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The good thing about Anthony Slide’s commentary on TRIUMPH OF THE WILL is that he does not denounce Leni Riefenstahl as a monster for having created this film.The problem is that he lacks completely the intellectual capacity to deal with what is actually going on historically in that moment.
The first print I had of this back in the 1970s instead of the word “Suffering” used the word, “Passion.” By using the word “suffering” the link to the Passion of Christ is lost. This is pivotal as Hitler was presented, as all political leaders are presented, as a Messiah. Indeed many believed Hitler was the Messiah.
Again, the first print I had of this picture instead of the word “rebirth” used the much more powerful word, “resurrection.”
He can tell when the different figures went on trial or died. He tells us he once visited Hitler’s mountain top home.
Beyond that he is completely out of his depth.
An informed review of my presentation of this picture:
“In Toronto, I discovered by chance, CineForum. Pure chance but a fortunate one. In that small room exhaling culture, passion and dedication, I watched the movie TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, an important historical, political and social document., and real artistic achievement….As a journalist (in Romania) I worked in the cultural field, including film reviews. Therefore I came to the CineForum not just as a movie lover, but as a knowledgeable professional…We live in an era authoritatively dominated by brainwashing and political correctness…I admired Reg Hartt’s courage and passion put in searching out and defending the human truth, the artistic truth, the historical truth; the Truth and unveiling it…Discovering Reg Hartt and his CineForum was one of the most important events of my visit in Toronto.”-– JULIA SCUTARU, retired journalist, Bucharest, Romania, 2000 (I received this in the mail).
I’ve been trying to find a record of Julia Scutaru in Romania. So far I have not been able to.
Nonetheless Jane Jacobs and Bernie Farber reinforce what she had to say.
A woman charged up to me one day while I was posting a street flyer with a picture of Adolf Hitler on it for my presentation of this program. I thought she was going to give me Hell for posting a picture of Hitler. I also feel that if we are going to post a picture of Hitler on the streets we should be ready to take Hell from people who object.
She did not give me Hell. She surprised me.
She said, “So long as people want God on earth there will always be a Hitler.”
I thanked her because, of course, this is true.
The motion picture TRIUMPH OF THE WILL presents Adolf Hitler as The Messiah.
He was not.
To understand that come to my presentation of this picture.
I am glad to see Kino Lorber will be restoring more of Leni Riefenstahl’s motion pictures.
In her film TIEFLAND, which she started before working on this picture, she tells the story of a dancer rescued from the brute who is managing (pimping) her only to find the man who saved her is a much bigger monster than the man she was rescued from.
She denied, rightfully, the film was a metaphor for Germany under Hitler.
There can be no excuses for what happens under monsters.
Germany did not produce Hitler.
John Maynard Keynes warned during the laying out of THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES, “You bastards are tilling the ground in Germany for the rise of the greatest tyrant the world will have seen.”
Hitler was Austrian. Had he been German no Germ,an would have listened to him.
It was said of Hitler, “He has that perfect Austrian warmth and understanding.”
I learned much from the people who came to my presentations of TRIUMPH OF THE WILL.
One woman came so often I thought she might be a Nazi (people assumed I was).
I asked why she was coming so often.
Her answer staggered me.
She said, “I am in it.”
She told me she was a small child living in Nuremberg when all this happened.
The first time she came she recognized her father, mother, brothers, sisters, herself standing on a balcony as Hitler’s motorcade passed by.
She was a Jew. Excepting herself her family had perished in the Holocaust.
She came repeatedly because for a few fleeting seconds she saw them.
I later thought of having that moment made into a photograph but she never came back. I was too slow.
I try to be faster on my feet.
So long as men want God on earth there will always be a Hitler.
–Reg Hartt 2026–08–28.
Triumph of the Will (Blu-ray)
For almost a century, Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens) has reigned as the most controversial documentary ever made, a “cinema masterpiece,” according to film historian Amos Vogel, “a huge and disturbing film spectacle.” Capturing the pageantry of the 1934 Nuremberg congress, Triumph of the Will is a sensory tableau that celebrates the nation’s resurgence in the aftermath of a crushing economic depression. Riefenstahl commanded a squad of photographers and oversaw the editing of the film, crafting a landmark of documentary cinema, even as it permanently stained the reputation of the filmmaker. Riefenstahl spent a lifetime trying to disassociate herself from the Nazi leadership, but her complicity with Hitler is now uniquivocal, and no matter how artistically rendered, Triumph of the Will was used to fertilize the rise of the Third Reich. This Kino Classics release is part of an ambitious reevaluation of the filmmaker’s career, including the release of Andres Veiel’s award-winning documentary Riefenstahl, new restorations of her films (The Blue Light, Tiefland) and special editions of previously unreleased work (Longing for Innocence, Under Water Impressions). Triumph of the Will was restored by the Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives) and includes two additional Riefenstahl propaganda films glorifying the military strength of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party: Day of Freedom and Victory of Faith.
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