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RUBFRIILKAM

today could hardly reveal it. The parades had         “I was not Hitler’s mistress. If I were, I would
been replayed dozens of times.The marching            have committed a suicide, like Eva Braun”
was structured and set. The prettiest national-
socialists are in the front rows, they are a sort of  Leni at the age of 100
extras with an assignment. The eminent party
members: Goering, Goebbels, Hess, Himmler,                                                        September 2015
were separately filmed, outside of the congress.
They were given indications on how to behave,
practically they were actors. Hitler’s speech
is carefully set and rearranged. It was filmed
with special lenses, from a special mild low
angle, in order to achieve the desired powerful
appearance of a leader. Leni ordered a fire
crane in order to film the event from height
and in motion, and after this the crane became
a standard stage technique in film production.
Although this film presents a dark period and it
is in support of fascism, “Triumph of the Will”
is an unsurpassed film work within its own
domain. For eighty years, it has been the alpha
and the omega, a paradigm of the classical
political propaganda.

   However, Leni Riefenstahlin her own opus,
left another, far more worthy credit. She was
given the assignment to conduct the first
television broadcast in the history of humanity,
the Olympics in Berlin in 1936. In addition to
being responsible for the supervision of the
opening and the closing ceremonies, and the
protocols, Leni directed the broadcasting. The
setting of the cameras and the realization were
flawless. And to this date, the broadcastings of
the Olympics and all other mass events contain
her solutions in their essence.

   After the war, Leni Riefenstahl lived in
Switzerland, away from the public eye. In 1954
she underhandedlymade „Tiefland“, a romantic
movie about the life of a dancer, where once
again she played the leading role. She looked
perfect even at the age of fifty one. However, the
movie was not a success, the smoke from the
war was still sensed throughout Europe, and
her name was on the black lists. After this, Leni
Riefenstahlentirely withdrew from the public
and this was her last film achievement.

   Before she died, she left to Africa and made
a series of photographs from the Masai tribe.
This exhibition still travels around the world,
and there you will undoubtedly recognize her
specific esthetics, which was also present in
Hitler’s “bizarre” propaganda. However, here
it is free of political and historical contexts.
Without stigma, just pure art.

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