild isnot at the airfield: this crowd ts shown standiog on walls td in front of trees. There are no walls Cr'trees at the arfeld, as i revesled in he widest of the eatablshing shots of the plane, hia shot is iteel? 2 little “since it shows a crowd, od thin tebout ax Biles of thirty peopl ————_—_— (er brilliant control of montage?— hard Meran Barsam —————_——————— 1h), standing before the equally odaly ‘Tesered plane: Then there ita wide shot Of the plane surrounded by ofSeils and fare. But the plane itself isa litle Strange, for i appears to have quite ‘Hiterent markings om either side of its fail I would auggest that Riefnstabl was (otally wrong footed at the airport (he ut of focus abot of Hitler comes here ha is further indication: and that on the evidence of the fm the arrival was staged witha mall crowd of extras and he eequence constructed with material ‘hot elswere "iter then drives into Nuremberg. He does this in a Mercedes with = magic Sindscreen, which im sore shots is UP {Ind in other laid Bat on the bonnet. In fact this drive ie constructed from to ‘rives, the second (with the windscreen down) being used later in che film 0s wrote is Congress windscreea In untidy ac up shots swtablishing these closes surrounded t suigest he 200m) les "This const aways bane ¢ Tine, is 8 coma parade, such Traders stam Hither is asia fone has no id parades there ‘Stahl can do can see her d the limite 6 Bite from. ax lees, Bt into. that aight a in achieved records them seme pace—t file am Roar ‘Given that erally domi tingle shots + fe actually pe (especially soundtrack bands, lau) sty not? a) Hels) wkd Norembere inthe Ceres rally and the Hall do wel soumbers of | ro fen {rete f Tost Sato peo Bed Pepe setae arta tke faa ie a iy me's ino quest ‘veracity ofl Goebbels 52 per cent“even Aly edly we ahet ‘ale and ii ide oie tbl was (the Levies otha on crv waa frre and material berg. He 1 a tage sols UD monet. Th ‘rom two Jindseroen ve Al 8 the there mast be a posabilty that another drive or drives is involved inthe cutting, During the dive he enters a tunnel of fuite diferent proportione from the one fe eit, Close-ups at the hotel could not hove been taken an he arrived because the camera needed for them is notin the ‘otablishing ehot. (The foreshortening of these closeupe in which Hitler is een surrounded by officials i not sufficient to ggest, the tse of an ultra-long (say StOmm). lens which could. bave been mounted out of the range of the other cameras.) "This construction of action, with cut- ‘avaye ung out on it ike washing on 2 fines «constant inthe film. tn the nal parade, such are the changes among the Radere standing before the Mercedes Hitler is uring a8 reviewing stand, that ‘one haa no idea from the film bow any parades Usere actualy were. That Risfen- Fahl can do thie with the material is a ‘mesure not of her editing sil, for one fan 200 ber doing it quite plainly, but of the limited variety of coverage she had. Bits from any one scene can, more oF less, it into any other scene, save only thet night and day, interior and exterior fre not crosa-cut Phat a certain rhythm achioved i Deeause the event, a3 abe records them, all took place at about the fame pacea medfarn march ora twenty ale an hour ear ide. ‘Given that Hitler, ‘the figure who lit- ‘erally dominates’, does, 30° mainly “ingle shote or small tight group sbot, it ctully possible for the viewer to ask (Gapocially inthe light of the added foundirack with ite oub-Wagerian fhands, laughs, guffews and {perhape— ‘thy not?] augmented applause and ‘Sieg Hell’) whether ‘Hitler war really at Nuremberg for the 6th Parteitag. Only in the Ceremony of the Fallen, the youth tally and the nal entry into the Luitpold Hall do we see Hitler with substantial ruimbere of peopl. Elsewhere the crowds le average to thin of he is 60 far avay, that it could be an extra impersonatiog fm. This abeurdist rnult is what all ¢be Title lies of the editing finally add up to. arial (le- pletely made up of “actual” footage—t Elsimate in incontrovertible erodibility” (Ken Kelman, Film Culture, 1979); far from all thi Triumph of the Will, lt- imately because of fz cutting, achieves the eer imponable. So divcriented, co Ectionalised, is the editing that it calls into question quite often. material the ‘eracty of which fs assured us by other ‘Souroes, other witnesses. Goebbels ‘was not antsfed with having 52 per cent of the nation and terrorising ‘tional Socialists do not place any par ‘eular value on our 6& marching sero1s the stage ‘or screen... The National Socialist government ‘has never ssked that 84 filme should be made. On the ‘ontrary-—itseee the danger in « surplus ft them: Thus Goebbels in 1935 (quoted In Film Propagenda, by Richard Taylor) Hitler, however, was not 39 sure (Goebbels favoured the ‘independence’ of