Ben van Welzen considers how film was used to both exalt and expose the evil of WWII, as demonstrated by the opposing approaches and ideologies of Leni Riefenstahl and Alain Resnais.

Film is propaganda. An effective film penetrates the mind, circumvents rational thought, and — in the words of Ingmar Bergman — penetrates “deep into the twilight room of the soul.” By its very nature, cinema hijacks our senses and floods our brains with artificial sights and sounds to manipulate us into unforeseen thoughts and emotions. The silver screen is not a rigid barrier between fact and fiction, but a translucent membrane that allows the film’s altered reality to diffuse into our own and subtly rewire how we perceive the world outside the theater from that point forward. This propagandistic quality is inherent to the medium, and when explicitly put to use it can become an invaluable asset or a dangerous weapon, a weapon that often evades recognition. Moreover, the power of film to propagandize only grows each day as screen media becomes more ubiquitous and reality more blurred. To properly spot such tactics, one must look to the extremes, to a time when every corner of the world felt an urgency to coerce and unite their publics: World War II. From Axis to Allies, the most powerful powers at play had to convince their constituents of their nation’s strength and righteousness. Of course, few parties in the last century have been more successful at mobilizing their people than the Nazi. Successfully uplifting a dictator and suppressing a genocide, the Nazis found the evil side of cinema, the side that infiltrates its audiences, not enlightens.