1934 BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

This is my choice (choices) for Best Picture for the year 1934.  My criteria is that I can only use films that are on the 1001 list. To make it a little easier on myself, I am using the rules of the first Academy Award and name a winner for Best Picture (won by Wings for 1927-1928) and Best and Unique and Artistic Picture (won by Sunrise from 1927-1928). .

And the nominees on the entries from every edition of 1001 Movie You Must See Before You Die are...
It's a Gift
Triumph of the Will
L'Atalante
The Black Cat
Judge Priest
It Happened One Night
The Thin Man
The Goddess

                    

And the winner for the Best Picture of 1934 is…It Happened One Night

It Happened One Night

Frank Capra's It Happened One Night is the romantic comedy prototype for all romantic comedies that followed. The plot has a spoiled runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) and a cynical newspaper (Clark Gable) reporter finding each other on the road. She wants to get to New York. He wants a story. They bicker. They bond. They fall in love. My favorite scenes are the ones in the auto camp where the two begin to bond and conspire to avoid detectives on their trail. A must for film buffs. There are certainly contenders on this list (It's a Gift is my favorite W. C. Fields movie), but I can't quite knock It Happened One Night out of the slot it actually won for 1934.

It Happened One Night

And the Award for Unique and Artistic Picture of 1934 is...Triumph of the Will

Triumph of the Will

Leni Riefensthal's documentary Triumph of the Will was commissioned by the Nazi Party and filmed at the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremburg and included excerpts of speeches from high ranking Nazi officials as well as showing off the power of the Third Reich and how the people so gleefully (at least that's the way it was presented) accepted them. Understanding that Triumph of the Will is a propaganda piece, the film still is a record to a horrifying moment in time that needs to be seen. L'Atalante or The Goddess are definitely contenders here, but the significance and execution of Triumph of the Will puts this one over the top.

Triumph of the Will

OLYMPIA (1938, GERMANY)

"In the Olympia film, Leni Riefenstahl added a human component to Adolph Hitler's portrait. In the party films (Triumph of the Will), she had portrayed him as a Furhrer who stood apart from all others, but in Olympia, she played up his affable side. He watched the events through his binoculars, chatted with neighbors about the competitions, fretted about major decisions, and grinned when the Germans won. It was somewhat odd for the German chancellor to show up in uniform at a peaceful event designed to promote understanding among nations, in the Olympia film Hitler played the dictator who knew how to behave himself."-Karin Wieland, Dietrich & Riefenstahl: Hollywood, Berlin and a Century of Two Lives

"With Olympia, Riefenstahl had succeeded in making an overly political motion picture that is still considered one of the finest sports films ever made. Olympia set new benchmarks for cinematic sports coverage."

-Karin Wieland, Dietrich & Riefenstahl: Hollywood, Berlin and a Century of Two Lives

-----

There is a lot to unpack in watching Olympia now. We have a real artistic vision here from director Riefenstahl, connecting the 1936 event to ancient days of competition through a series of images like the one above. We then have the competition among athletes with everyone rooting on their own country, whether USA, Japan, Britain, or the hometown Germans. I found myself becoming interested in the results of the competition, though most if not all these athletes are long since passed away.

Jesse Owens winning Gold Medals is what many remember most from this Olympics, but I also liked watching many of the other events, many enhanced by Riefenstahl's intense and glaring camera. The drama of the Marathon was a particular favorite of mine

But despite getting into the competition, the political component of the film is what people may get out of it now. As mentioned int the quote above, Hitler and those in the Nazi party are background figures, seemingly just humbly rooting the Germans on to victory...but we all know there is disaster for the world on the horizon. -Chris Cox, 1001: A Film Odyssey

TRIUMPH OF THE WILL (1934, GERMANY)

Triumph of the Will

Triumph of the Will was conceived of as a lasting document, and it certainly has become one. Director, Leni Riefenstahl's images continue to have a powerful impact to this day. Excerpts and stills from Triumph of the Will are shown again and again to show the relationship between Hitler and the Germans."-Karin Wieland, Dietrich & Riefenstahl, Hollywood, Berlin, and a Century of Two Lives.

Leni Riefensthal's documentary Triumph of the Will was commissioned by the Nazi Party and filmed at the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremburg and included excerpts of speeches from high ranking Nazi officials as well as showing off the power of the Third Reich and how the people so gleefully (at least that's the way it was presented) accepted them. Understanding that Triumph of the Will is a propaganda piece, the film still is a record to a horrifying moment in time that needs to be seen.-Chris Cox, 1001: A Film Odyssey