“A RADICAL TRANSFORMATION OF REALITY”: SIGNED BY LENI RIEFENSTAHL, TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, FIRST EDITION OF THE SHOOTING SCRIPT, WITH 80 SCENES FROM THE FILM

RIEFENSTAHL, Leni. Triumph of the Will. Richardson, Texas: Celluloid Chronicles, (1990). Octavo, original laminated red paper boards. $950.

First edition of the first publication of Riefenstahl’s original shooting script, signed by her on a tipped-in plate, featuring 80 photogravure images from the film.

In Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, her controversial cinematic epic of the 1934 Nuremburg Party Rally, the camera’s focus on Hitler, Reich officials and Nazi pageantry achieves what Susan Sontag memorably describes as “a radical transformation of reality: history become theatre” (Fascinating Fascism, 83). “Perhaps never before… and never since in a film have the spirit and consciousness of a political movement been paraded before the film in such a revealing way” (Barsam, Film Guide, 27). With Riefenstahl’s original shooting script, production credits, shot list of 366 scenes, and 80 black-and-white photogravures of images from the film. Text by David Calvert Smith. As issued without dust jacket.

A fine copy.