Hitler's Hollywood, A Look at the Documentary Film

Hitler’s Hollywood, is a a documentary film about how Joseph Goebbels reinvented Hollywood film making for the Third Reich.

After completely cleansing Jews out of filmmaking, Goebbels used the relatively new media of talkie films to legitimize anti-Semitism and euthanasia as he glorified the concept of people sacrificing their own lives for the honor of the Third Reich.  

Goebbels was able to oversee the subtle mixture of entertainment, art and propaganda to indoctrinate Germany and soon all of Europe.  

There was no television during the Nazi administration 1933-1945 so attending your local movie house was your only option for seeing films. 

Before you could enjoy the Nazi entertainment film at your local theaters they’d show a newsreel (Fake News) film.  There were potentially serious consequences for those movie goers that came to movie houses purposly late avoiding the newsreels. That was seen as a form of resistance by the Nazis.  

This mixture of entertainment, art and indoctrination was not lost on our own Hollywood.  They later used films to legitimize homosexuality, gender confusion along with various societal and politically unAmerican aberrations.  

As we enter the age of YouTube and citizen journalism the mixture of entertainment and diverse propaganda is now in its own Renaissance Period.  Today nearly anyone can create video Media to promote whatever they please.  

Free speech is all about diversity of opinion.   The efforts to control and censor video content has become a hot button in our new media society.  It’s all fun until others want to silence your voice or content.  

As for this Documentary film, Hitler’s Hollywood, the grand and nefarious scheme of creating and shaping popular public opinion is laid out for all to see.  Below is the trailer. 

Carice van Houten to Play Leni Riefenstahl the beautiful actress, singer and Pioneer Film Director

Leni Riefenstahl

Carice van Houten

Berlin, Germany—I first talked about this last February when there was a tease article in Variety Magazine.

The Jessie Owens story is coming to the big screen.  The film titled, Race is starring Stephan James as Owens and he is joined Jeremy Irons and William Hurt in this film.  Stephen Hopkins is directing the film.  Shooting began this week in Berlin.

The multi-talented Dutch actress, Carice van Houten who happens to be my personal favorite has signed on to play the legendary German film director Leni Riefenstahl.

Van Houten was cast in the once in a lifetime role of the accidental Dutch resistance hero, Rachel Stein / Ellis de Vries in Paul Verhoeven’s film, Black Book (2006).   That’s still is my favorite film of all time!

Today, van Houten graces the Game of Game of Thrones cast as the Red Priestess, Melisandre.

Riefenstahl was a gorgeous dancer and actress and genuine contemporary of the late great Marlene Dietrich.  The events of 1933 in Germany would change her life. 

Riefenstahl was an incredibly talented woman who took advantage of an opportunity within Adolf Hitler’s emerging Third Reich to make films with virtually unlimited budgets.

Riefenstahl was not anti-Semitic or any kind of a racist.  She was an opportunist that simply rose to the occasion when she got her chance.

One of her trademark masterpiece films, Triumph des Willens or in English Triumph of The Will is banned today in Germany.  It’s filled with amazing camera shots both static and aerial that had never been done before in cinema.  

That film was an epic propaganda piece designed to make Germany love their new leader who promised them hope and change and during a very bleak period in German History.  

Riefenstahl matched her stunning images with music and the film became an undeniable hit.  Nazi propaganda aside Riefenstahl did exactly what film directors are supposed to do.

Riefenstahl’s greatest epic was her documentation of the 1936 Olympics. Hitler decreed that Blacks and Jews could not take part in this event but relented when Germany would not be allowed to host the event

We all know what happened with that legendary African-American track star Jessie Owens, to Hitler’s chagrin defeated all of the world’s greatest runners.

Riefenstahl’s spectacular film of Owens' victory has been seen millions of times and it’s still being shown today nearly 80 years later! Riefenstahl created the template that sports photographers everywhere still follow today.

