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 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,
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.
Leni Riefenstahl, a dazzling individual that has lived through and experienced many things that no other person may have. She has lived through the World War One, Great Depression, Nazi Germany, World War Two, the Cold war and September 11. However, what fascinates historians and people all over was her involvement and relationship with Hitler and the Nazis party. This report will look over Leni’s early to role as director of her Infamous films Triumph of the Will and Olympia and her involvement and view of Nazism and Hitler.
Spielberg and Benigni exhibit the significance of perspective in visual rhetoric. By analyzing their two differing depictions of the same event it is clear to see their arguments based on their perspectives. Through a simple yet effective image, Spielberg accentuates the immense tragedy of the Holocaust and commenting on the importance of recognizing the suffering of individual human beings. Benigni uses a completely different image to show the importance of love and family, the one thing that can never be stripped away from a human being. Spielberg’s image mainly appeals to the viewer’s logic while Benigni’s poster appeals to emotion as the main rhetorical appeal. Each was effective in their own way, delivering differing arguments and representations of the
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 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.
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.
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.
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 at 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 the Second World War, to highly political features that addressed pre and post-Second World War issues critically.... ... middle of paper ...
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
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.
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
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...
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.