Ewige Schönheit [2003]

A fascinating doco with loads of file footage of the Nazi conception of the cinematic arts.

from the filmmaker’s own site:
This is an essay on the aesthetics of National Socialist film. The history of the Third Reich is investigated in light of its own image making. Which hopes, desires and fears are reflected in these images? The film unfolds chronologically, with original material from 1918 to 1945. The focus of this film is the analysis of National Socialist documentary and ‘Kultur-Film’, which staged a media-produced world of illusions whose destructive intent is apparent from the very beginning.

“After the premiere, an elderly lady from the audience stated that she had watched all of these films when they were released many years ago and had believed everything in them. But now they all seemed so ridiculous.” (Marcel Schwierin)