Leni Riefenstahl
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
The Brink tracks similarly to how people read Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
Directed by Francis Lawrence
influenced by Triumph of the Will (1935)
Visuals
The parade of tributes reflects both the Fascist and gladiatorial aspects of the Hunger Games, the scale recalling "Ben Hur" crossed with Reifenstahl's "Triumph of the Will."
A parade scene for the upcoming games gives off a fascist “Triumph of the Will” vibe, while the fight sequences are taut, visceral and anything but glamorous.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
influenced by Triumph of the Will (1935)
Visuals
At least he resists trying a geometric shot of phalanxes of storm troopers marching down stairs à la Triumph of the Will.
Like the brilliant but troubling Leni Riefenstahl, the actress and filmmaker who immortalized Adolf Hitler in Triumph of the Will and is invoked throughout Basterds, Joseph Goebbels has created a film of unadulterated hero worship, Nation’s Pride, an ode to carnage on a colossal scale about an episode of extreme violence made respectable by soft filters and key lights.
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Directed by Mel Gibson
influenced by Triumph of the Will (1935)
Themes
For all that, this film is firmly rooted in the fantasy traditions of such predecessors as Raiders of the Lost Ark , Terminator , and Triumph of the Will .
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Directed by Peter Jackson
influenced by Triumph of the Will (1935)
Visuals
In "The Two Towers," he cribs an iconic image of massed troops from Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda reverie, "Triumph of the Will," but the allusion loses its punch when you realize that another shot of goose-stepping troops has been lifted from "The Wizard of Oz." Tolkien built his story on foundation myths; Jackson builds his on movies: The film's most charming new creature, a mossy shepherd named Treebeard, walks like the heron described by Tolkien but looks like a relation of the animated trees in "Oz."
It's all very satisfying in a geometric, "Triumph of the Will" sort of way.
There are also some arty indulgences, including Maximus’ bleached-out visions of his own death, shots of speeded-up clouds scudding over the desert, and black-and-white parade scenes that are clearly intended to evoke both Nazi-era Berlin and “Triumph of the Will.”
Soldiers move in formations out of Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will."
The opening-credits sequence remixes footage from Triumph of the Will and sets it to the Deutsch-language version of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” that The Beatles recorded for the German market.
In an apocryphal tale of cinema history, legendary director Luis Buñuel and Charlie Chaplin went to a screening of Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will .
From early scenes audaciously intercutting Triumph of the Will footage with the German Beatlemania sounds of Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand (other playfully anachronistic pop tunes include Tom Waits’s I Don’t Wanna Grow Up and David Bowie’s Helden), to later interludes in which Imaginary Adolf acts more like a petulant schoolboy than a murderous dictator, Waititi strives to capture young Jojo’s wide-eyed point of view.
But those parts, like playing the Beatles singing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in German over worshipful Hitler footage from “Triumph of the Will,” will definitely make you shake your head and smile.
Writer-director Taika Waititi’s asinine JOJO RABBIT begins with footage from “Triumph Of The Will” recut to an early German-language Beatles recording of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”
Waititi pairs clips of ecstatic fans from Triumph of the Will along with a German-language version of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” showing us people willingly succumbing to the Nazi ideology.
Some of the ideas in “Metropolis” seem echoed in Leni Riefenstahl's pro-Hitler “Triumph of the Will”(1935)--where, of course, they have lost their irony.
Reputedly from a New York and Hollywood trip, Thea von Harbous script for then-husband Fritz Langs Metropolis bulges with allusions to the past and suggestions to the future -- the directors own M and Dr. Mabuse films, Triumph of the Will, Modern Times¸ Dr. Strangelove, Blade Runner, Batman; The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Time Machine, R.U.R., 1984; Moloch and Messiah, a Flood, clock-crucifixion and auto-da-fé; Expressionism and Art Deco, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, and Fascism; Romanticism and pulp, all among endless influences before and after.
We’ve already mentioned Riefenstahl (director of “Olympia” and “Triumph of the Will”), but much more prominent are a kind of Spielbergian nostalgic glow/childlike thrill-of-action vibe in the earlier sections.
The Polar Express (2004)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
influenced by Triumph of the Will (1935)
Visuals
The child characters, even Hero Boy, and the adults on the train never blossom much beyond their initial appearance; the throngs of elves sometimes unfortunately suggest the climax of 1977's "Star Wars" or "Triumph of the Will."
It's infernal entertainment and comparisons to Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will are unavoidable (particularly in a disturbing rally scene), but it's hard to know how much of that intense martial creepiness is intended as satire, and how much of it is just what lies beneath.
While the film veers recklessly from neo-"Triumph of the Will" to Hong Kong action to anything else the traffic will bear -- and that's just in the opening hockey match -- it trots out a lively supporting cast.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)
Directed by Francis Lawrence
influenced by Triumph of the Will (1935)
Visuals
That power cannot help but corrupt is among Collins’ more potent themes (hinted at here in shots of a District 13 rally that can’t help but evoke “Triumph of the Will”), but one likely to be explored in greater depth — and ideally, with a freer hand — when “Mockingjay — Part 2” arrives at this time next year.
While the results are far from unprofessional--the cast is uniformly good, including a characteristically slapped-around Meryl Streep, and the two deer-hunting sequences mark director Michael Cimino as an able student of Disney's Bambi and Riefenstahl's The Blue Light--the male self-pity is so overwhelming that you'll probably stagger out of this mumbling something about Tolstoy (as many critics did when the film first came out in 1978) if you aren't as nauseated as I was.
The handling of patriarchal authority here has some queasy echoes of Leni Riefenstahl's treatment of Nazi officials in Triumph of the Will, reminding one that Disney was the only Hollywood figure to befriend Riefenstahl when she visited in the 30s; but the adroit mixture of pantheism and sentimentality continues to be sufficiently "timeless" to allow Disney's heirs to recycle this picture endlessly (1942).
It wasn't the movies, Michael - no matter how nice the parades came to look in Leni Riefenstahl's 1935 film, Triumph Of The Will.
Popularized in the Twenties and Thirties by producer-director Arnold Fanck with such on-location adventures as The White Hell of Pitz Palu (starring Leni Riefenstahl, who would go on to make Triumph of the Will), Fanck's heroic tales of bravery and endurance on snowy peaks struck a strange, ritualistic chord with Hitler and his gang.
Sans scale, I'm left with no less handsome animation, irritating songs, trite pop-culture references, and some ripe symbolism--everybody got up in arms up over a cloud in the movie that dissipates into the word "sex" (yet another subliminal discovery made by people with apparently so little to do, they should be forced into public service), but the parade of hyenas goose-stepping in high Triumph of the Will style passed completely without controversy--to appreciate.
My reaction watching Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will was similar to that of D.W. Griffiths The Birth of a Nation.
The first was D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” and the second was Leni Riefenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will.”
D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation is easy to admire for its technical innovation but easy to despise for its virulent racism; the Nazi hagiography Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will has similar pleasures – and problems.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Directed by Gareth Edwards
influenced by Triumph of the Will (1935)
Visuals
(Never forget that the original Star Wars includes both evil “stormtroopers” and a victory ceremony for the heroes closely modeled after Triumph of the Will .)