The Wonderful Horrible Life Of Leni Riefenstahl

[Foxbat]

Directed by Ray Muller
German (English subtitles)& English voiceover
Colour and Black&White
Made in 1993
Leni Riefenstahl is an enigma, a seeming contradiction, a human ‘hall of mirrors’…..and She is strikingly attractive, exceedingly photogenic, and has been hailed as the most important female figure in cinematic history. I have to admit that she fascinates me.

This documentary chronicles her life and, for the first time, gives the 91 year-old Leni a chance to tell her own version of events.

We learn that she began as a dancer but soon moved to acting after watching a movie set in the Alps called Mountain Of Destiny(1924). Along with acting, she became one of the world’s first accomplished female climbers, and spent much of her time climbing in bare feet with no ropes for her film parts.

Learning her trade as she went, it was not long before she produced, directed and starred in her first feature set in the mountains - The Blue Light (1932). Even at this early stage, she was pushing forward the boundaries of filmmaking. She approached Agfa and requested a special film stock that she could use with special filters – in this way she was able to film mountain shots during the day but make them look as if they had been shot at night (this meant that she did not have to use spotlights and, therefore, enhanced the whole effect)

By now, Hitler was rising to power and, in 1934, she was asked to make a movie about that year’s Nazi Rally in Nuremberg. This she did (Triumph Of The Will) and again pushed the envelope of film making by various innovations (one being a tiny camera on a lift attached to a flagpole which gave stunning rising shots of the whole parade). By now her editing skills far surpassed Dr. Fanck (her mentor) and she knew how to cut to create mood and atmosphere.

Artistically, this was her apotheosis and Triumph Of The Will has been hailed as ‘the best propaganda film ever made’. In 1938, she made Olympia and again came up with new techniques (such as the trackside camera, pits for shooting athletes against the sky, cameras in balloons and many others). Even after World War Two, Olympia was still being called one of the ten most important films ever made. These techniques, and many more, are still used widely by directors throughout the world.

To hear Riefenstahl’s own take on these times is utterly fascinating and, though she looked a frail old woman in this documentary, she was still completely absorbed by the art of film-making. She makes it quite clear that she never had any relationship with the Nazis, and that Triumph Of The Will was not a glorification of Nazism (she claims she would have done the same thing in Moscow and wonders why those that make films of Chinese and North Korean marches today are not similarly reviled. Triumph, she says was a job, and she did the best job she could.

But then it starts to unravel slightly. When faced with extracts from Goebbels’ diary, she angrily denies the accusation within that she fraternised with the Nazi leadership. ‘Goebbels,’ she says, ‘is the master of the lie.’

For a few moments this seems to be strengthened by another film from 1933 which she made for the Nazis, and again Riefenstahl becomes animated and outraged – but it takes only a couple of minutes to realise that the reason for her anger is that she is unhappy with her shoddy workmanship here and refuses to discuss it further.

In later life, Leni took up scuba diving and filming exotic aquatic creatures, but she was never again able to make another feature film. Reviled and outcast after the war, she has spent her remaining years staunchly defending her position. Now she is dead and the final witness to that time has left our world. The truth (whatever that may be) has gone with her.

This documentary leaves me in no doubt of her cinematic importance, of her skill, of her creative genius, and of her undoubted courage when faced with an onslaught of hatred.

Of her innocence? Now that is a different matter(in my opinion still unresolved), and the debate about the responsibility of art will rage on for many years to come.

There is so much more in this film than has been written here and it is completely mesmerising for anybody with an interest in history cinematic or otherwise.

[littlemissattitude]

Sounds like a fascinating film, Foxbat.

Years ago, I took a film class in which we watched "Triumph of the Will". Scary movie, as I think we've discussed here before. After we watched the film, the class got into an interesting discussion about the subject of Riefensthal's culpability in making the film. A lot of the people in the class were, of course, very condemnatory of her and insisted that if they had been in her shoes, they would have refused to make the film. But it made me wonder: did she really have any choice in the matter?

I mean, she could have refused to make it of course. But what could or would have happened to her if she had refused to make the film? Would there have been reprisals if she had not done it? Could she have believed there would be reprisals if she had refused? Should we, here in a future that knows what Hitler and his minions ended up doing, have expected her to risk her career, perhaps even her life, instead of making the film, if indeed that was a consideration? Understand, I'm not defending her or her choice to make the film in any way. I'm just wondering what the practicalities of the situation were.

Did the film you review here address that issue at all?

[Foxbat]

She made a very spirited and intelligent defence(in my opinion) of Triumph Of The Will. Her stance was basically this: she was commissioned to do a job - bearing in mind that, at the time, the vast majority of Germans saw Hitler's acquisition of power (at that time) as a good thing. She stated that she did the job to the best of her ability (which I definitely do not doubt). she asks the question why others that made propaganda films (primarily for Moscow) were treated differently. She also states that she now regrets making the film - but that she could not have known the final outcome of the Nazi regime. Bearing in mind that most Germans around in the 30's would probably say the same thing about their lack of vision where the Nazi future was to take them, I feel that her argument has some merit. Her disadavantage lies in the fact that her work is on record and that she is therefore much easier to criticise than somebody who's body of work has been lost.

It is also worth remembering that we, in the west, acknowledged Hitler as Man Of The Year in Time magazine (1938).

I have since acquired a copy of Olympia (1936 Olympics) and agree with her statement that she was not biased towards the German athletes.

In Scotland's law, we have a third verdict that I feel would apply here if it were a trial. Not Proven