Leni Riefenstahl

The genesis of this piece occurred back in late summer when I heard film critics Arch Campbell and Jason Fraley discuss German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl on Campbell's "At The Movies" podcast.  It prompted me to check out a couple of movies from the library to learn a little more about her.  

Riefenstahl was a dancer and actress in Germany during the time between the two World Wars.  In the early 1930's, she went behind the camera and in so doing, she became one of the first acclaimed female movie directors in the world.  Her work caught the eye of Adolf Hitler, who commissioned her to make a documentary film about the Nazi Party congress that was held in Nuremberg in 1934.  That movie, "Triumph of the Will", is widely considered to be the greatest documentary film ever made.   Scenes from it have been copied in many movies down through the years, including some of the "Star Wars" films.

In 1936, she was ostensibly selected by the International Olympic Committee to make a film documentary of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I say "ostensibly" because it is widely believed that Hitler himself wanted Riefenstahl to make this movie, and prevailed upon IOC president Avery Brundage (another real piece of work, but that is a subject for another day) to have her make the movie.  That movie, "Olympia", is also considered a landmark documentary and set the standard for sports documentary films.  Techniques invented by Lenu Riefenstahl for "Olympia" are still being used today.

So, it was those two movies that I wanted to see, along with a 1993 German documentary, "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl", and I was able to obtain all three of them from my local library.  I also wondered if requesting these movies has put me on some sort of Homeland Security watchlist.

Riefenstahl's work with and for the Third Reich followed her for the rest of her life.  After the war, she was arrested and tried, but never convicted of war crimes, but was branded as a "fellow traveller" of the Reich.  Her skills as a filmmaker have never been questioned, but involvement with Hitler no doubt hampered her career although she worked for pretty much the rest of her life.  She died in 2003 at the age of 101.

Throughout the "Wonderful, Horrible Life..." doc, Riefenstahl held firm to the sort of statements that have become familiar throughout post WW II history:  "I was never a member of the Nazi Party"...."Hitler did many good things for Germany at first"...and, of course "I had NO IDEA of what was taking place in the concentration camps."  I tend to take all statements such as these with a hearty degree of skepticism. Maybe, she told the truth for all of those years.  Maybe.

As for the two films themselves, "Triumph of the Will" is indeed a work of film art.  Very compelling to watch, but, given the subject matter, it is a hard watch.  If viewed through the eyes of people in Germany in the mid-1930's, it can no doubt be seen as an ultimate recruiting tool for National Socialism and the hate that Hitler was selling.  Sort of like some of the rallies seen in the United States in 2016 and 2020.  I wonder if Riefenstahl was able to live with that on her conscience throughout her life if she indeed repudiated what Hitler stood for as she claimed.  (By the way, rumors that she and Hitler were lovers have never been substantiated.)

As for "Olympia", I confess to not getting through that one, only watching about the first thirty minutes or so.  Events in my own life in September pretty much put movie viewing on a back burner, and the DVD's were due at the library, so "Olympia" will have to wait for another day.

Despite all of that, Riefenstahl remains an interesting person to read about.  She continued to work for the rest of her life.  She photographed the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and was a "guest of honor" at the 1976 Montreal Games.   Noted American film critic Pauline Kael has said that Triumph of the Will and Olympia are "the two greatest films ever directed by a woman."

I've brushed over much of Riefenstahl's life, but it cannot be denied that it wasn't an interesting one, as this 2003 British obituary details.