Leni Riefenstahl, who died in 2003, aged 101, remains forever google-able as “Hitler’s favorite director” for her daringly innovative documentaries The Triumph of the Will, about the Nazi rally in Nuremberg in 1934, and Olympia, about the Berlin Olympics of 1936.
— Riefenstahl remains a subject of fascination and debate over whether her talent can be separated from her political views.
What exactly those views were, what Riefenstahl knew about Hitler and the Holocaust and when she knew it, is key to this debate and the subject of countless books and documentaries.
It’s the question at the center of Riefenstahl, the new documentary from German filmmaker Andres Veiel (Black Box BRD).
Veiel had access to Riefenstahl’s personal archives for the film, some 700 boxes of diaries, correspondence, private photos, and recorded phone calls.
Riefenstahl does not waver, protesting she knew nothing about the concentration camps until after the war.
“All of them were celebrating Leni Riefenstahl.
Leni Riefenstahl, the artist, began being celebrated.” That celebration continued, almost until her death.
(Riefenstahl reportedly told Verhoeven she didn’t Foster was “beautiful enough to play me” and suggested he instead cast Sharon Stone.)
Ray Müller’s 1993 documentary The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl — was made with her approval and editorial control.
As “Hitler’s favorite director,” Leni Riefenstahl, who passed away in 2003 at the age of 101, will always be remembered through her audaciously inventive documentaries, Olympia, which is about the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and The Triumph of the Will, which is about the Nazi rally in Nuremberg in 1934. Riefenstahl was both famous and controversial in equal measure. Her political beliefs and artistic ability are still up for debate, with some calling her a Nazi propagandist, a pioneering genius, or perhaps both.
The crux of this argument, the subject of innumerable books and documentaries, is precisely what those opinions were, what Riefenstahl knew about Hitler and the Holocaust and when she knew it. This inquiry serves as the focal point of German director Andres Veiel’s latest documentary, Riefenstahl (Black Box BRD).
The documentary will be shown at the Venice Film Festival outside of competition. In 1935, Leni Riefenstahl took home a gold medal for The Triumph of the Will, and in 1938, Olympia won the prestigious Coppa Mussolini award for best film. Sales of Riefenstahl are being handled globally by Beta Cinema.
Riefenstahl’s personal archives, including about 700 boxes of diaries, correspondence, personal photos, and phone conversations, were available to Veiel for the movie. The film attempts to do what no Riefenstahl documentary has done before, despite covering some ground that is well-known: it attempts to paint a psychological portrait of the director and, via her, of what Veiel refers to as the “seductive nature of fascism,” both the 1930s variant and the modernized forms of it.
Veiel notes, “What we found in her archives seemed so current, so relevant to what’s happening right now, whether it’s her view of a form of heroic nationalism, her celebration of the beauty of the superior, of the victorious, or her contempt of the weak and the sick.”. It provided us with an in-depth understanding of a fascist prototype and an opportunity to comprehend some of the current right-wing movements that are on the rise not only in Germany but also throughout Europe and the United States. “.
According to Veiel, the question of whether Riefenstahl was a genuine Nazi adherent or merely a swindler is resolved.
“We found an interview she gave in 1934 with [British newspaper] The Daily Express, in which she said she had read [Hitler’s autobiography] Mein Kampf already in 1931. She was not an opportunistic artist; she was very deeply involved in the [Nazi] ideology, not only in her aesthetic, by celebrating strength and heroism and her contempt for the weak, the sick, and the so-called foreign, but in real anti-semitic beliefs. “I became an ardent national socialist after reading one page,” she declares. something that she spent her entire life denying. “.
During the war, Riefenstahl did not exhibit any signs of regret or a change of heart in her letters or recorded phone conversations with friends and colleagues, including Hitler’s architect and fellow “Nazi artist,” architect (and WW2 Minister of Armaments) Albert Speer. Her only regret is that the outdated ideologies and her style have become less fashionable.
It will take one or two generations [to rehabilitate Nazism in Germany],” the woman actually states in one of them, according to Veiel. And now that those two generations have passed, the right is once more on the rise. “.