ideologically safe film-makers. Prrough the Reichefimkammer the induetry had been purged of Jewish and other allen elements, It was safe to leave the remainder ‘free. This eystem applied ‘pot only to ln-maers. ‘Artists were not pecessatily politically committed—many (trusts successful uader national social- {sm would later cite this point to exon- rats themselve’ (Berthold Hine). Which —_—_—_—_———— ‘The film genius lives within you and you have raised the cinema up to the heights where it usually does not ascend —Jean Cocteau ——_—_ ia exactly what Riefeoatahl has done. So determined was Goobbels to leave @ fdimulacrum of ‘independence’ that oven the newereel companies, the regime's major visual propaganda medium, were Taken over via a front organisation apd only openly nationalised in 1940. ‘Riefenatahl has been embarrassed by ‘on the release print of Triumph Seetion, She claima itis Ti the independent nature of her Olympic film production company to prove the independence of this earlier work, But the reality of dlm-making independence tunder National Socialiam ise fition. Tt really does “not matter who commis: Sioned, produced or financed the film. ‘One way or another the Nezis ran the German Sen industry. ‘All of Riefenstah's ‘spiel fala into place. OF course it was Hitler who asked er to make the film, since Goebbels, the apostle of indirect propagends, would be fagainat it, Thre 42 then the’ wuppoved hostility Goebbels hed for her. There is ro evidence of animosity beyond perhape the sexism of the Nazis and a real belief thet she was doing counter productive Wwork. In the event, Goebbels waa right. ‘The flim. war not well received. She ‘laima that one of hor demands from Hitler was that abe never be asked to do {film for the Goverement again. Why ‘would they want apother? Hitler had Uisagreed with Goebbals, but Triumph of the Will hed made Goebbels’ point ‘Goebbels was eertainy friendly enough to give the film the 1985 National Film Priae: oho denien it toa teibunal in 1947 ‘Rod aa lete as 1972 abe ie tll denying {hat she ever received official recognition from the Nazis," don't want to have aay Kind of officiel honour because I need my ime -., { want to be 100 per cent Independent. ‘Aker Triumph of the Wil, the main thrust of the Nesi propaganda machine In the area of actuality Gln was to exploit the audience's asive trust and belief in the nowaree, the sort of trust in the redibity of film sowhere more touch- fly. and lingeringly exhibited than by the Ricfenstabl industry. ‘The paintings of German fascism no longer reflected ality but presented it in such a way Ghat, it. perlyaod consciousnest” says ‘Berthold Hing, No move paralysed colee- tion of consciousnesses ean be found then thooe which have for twenty yeas OF 20 ously devoted themselves %0 Rie- {enstahl. 1 can sympathise with those smitten by the charming persona of this Stl beautiful ates, with her lisp and le gin voice creating a picture not of fy wise polteal woman in her thir “iancer fm star and fl divector fm the Weirar Republic, but rather the innocent, uncorrupted "Fraulein who fever went to see Me Hitler but se took her mother end father. But, without any vests or saving pleas to at, to deal ‘ih this lm is unavoidably to deal with Nazism, Arthas nothing to do with it. Tt (the art of the Third Reich) was evasive, fn that it made no reference whatever to what we regard a8 the salient features of The rogime, and it was corroborative, in {hat Riwent along with what people most ‘wanted to be told As to the true nature ‘of the times, i els us nothing. As to the rue ature of art, i tells un even less.” ‘This stands for Triumph of the Will perfectly. Tt is gross, syeophantic, men- Bfctous and masochistic. It works only ‘eeaue of Speers spectacle. "The West has too much enjoyed, not to tay lunutiated in the spectacle of the ‘dehumanised mass—the Trooping of the Colour, 42nd Street chores, the sea of fevolutlonaries before the Winter Palace, {he race for the Cimarron Strip. If we have paid a price for this taste, then it fwan'¢ part of the price we paid to the uecits, For too Tong has Riefenstahl (ded on erties amnesia and their add ition tape, Here ty no anlent Ihippodrome, no Monument Valley har femly to fescinate the flm-maker. The Darades of such fantasies, the pornogra: Phy’ of such e notion of human perfection Po millions of dead. To be asked to forget them for ay work of at is prepos- ferbus, To be aaked to forget them for thin piece of frantic yet curgily crude echique is particuaily unacceptable. Speeches at the Nuremberg. Congress are petty ngade to Picamph of ihe Ay Rlcbard Maran” Barro Ucey Prem: 181). Richard Tayor Pin" Proparendo, G90) waray that fii ret aterm quoted in The Films of iepslahl by Suael B Hinton (7) ce el at tentahl-Falen Film Goddess iB kote Bint 8. ww