Riefenstahl invented camera movements using aircraft, sliders, dollies and jibs that are being used by filmmakers everywhere today.  Imagine what she would have done with the multi-rotor camera drones in use today.

Riefenstahl was sought after by Walt Disney but her alliance with Hitler spoiled that.  She was nearly tried as a war criminal and found herself punished and precluded from doing what she preferred in Hollywood.

Riefenstahl became a documentary film maker that made groundbreaking films of African tribes and oceanographic scientific films until her death at age 100 in 2003.

Riefenstahl was also known for having a boyfriend some 40 years her junior! 

Okay i admit that I’m in love with van Houten’s amazing talents. I know this woman is exactly what the Oscar’s Best Actress Award is all about.  I love her singing too! I often listen to van Houten’s album, See You On The Ice as I drive around L.A.

I only hope that van Houten is able to book more of the blockbuster films she deserves.  If I was somehow van Houten’s agent, I’d make that happen!

Before Steven Speilberg there was Leni Riefenstahl!

Berlin, Germany—As a film lover and novice filmmaker I am beyond fascinated and spellbound by a truly amazing woman. She was an athlete, rock climber, mountain climber, dancer, actor, photographer, filmmaker, writer, scuba diver and major artist. This woman was gifted, talented and downright gorgeous.

Leni Riefenstahl was born in 1902 in this great city. Riefenstahl was raised in prosperity and rather than follow in her father’s business footstep chose to make her mark in performance and art. Riefenstahl was a strikingly beautiful contemporary of fellow actress Marlene Dietrich.

Riefenstahl had a problem, this incredibly lady had to master absolutely everything she ever tried. She made it her goal to do everything perfectly. She failed at nothing and was redundantly proven to be fearless.

As a budding filmmaker she was nothing less than a major pioneer that invented cinema techniques still being used today. She’d go to any length to create an exciting film shot out of the most ordinary human movement. Riefenstahl created cranes, rails and every conceivable kind of device to capture nearly impossible cinematic shots.

She attended one Nazi Party rally and like most of the world at that time, she admired Adolph Hitler as a potential savior of Germany. Her goal was always to gain opportunities to act, perform and make films. Hitler and his propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels was mesmerized by the exceptional young woman and invited her into what became an incredible nightmare.

Riefenstahl made a film that showcased the Third Reich called, Triumph des Willens or Triumph of the Will. The film was a documentary of feature film proportions that was made in Nuremberg. The film was a masterpiece of precession and military pageantry. Today the film is banned in Germany as a result of aggressive de-Naziification. For Riefenstahl this was more about art and filmmaking than documenting the birth of what would later become a ruthless, cruel and monstrous political regime.

In 1936 Riefenstahl created 200 miles of film to show the world the Olympics. Her film never once slighted America’s black athletic wonder, Jessie Owens of his stunning victory. With her films Olympia I and 2, Riefenstahl became the quintessential sports filmmaker that is still the role model of every sports photographer or filmmaker worldwide.

Josef Goebbels understandably wanted to make a mistress out of Riefenstahl but the truth was that she found him unattractive. To Riefenstahl's chagrin, Goebbels embellished their “friendship” in his personal diaries.

The war ended and despite the fact that Riefenstahl never once placed an anti-Semitic scene in her films or let such a word to pass her lips was arrested and put on trial. Her career was over and the best years of her life were just beginning. Riefenstahl was condemned, castigated and blackballed. Rather than to accept total defeat Riefenstahl went to Africa and began filming primitive tribes and even pursued groundbreaking oceanographic filmmaking. She never found real success again as the cinema legend she truly was.

Like all German civilians Riefenstahl was misled by the criminals running her government and only learned about the death camps after the war ended. This gifted artist was soon blamed for creating Hitler’s image and allowing him to seduce the world through her films. Unfortunately the world still remains ignorant of the truth nearly a decade after her death at the age of 101.