An absorbing and chilling documentary about the National Socialist aesthetic, and how attempts to create the Aryan Ideal caused the extermination of millions.
Aspects covered include: Hitler’s epiphany while viewing Wagner’s opera ‘Rienzi’, the rise of the homo-erotic Grecian/Nordic ideal, the parallels drawn between the ‘degenerate’ art of the cubists and dadaists and the mentally ill/physically deformed, the Nazi obsession with purity and cleanliness, and, finally, the descent of the Jewish people to the level of a virus/vermin.
Released 13 October, 1989. Director: Peter Cohen. TV documentary.
