Fascism in Olympia Festival of Nations vs. Triumph of the Will...

[RadioRaheem84]

Hey guys,

I am trying to write a paper by examining some of the obvious fascist aesthetics in Leni Refienstahl's Olympia: Festival of Nations vs. Triumph of the Will. What makes them productively the same even in their different differences? What makes them both "fascist"?

Some students in my class say it is not a fascist film but I beg to differ.

Any links that show just how fascist Leni's other films were?

[Jazzhands]

I am trying to write a paper by examining some of the obvious fascist aesthetics in Leni Refienstahl's Olympia: Festival of Nations vs. Triumph of the Will. What makes them productively the same even in their different differences? What makes them both "fascist"?

Triumph was obviously a fascist film because it was made as fascist propaganda, for fascist purposes, in a fascist country, under the direct supervision of a fascist leader. Fascism.

Triumph makes Hitler into a godlike messiah figure. The film starts with him literally descending from the clouds into a mass of loyal followers. The camera shoots up at Hitler from below to make him appear tall, godlike, etc. The most famous scene is the end. Hess makes a speech saying "The Party is Hitler, but Hitler is Germany, as Germany is Hitler" or something of that nature. The point is to confuse the distinctions between Hitler, the Nazi Party, Germany, and the German people. So if the Party is Hitler and Hitler is Germany, then the Party=Germany by the transitive property. Thus, if you are/were against the Party in any way, shape or form, you are Anti-Germany. Identifying the nation with the ruling government in order to manipulate nationalism is one of the key tools of fascism.

I don't really know much about Olympia, so I'm not capable of making a very good comparison. You should also look into "Tag Der Freiheit, Unsere Wehrmacht." (day of freedom, our wehrmacht.) it focuses, obviously, on the Wehrmacht and features a lot of the same themes as Triumph.

[praxis1966]

I'm not hugely familiar with her work, though I have heard of it. I did a little digging, and came up with a 2003 obit written in The Guardian which can be found here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2003/sep/09/world.news1). If that article is accurate, then those two particular films certainly were fascist especially in their "initial intent," to use the article's words. It goes on to say that they were funded by the Nazi regime and as a result, despite being commissioned in the first place by the IOC, were done in such a way as to glorify the Nazi übermensch. As propaganda, according to the article, they were intended as the shiny face of Nazi Germany to the world as opposed propaganda for a German audience.

I'd also recommend Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction if you haven't already read it, the full text of which can be found here (http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/marxists/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm). He's a Marxist cultural critic, as I'm sure you're already aware, and in that essay he dissects fascism and it's use of aesthetic in film. Further, there's a pretty good analysis of Benjamin which can be found in a 1977 Jump Cut article here (http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC15folder/WalterBenjamin.html). There's also Benjamin's collected work Illuminations: Essays and Reflections which would probably be helpful, but I'm too lazy to find the full text online. That one you're gonna have to track down yourself.:lol:

EDIT: As an aside, I think your classmates may be falling victim to exactly what Benjamin described more or less as falling under the spell of the illusion of personality. Sure, Olympia has a great aesthetics. But that's entirely the point, to mesmerize people to the point that their thoughts become the thoughts of the film. Couldn't possibly be fascistic because it just looks so damned good, right? Right?!:laugh:

[x359594]

Susan Sontag famously addressed Riefenstahl's alleged non-fascist works like Olympia in "Fascinating Fascism" her review-essay of Riefenstahl's photo book The Last of the Nuba. A few excerpts:

“Although the Nuba are black, not Aryan, Riefenstahl’s portrait of them is consistent with some of the larger themes of Nazi ideology: the contrast between the clean and the impure, the incorruptible and the defiled, the physical and the mental, the joyful and the critical...Fascist aesthetics include but go far beyond the rather special celebration of the primitive to be found in The Nuba. They also flow from (and justify) a preoccupation with situations of control, submissive behavior, and extravagant effort; they exalt two seemingly opposite states, egomania and servitude. The relations of domination and enslavement take the form of a characteristic pageantry: the massing of groups of people; the turning of people into things; the multiplication of things and grouping of people/things around an all-powerful, hypnotic leader figure or force. The fascist dramaturgy centers on the orgiastic transactions between mighty forces and their puppets. Its choreography alternates between ceaseless motion and a congealed, static, 'virile' posing. Fascist art glorifies surrender; it exalts mindlessness: it glamorizes death."

[brigadista]

Tiefland was a project that she had earlier shelved when persuaded by a determined Hitler to undertake Triumph of the Will. Shot on location near Kitzbühl, Austria, the filming dragged out over nearly four years. In order to enhance the story's “gypsy” flavor, Riefenstahl aides arranged to “borrow” some 51 young Roma prisoners from the nearby labor camp at Maxglan-Leopoldskron as extras. For the indoor scenes, filmed in Berlin-Babelsberg in 1942, Riefenstahl used as extras at least 66 Roma and Sinti inmates, virtually all males, from the Berlin-Marzahn camp for Gypsies. Allegations that the German Criminal Police returned the Roma, after fulfilling their “obligation,” to the Maxglan and Marzahn Gypsy camps (Zigeunerlager) and later deported them to their deaths at Auschwitz, were serious enough to involve Riefenstahl in a civil suit. That suit was dropped in 2002 only after her production company retracted a public statement Riefenstahl had made in which she claimed that all of the extras had survived the war. Tiefland premiered in 1954, eight years after French authorities occupying the Tyrol arrested Riefenstahl and confiscated her film materials, in January 1946.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007410