Triumph of the Will Thread? (1 Viewer)

[Charles Smith]

Would love to hear anything you have to share on Leni Reifenstahl, these films, anything at all.. Whenever you have the time and inclination.

 

[ajabrams]

I would like to suggest to anyone interested in Riefenstahl's films, that they watch "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl," Ray Muller's excellent1993 documentary. A terrific and balanced (NOT in the Fox News sense!!) view of this most controversial filmmaker, with lots of excerpts from her work.

 

[ahollis]

Wish I could tell you what it was, but am unable to comment at this time.RAH

Very understandable. Thanks. I have patience.

 

[Mark-W]

Thanks for the suggestion.

As a film fan and someone who enjoys a lot of early films, I have wanted to see Riefestahl's work. Related to this, I was eager to see Griffith's Birth of a Nation and hoped I could put on my intellectual hat and appreciate it for it technical merits, but the film made me too upset; I am not sure I am of the temperament to appreciate these films, which I count as a deficiency on my part. I'll give The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl a try first to see.

I would like to suggest to anyone interested in Riefenstahl's films, that they watch "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl," Ray Muller's excellent
1993 documentary. A terrific and balanced (NOT in the Fox News sense!!) view of this most controversial filmmaker, with lots of excerpts from her work.

 

[Robert Harris]

I would like to suggest to anyone interested in Riefenstahl's films, that they watch "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl," Ray Muller's excellent1993 documentary. A terrific and balanced (NOT in the Fox News sense!!) view of this most controversial filmmaker, with lots of excerpts from her work.

Superb doc, unfortunately not yet on Blu, but available on DVD. Also can suggest LR's autobiography. Quite an extraordinary woman, who at 90 was doing underwater photography and photographing members of African tribes.One can only wonder what her life might have been like if she had lived elsewhere and met other powerful people. But then, we would not have her two masterpieces.But might have others.RAH

 

[EddieLarkin]

The doc in question is also available in R2, as the second disc to Masters of Cinema's release of the Leni Riefenstahl vehicle, Der heilige Berg http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Holy-Mountain-Masters-Cinema/dp/B00023JHA4/

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I have a copy of the older Synapse DVD release of Triumph of the Will, and I remember it being a decent transfer from film of its era. It's been a few years since I watched it.

During WWII the US Army commissioned Frank Capra to produce US propaganda films, whereupon Capra prduced the Why We Fight series for the troops (sadly available only in terrible DVD transfers). Capra bootlegged many scenes from TOTW, and IIRC said that nothing would inflame the passions of US troops more than being exposed to the Nazi propaganda films. Capra's filming had high priority and IIRC the Epsteins were pulled off from writing the screenplay to Casablanca to work on Why We Fight.

 

[dana martin]

A member of the criterion forum emailed Mosfilm and asked about InterFilmArt, and they sent him the following email:

currently two of those very titles sit on my shelf, Einstein's Strike & Battleship Potemkin, in a dual set from Kino, and I am happy with the results, would be very interested in the others, most especially War & Peace

I prefer to deal in facts.Triumph, as in a base film element, would be in the public domain. The trick is finding a quality archival element, and then making it far more than just presentable. We've been working from a duplicate 35mm fine grain master, and for almost the past year, have been digitally cleaning the scanned data files.Since my time has been spent elsewhere, on a project that may shortly become apparent, I invited Greg Kimble, who I felt did superb work in bringing the Cinerama films back to life, to attend to the digital cleanup. His work will speak for itself. I review shots, frame by frame, daily, and am thrilled with the results. I was considering posting a sample before and after shot, but would be starting with about 8 gigs, which makes thing awkward.Olympia is a different animal, and I believe the rights are owned by Ms Reifenstahl's estate. At one time I believe Janus had a license, but I don't know if it's still in force. A brilliant film, which should be available on Blu-ray. I'll look into its current status.In many ways I'm sorry that another entity may not be releasing, as I would have liked to see what would have been done with their elements. In the world of film preservation, there can never be too many attempts to create a quality product, and as I posited in the other thread, I didn't see their release as competition.RAH

Mr. Kimble's work is very impressive, as you mentioned the Cinerama films, Flicker Alley has done a wonderful job of releasing these, and the work involved definitely shows, great work, and I look forward to the next two releases. Every release has been outstanding.


as for your statement of Olympia, I will be interested in what you can find out, and agree that it would be a great addition if it could be presented properly.

As for the mystery of the project that you have been personally been involved in, like many others, I am now wondering what it might be; with anticipation.

 

[Richard V]

I'll tell you what I was called. And like I said, if the person knew me, they'd know I've been called worse in a joking manner. It was a classless thing to do based on not knowing me. That a .com trying to make your $100, their $100, it was just an insane move.

As an aside, because of what I was called, I just watched Starlet and Young and Wild. Y&W is a must watch for anyone out there living with the issues presented(mentioning those issues might go against the political/religious non-discussion here at the forum. So you can just Google the movie for yourself).

Both movies are brilliant film-making. (I'm a fan of low-budget film-making. Starlet has an amusing goof. It is done twice...and it proves that the movie must have been made on a shoestring budget...and everybody was wearing loafers...it is a must watch for any fan of low-budget fare)

The other person probably won't say what their slur was as I'm even disgusted by it(especially in the context of what was said and "why"). Notwithstanding it was a classless thing to do...but riled my mood to the point I wanted to prove that I was a...

