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FRIULBMRIKA Igor Ivanov

If you have the opportunity to visit the national film museum in The author is a director
Berlin, situated in the architectural wonder called Sony Center
in Potsdamer Platz, you will see some original props from the
“Metropolis” and “Nosferatu”, rooms with a dozen shining
dresses of Marlene Dietrich, settings that reflect the lives of
Einstein, Richter, Fassbinder… Somewhere in the very middle of
this fascinating, thoughtfully preserved and organized exhibition
that proudly reflects the German cinematography, you will
enter a room full of sideboards and drawers. In the middle there
is a model of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium (Olympiastadion Berlin),
where with small letters it is written Leni von Riefenstahl. If you
open the drawers, in each one of themyou will find a monitor
with a movie signed by this author. The room is dedicated to one
of the greatest names of the German film, whose master pieces
remain hidden in cabinets you have to open yourself, a name
that Germany is proud of, however a bit furtively, silently.

LENI RIEFENSTAHL

“I was never Hitler’s mistress. Neither was I a this sensitive assignment was offered to the thirty-
national-socialist. If I had been, I would have killed year old German beauty, whose name became publicly
myself, like Eva Braun.” Leni Riefenstahl stated this in known with the movie “The blue light”, shown at the
the one hundred and second year of her life that ended film festival in Venice in 1932. She was the director of the
on September 8th 2003. film, but also played the leading role. Unlike Lang, Leni
grabbed the chance, considering it a great challenge.
After the power was taken by the National-Socialist She got an open budget and unlimited resources to film
party in 1933, the German Government introduced a the best propaganda films in history.
Ministry of Propaganda, headed by Joseph Goebbels. The
medium called film was established as a key tool in the Soon, throughout entire Germany and Italy, but also
plan for indoctrination and propaganda. A first-class in France, Great Britain and the United States, the
director was required, who would establish a system cinemas present the powerful parades of Hitler, the
of production and an ideal format of this powerful party and the Wehrmacht. These films raised the moral
weapons for mass-hypnosis. The choice was made, the to the highest level in Germany. However, the concern in
greatest of the greatest – Fritz Lang. During the meeting France and Great Britain increased, where they caused
withGoebbels, Lang said: I don’t know if you have been fear and indisposition.
informed, but my mother is Jewish, which means that
I am Jewish. The Minister’s answer was: Even if it is so, Seemingly, those were reportages. However, the
you are fortunate to speak to a person whocan decide truth is completely different. They are carefully
who is Jewish and who is not. Immediately after this thought-out propaganda films, which are only supposed
meeting, Fritz Lang silently leaves to USA, together with to look like reportages. The most famous one of them,
his family. Almost all great film authors leave as well, “Triumph of the Will”, where the congress of the Nazi
looking for their fortune in the Promised Land – the new party is documented, as well as Hitler’s most powerful
film paradise – Hollywood. On Hitler‘ recommendation, speech in his political history, is almost pure film
construction, which is so well made, that even a viewer

96 September 2015