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Can vile propaganda also be great art?
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Explores the artistic legacy of Leni Riefenstahl and her complex links to the Nazi regime, juxtaposing her self-portrait with evidence suggesting her awareness of the regime’s atrocities. This question will forever arise in discussions of the work of German film director Leni Riefenstahl. She is admired as one of the greatest German directors of all time (by Quentin Tarantino, for example), but also despised for giving the Third Reich a glamorous appearance. Riefenstahl herself always denied that she was a Nazi.
After her death in 2003, this self-projected image was quickly shattered
In her opinion, she was an artist who happened to work for Hitler. In interviews, she always insisted that she was unaware of the regime’s atrocities. The striking contrast between her own statements and historical facts was already the subject of the latest television documentary “Riefenstahl – The End of the Myth” and was examined in more detail in the documentary “Riefenstahl” 39; 39;. Director Andres Veiel meticulously combed through her entire estate, searching for letters, newspaper clippings and official documents, in order to confront Riefenstahl’s words with reality.
This research shows even more clearly how manipulative Riefenstahl was
But at the same time it is very fascinating to observe how her enormous ego and fearless ambition helped to shape her place in film history. During a Q&A at the Ghent Film Festival, Veiel said that he had initially wanted to create an avatar of Riefenstahl in his film, an alternative Leni, created from personal letters and diary fragments from her estate. But in the end the material itself was clear enough to speak for itself. There is no doubt that Riefenstahl had a deep sympathy and admiration for the Nazi movement.
The film contains a treasure trove of historical material
Veiel convincingly shows that her worldview was completely in line with Nazi ideology. Revelatory are the recordings of television interviews, recorded with the cameras running when the interview was interrupted. Riefenstahl repeatedly becomes furious when asked about her responsibility as an artist and her involvement in the Nazi movement. But even more revealing are the taped telephone conversations that Riefenstahl had with her many admirers.
Andres Veiel himself sees his film as a lesson for today
Whenever her artistic integrity was questioned, she received letters of support and sympathetic phone calls. Many Germans agreed that it was very difficult to resist the Nazi movement in the 1930s and that Hitler’s passive supporters were judged too harshly. Riefenstahl’s ability to recreate her own image and shape the past to her advantage is similar to the proliferation of fake news created by populists like Donald Trump.