Degenerate Human.

If you were called that because of your admiration for a film like Ms.45, then I guess you and I are brothers.

 

[schan1269]

If you were called that because of your admiration for a film like Ms.45, then I guess you and I are brothers.

No, I was called that because I dared to ask if IFA was a spam-bot(amongst a few other minor things).

Their math didn't add up.
They apparently don't have rights to the movie(movies on their site).
Using the trademark from a defunct DDR(as Germany was once called) company that is the same trademark used by Trabant car clubs throughout the world and is still associated with the Russian motorcycle company MZ.

 

[ahollis]

No, I was called that because I dared to ask if IFA was a spam-bot(amongst a few other minor things).Their math didn't add up.They apparently don't have rights to the movie(movies on their site).Using the trademark from a defunct DDR(as Germany was once called) company that is the same trademark used by Trabant car clubs throughout the world and is still associated with the Russian motorcycle company MZ.

Questions need to be asked and you asked the right ones. I'm right behind you on this. From the first post I was questionable, you just asked what I was thinking. Thanks and wish their response had not happened.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

I actually had the pleasure of dining with Ted, aka Moe, a few weeks ago in LA. Delightful and intelligent young man, who I presume will find a certain very dark humor in the fact that he was attacked by someone who did not know him, and who had made presumptions based upon his screen name, and that alone.Never assume.Especially with someone of Ted's size. I'd really not wish to be the one to ever make him cranky.I should also like to thank HTF staff for stepping in quickly, and surgically making the necessary cuts, before locking the thread.It is the owners and administrators of HTF, who continuously, not only make it a safe haven, but an extraordinary place for lovers of cinema to visit, share opinions, and learn. My hat is off to them.RAH

Seems I missed all the fun! I had a PM from a member asking if I was upset and I was totally clueless until I saw this thread and mentions of it on another forum. I never saw the post in question that I would theoretically be offended by, but knowing myself and making a guess about what someone might infer from my screenname it's both not a correct thing to "slur" me about and likely something I would find amusing, aside from the sadness that such ignorance can still exist - and how ironic that this is the film it gets related to! I wish I'd been able to see what was there, but glad that it was swiftly dealt with by the crack team here at HTF!I would like to thank RAH for his kind words and to assure him that the pleasure of meeting was on my end as well. I don't often have to get too cranky at my size to get the point across, I'm on the whole a gentile giant.

 

[bujaki]

For what it may be worth, we reported the seller to Amazon for posting anti-Semitic slurs on this site.

 

[Dubstar]

so I'm utterly confused - is both the disc in question AND InterFilmArt's validity in question here...

 

[Moe Dickstein]

I would advise anyone interested to wait for the RAH supervised release from Synapse.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I would advise anyone interested to wait for the RAH supervised release from Synapse.

+1,000,000

 

[ahollis]

I would advise anyone interested to wait for the RAH supervised release from Synapse.

Yes.

 

[schan1269]

so I'm utterly confused - is both the disc in question AND InterFilmArt's validity in question here...

Yes both.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

Someone on another forum did some further digging and asked that this info be related to those interested:Greetings,I did some additional research into InterFilmArt. I was wondering if you could perhaps post it on my behalf? Nothing is slanderous or libelous or dangerous, but I'd rather just not get involved. I do think others should be notified by what I've uncovered though, so I was wondering if you could post it instead:------------------------------It appears that the cover art for the bluray was taken from this book: http://www.amazon.com/Triumph-Will-Ascent-Hitler-Movement/dp/4871879119As far as I can tell, the movie has never been known as "Der Triumph des Willens Kampf und Aufstieg Adolf Hitlers und seiner Bewegung". Only the book by Heinrich Hoffmann ever had that subtitle. Thus using that image for the cover could meet similar legal issues if the image is still under copyright. Even if the image is in public domain, it seems at the very least misguided to use an entirely different work's cover art and title as the image for the film.Second, InterFilmArt doesn't appear to be registered as a business/legal entity/anything with either the State of California or Riverside County, California. The results are accurate up to Friday, October 11th, thus I have a difficult time believing the company is registered as claimed.I'm not brave enough to try, but has anyone tried calling the phone number on their website? The area code is from the Bay Area, thus adding further doubt to this entire situation (since its nowhere near Riverside County).An InterFilmArt Association did previously exist (it appears it is now defunct) but only in Bulgaria. But that isn't a film company but instead is, "Developing a strategy for tourism development in the cross-border region" (between Greece and Bulgaria). Other than this InterFilmArt, no other InterFilmArt exists on the internet other than here/HTF/Bluray.com the InterFilmArt site thats been posted, and that Google Plus account. Seems difficult to believe for a company that has existed since 1979/2005.--------------------------------------

 

[Dubstar]

so apparently this wound up on Criterion's forum regarding this release:

"Dear Criterion Forum members,
there has been some character smearing performed by certain individuals who do not know what they are talking about. Our upcoming release of TRIUMPH OF THE WILL RESTORED BLURAY is not a scam. We are a registered company in Riverside, CA and we are completely legal and legitimate. Please be advised anyone making such false, slanderous and libelous comments will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for defamation of character.
InterFilmArt Entertainment"