A large portion of Riefenstahl centers on the director’s life following World War II, during which she battled to secure employment as a director and was labeled a Nazi sympathizer by the Allies despite never having joined the party. The documentary filmmaker, as Riefenstahl demonstrates, obviously felt that her story was about her. One of the most important scenes features footage of Riefenstahl in the 1970s, appearing on a German talk show. There, she is questioned by a presenter and German peers regarding her denial that she knew nothing about the Holocaust. Unwavering in her protest, Riefenstahl claims she was unaware of the existence of the concentration camps until the war’s end.
“At a certain moment, she turns to face the audience and, as you may recall, she was once an actress, appearing in German “mountain movies” such as The Blue Light before the war. Her eyes are filled with tears. In an interview with Reifenstahl on the occasion of her 100th birthday, producer and well-known German TV host Sandra Maischberger remarks, “She’s the perfect victim.”. “There was a huge reaction. She got a ton of supportive letters and calls from viewers. I was really shocked to see that. I no longer trusted my fellow Germans. It felt like a diagnosis of post-war Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, and how so many viewers could have fallen for her lies at that time. “.
“I read each of the 500 viewer letters that were submitted,” Veiel says. “Leni Riefenstahl was being celebrated by all of them.”. Her post-war renaissance in Germany was largely attributed to that talk show and the reactions of its audience. The artist Leni Riefenstahl started receiving accolades. “.
That revelry carried on virtually until her passing. “The two greatest films ever directed by a woman” are Triumph of the Will and Olympia, according to legendary New Yorker critic Pauline Kael. In 1974, Riefenstahl was recognized as a trailblazing “feminist” filmmaker and an inspiration to other female directors at the first Telluride Film Festival. Madonna, Steven Soderbergh, Jodie Foster, and Paul Verhoeven were all interested in filming her biopic at different points in time. Reportedly, Riefenstahl advised Verhoeven to cast Sharon Stone instead of Foster because she didn’t think the actress was “beautiful enough to play me.”. ).
Throughout it all, Riefenstahl stood by her version of events, bolstering her myth as the idealistic genius who was blind to the evils of Nazism. She gave her approval and editorial input for Ray Müller’s 1993 documentary, The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl. For best arts documentary, it was awarded an International Emmy. Numerous clips from The Wonderful, Horrible Life are included in Veiel’s film, including previously unreleased footage of Müller’s interviews in which Riefenstahl yells at him to stop filming and refuses to answer his questions.
And as Riefenstahl demonstrates, the artist was not slow to file a lawsuit if someone dared to dispute her version of events. A year before her passing in 2002, Riefenstahl sued documentarian Nina Gladitz in order to stop the distribution of Gladitz’s documentary Time of Darkness and Silence. Riefenstahl started working on Hitler’s favorite opera, Lowlands, as a feature film in 1940 and completed it in 1954. The TV documentary included interviews with Roma and Sinti, who were extras on the project. The extras were hand-picked by Reifenstahl from a nearby concentration camp. Later, she would say that they had all made it through the war. In actuality, only a small portion of the hundreds of thousands of Romani people killed during the Holocaust—nearly 100 of them are thought to have been gassed at Auschwitz.
Riefenstahl cried out, “Lies! Lies!” when Gladitz’s documentary was shown in court, but she later recanted her initial accusations after seeing the supporting documentation. Nevertheless, Time of Darkness and Silence was never shown because Gladitz refused to remove that interview from the film and was unable to substantiate an allegation made by Riefenstahl that she had personally promised to save the Sinti from the camps.
According to Veiel, “Of course, she knew about Auschwitz and that [the Romani extras] were killed, and she just denied it.”. Throughout her life, she refuted it using an unusual blend of suppression, denial, and fabrication. “.
Veiel hopes Riefenstahl also sheds light on the terrifying allure of fascism by painting a psychological portrait of Germany’s most notorious propagandist.
“Her story has elements that sound like the dream of any filmmaker: imagine having an unlimited budget to make your movie! I can imagine the appeal.” He continues, “It’s a story about how easy it is to get seduced.”. My father, a wartime general, comes to mind. He had numerous advantages and was close to Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the Nazi SS, in the Russian front. He fell under a spell. I must therefore consider this to be a very personal question. “.
