chosehumanity: (mitchell: in white and blue)
chosehumanity ([personal profile] chosehumanity) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2009-10-20 02:41 pm
Entry tags:

World Wars in the Media, Tuesday

"Triumph des Willens," Mitchell spoke, "Triumph of the Will. Or as the lot of you will come to know it as today, 'an excuse to have a film day'. This is a German film that is considered to be one of the greatest of all time - both as a film, and as a masterpiece of propaganda."

He turned off the light, projecting the poster onto the viewscreen first.

"Triumph des Willens was shot by Leni Riefenstahl, a Nazi filmmaker who had no career after the war until she picked up photography about... ten years ago." Not that he'd been keeping track. "The film is known for using lots of visual tricks, such as filming people from on down looking up to make them look more majestic. Every single scene was meant to enhance the percieved brilliance of the Nazi doctrine. It was, in short, the apex of the propaganda machine the Nazis had put into motion after their takeover in 1933."

He clicked the mouse, moving on to the first frame of the film. "Today, I'd like you all to watch the film, keep your mind open, see where it's trying to work on your sentiments. We're not going to watch the entire thing, though - just a good section of it. Afterwards, I want you all to find a partner. Discuss the tricks you've seen, how useful they would be, if you'd have noticed them if you weren't watching. What kind of impact would this film have had, you think?" Beat. "Get me a report of your findings next week, be it a paragraph or a page, I don't care."

And with that, he started the movie.

[[ open! ]]
vanillajello: (Sitting and looking to the left.)

Re: Discuss

[personal profile] vanillajello 2009-10-20 02:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Kate looked around for a partner. She would be grateful if they didn't ask about her face and the blue paint on it.

Re: Discuss

[identity profile] blondecanary.livejournal.com 2009-10-20 05:02 pm (UTC)(link)
"Some of the tricks were obvious. Like that whole coming-down-from-the-clouds thing. That one I would've noticed. And all the times we were seeing things from Hitler's POV, with him in the shot," Dinah said slowly, wanting to talk about this one with Tony, too. "Some of the crowd manipulation, not so obvious. It is so, so weird to watch how many people were happy about Hitler."
ashockingbitch: (HM - a real nailbiter)

Re: Discuss

[personal profile] ashockingbitch 2009-10-21 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
Jenny was just going to slouch down in her seat and try to be inconspicuous, thanks. Of course, considering how far it was from her usual attitude, this probably had the unintended effect of making her more conspicuous...