Memorial service with Hitler flanked by Himmler and Lutze of the SA. Triumph des Willens, 1935

September 4-10, 1934, Nuremberg.  The NSDAP Nazi  Party Rally was executed and  Riefenstahl and crew attempted to capture the events in unique ways. Some of this is done through aerial shots, crane shots and dramatic point of view angles. Her mastery of camera movement and perspective is demonstrated in  framing  of  shots which angle  upward, downward, both static and  in motion, with faces and structures  in shadow or relief. Riefenstahl's camera is moving in motorcades, is looking upward from a street level or provides the tremendous overhead shots from a special tower elevator approved by Speer. Her direction insured that Hitler would be  a central focus. Individuals are extracted only in momentary  images of the many  and yet  the repetitive, linear strength of the parades of masses remain in rhythmic contrast to Hitler's singular presence.

Riefenstahl lines up a shot, Triumph des Willens, 1935

Crowded by more than one million participants, the pageants of the Nazi rally included workers on the march, SA and SS troops in review, military equipment displays, and speeches by key figures of the Third Reich. Additional sequences profile comradeship, athletic games, life in the campsites, and a unified national spirit. Likewise images of static and moving symbolism (eagles, swastikas, banners , and the waves of humanity) of the Nazi party are inter cut with music ranging from Wagner to original work by Riefenstahl's frequent collaborator Herbert Windt to various NSDAP Party songs and the Horst Wessel Lied.

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