![\"TriumphOfTheWillSynapse_BR\"](\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/TriumphOfTheWillSynapse_BR.jpg\")
First up is Synapse\u2019s excellent new 2K transfer of Leni Riefenstahl\u2019s ultimate propaganda film, Triumph of the Will <\/strong>\/ Triumph des Willens<\/strong><\/a> (1935), billed by the Nazis as a \u2018document\u2019 of the 1934 Nazi party rallies, but really a bloated branding exercise aimed at\u00a0the German populace to ensure they knew who was boss.<\/p>\nAs I state in the review \u2013 somewhere within its 3400 words (ahem) \u2013 Riefenstahl shall remain a controversial figure in film history. A former dancer, actress, and later director, her affiliation with the Nazi party ensured a fast rise as their leading documentarian, culminating propaganda-wise with Triumph<\/strong>, but creatively with the stirring two-part Olympia<\/strong> (1935). Both films are obvious examples of her brilliance as a director, editor, and conceptualist, but as seen in Ray M\u00fcller\u2019s documentary The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl<\/strong> \/ Die Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl<\/strong> (1993), the grumbly filmmaker refused to admit she was aware of bad things going on within the regime.<\/p>\n That she was immune to any knowledge of mass killings, or the source of the extras used\u00a0in her final feature seems absurd, and yet her legacy as a filmmaker continues to influence, especially in the realm of montage. While Triumph<\/strong> may be the scariest and most perfectly rendered advert for a murderous totalitarian regime seeking international respect, Olympia<\/strong> (which I\u2019ll review much later) shows the director attempting to distance herself from governmental propaganda and focus on her<\/em> main fetish: the body beautiful, in stillness and in motion.<\/p>\n The film was reportedly part of the U.S. Government\u2019s denazification <\/a>plan and was screened to German audiences between 1948-1949, but never in the U.S., possibly due to its graphic content which includes concentration camp footage that remained unseen to American audiences, until Stanley Kramer and Abby Mann\u2019s Judgment at Nuremberg<\/a> <\/strong>(1961) used footage to ram home the culpability of Nazi officials and present a dramatic version of the trials that sought to bring murderers to justice, and put on commercial record the regime\u2019s mass extermination program.<\/p>\n![\"VictoryOfTheFaith1933\"](\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/VictoryOfTheFaith1933.jpg\")
Synapse\u2019s new Blu also includes a short follow-up doc by Riefenstahl, Day of Freedom<\/strong> \/ Tag der Freiheit<\/strong><\/a> (1935), which focuses exclusively on the infantry, and I\u2019ve added a review of Victory of the Faith<\/strong> \/ Der Sieg der Glaubens<\/strong><\/a> (1933), often regarded as a precursor to Triumph<\/strong>. Much shorter and cruder in execution, Faith<\/strong>\u00a0was believed lost until a copy was found in storage 60 years after its release, and is available for viewing at Archive.org.<\/p>\n![\"NurembergItsLessonsForToday_poster\"](\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/NurembergItsLessonsForToday_poster.jpg\")
To add some sobriety to Riefenstahl\u2019s pro-Nazi trilogy, I\u2019ve included a review of Stuart Schulberg\u2019s Nuremberg: Its Lessons for Today \/\u00a0N\u00fcrnberg und seine Lehre<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>(1948), another film thought lost but restored decades later by the director’s family.<\/p>\n