On Mondays, I like to watch Triumph of the Will, a 1935 Nazi propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl.
In his closing speech, Adolf Hitler starts out with good use. His head floats up and his face is clear of tension. His shoulders are broad.
As he gets into his speech, Hitler’s face and body display more tension, but he doesn’t pull down and compress his torso. His neck remains uncompressed and he breathes easily and projects his words.
By contrast, Hitler is collapsed and broken down in the last months of the war as dramatized in the 2004 film Downfall:
Notice that a minute in when Hitler loses his temper, he pulls his head into his torso, compressing his neck. Without this fight reflex, he’d be unable to fully summon the emotion of anger.
If Hitler kept ranting with his head retracted on to his spine, he’d lose his voice within a few minutes.
This is the first in a series of posts analyzing the use of the most important people in history.
If you find yourself ranting like Hitler in his bunker and you don’t know why, you might want to book an Alexander Technique lesson with me and we’ll get to the bottom of your genocidal impulses.
