1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9  Price not listed for this item. Ansel Adams/Lewis and Clark
Actors: Josh Hamilton, Barbara Feldon, Eli Wallach, Ansel Adams, David Ogden Stiers 
Reviews for the Ansel Adams/Lewis and Clark Price not listed for this item. The Olympiad
Actors: David Albritton, Jack Beresford, Donald Finlay (II), Wilhelm Frick, Josef Goebbels Amazon.com essential videoThere is no other filmmaker remotely like Leni Riefenstahl, which is probably a good thing. The prodigiously gifted Riefenstahl, at Hitler's behest, transformed the 1934 Nuremberg rally into the stunning, terrifying documentary Triumph of the Will. Her next challenge was the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, a task she undertook with technical innovations and an unfailing aesthetic eye. The games are of historical interest; Berlin was where the black American runner Jesse Owens dominated his sport, much to Hitler's chagrin. But Riefenstahl's long film (it's often shown in two parts) is more than just a document. Olympia is also a delirious paean to movement, competition, and the human body. The diving meet becomes less a battle for medals and more a dreamlike series of shapes in mesmerizing motion. While Olympia has often been described as Riefenstahl's hymn to beauty, it is also her hymn to the possibilities of cinema, of the sheer magic of camera angle and rhythm and light. After two years of exhausting editing, the film premiered on April 20, 1938--Hitler's birthday. If only Riefenstahl had turned her back on her Führer, she might be remembered as one of the mightiest directors in film history, instead of the most notorious. As it is, Pauline Kael once described Riefenstahl's Triumph and Olympia as "the two greatest films ever directed by a woman." --Robert Horton
Reviews for the The Olympiad  Price not listed for this item. Triumph of the Will
Actors: Adolf Hitler, Fritz Reinhardt, Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler, Hans Frank (III) Amazon.com essential videoTriumph of the Will is one of the most important films ever made. Not because it documents evil--more watchable examples are being made today. And not as a historical example of blind propaganda--those (much shorter) movies are merely laughable now. No, Riefenstahl's masterpiece--and it is a masterpiece, politics aside--combines the strengths of documentary and propaganda into a single, overwhelmingly powerful visual force. Riefenstahl was hired by the Reich to create an eternal record of the 1934 rally at Nuremberg, and that's exactly what she does. You might not become a Nazi after watching her film, but you will understand too clearly how Germany fell under Hitler's spell. The early crowd scenes remind one of nothing so much as Beatles concert footage (if only their fans were so well behaved!). Like the fascists it monumentalizes, Triumph of the Will overlooks its own weaknesses--at nearly two hours, the speeches tend to drone on, and the repeated visual motifs are a little over-hypnotic, especially for modern viewers. But the occasional iconic vista (banners lining the streets of Nuremberg, Hitler parting a sea of 200,000 party members standing at attention) will electrify anyone into wakefulness. --Grant Balfour
Reviews for the Triumph of the Will 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 |