[Triumph of the Will] represents the complete transformation of reality, its complete absorption into the artificial structure of the [Nuremberg] Party Convention…. [The] Convention could evolve literally in a space and a time of its own; thanks to perfect manipulation [on the part of the Nazis], it became not so much a spontaneous demonstration as a gigantic extravaganza with nothing left to improvisation. This staged show, which channeled the psychic energies of hundreds of thousands of people, differed from the average monster spectacle only in that it pretended to be an expression of the people's real existence. (p. 300)

It was Hitler himself who commissioned Leni Riefenstahl to produce an artistically shaped film of the Party Convention. In her book on this film, she incidentally remarks: "The preparations for the Party Convention were made in concert with the preparations for the camera work." This illuminating statement reveals that the...