Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Triumph der Abwesenheit
Post-historical modified version of famous Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" (Triumph des Willens). All trails of direct nazi signs and even the image of Adolf Hitler have been deleted from the whole recording. From over hour movie remain only 14 minutes. Symbolic censure has made from this movie a story full of strange rituals, situations and worrying emptiness with silent lack of original sound, which was one of fundamental features of the prototype. In spite of all there is widely sensible a mood of „fascist tension”. Triumph of absence, powerlessness and chaotic narrative.
[conceptual video / 2009 / 14 min 02 sec / 384x288, low-res version]
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I don't know if it is because I am too familiar with the Riefenstahl movies, but to be honest, just deleting all swastikas and Hitler pictures from them does not change their meaning much to me. Many of the scenes are very well known and even if they weren't most of them have the Nazi spirit written all over them. Even if Riefenstahl denied to be and to have been a political person for the rest of her life her way of looking on Germany and the Germans became THE Nazi eye. What is often forgotten when (over)estimating her work is the fact that she was one of the first filmmakers that were able to use this new medium since she was equipped with the newest cameras, a huge budget and the possibility to stage her movies in the biggest german cinemas by Nazi government. Many people that were overwhelmed by the power of Riefenstahls movies never had seen a movie before at all. I don't know wheter it was her artistic genius or just common human curiosity that made her shoot these great cloud pictures for instance. So I deeply doubt the thesis that she was the one that invented the cinematic language used in the following decades (and even nowadays maybe). In my opinion she just did what everybody else with this financial possibilities and this missing sence of responsibility would have done.
ReplyDeleteYou say somewhere else that you are interested in irony, redefinition and caos but your film is just plain irresponsable and dangerous.
ReplyDeleteit had to be ironic irresponsIble, maybe dangerous. info on my website isn't everything about me. hah.
ReplyDelete@ kopfkompass : this video is not political or direct historical. or antyhing against Reifenstahl - this is my specific tribute to her. I'd like to say something about post-historical way of thinking. and yes, I want to distort the narrativity and meanings of "triumph of the will", to do something about censure of memories...
I've just seen your editing. I think is very intersting in order to think about editing itself, and about what the film is. First of all the subtraccion gives us this result: only 14 minutes have no appearence of hitler or nazi simbols - even if you left some suastics draps in the plane views (i don't really understand why) - most of all that tells about their omnipresence on the film. when you cut it out you have almost no film left. and i think there was a film , i mean, cinema, even if it is propaganda. It seems to me that more dangerous than showing the film, editing the film, is to cut it out from the cinema, to refuse analyse it as a form, as something constructed. it is as dangerous as saying that hitler was the devil. and as stupid.
ReplyDelete