40/32
Can despicable propaganda be great art?
Narrative
Explores Leni Riefenstahl’s artistic legacy and her complex ties to the Nazi regime, juxtaposing her self-portrait with evidence of awareness of the regime’s atrocities. This question always arises when talking about the work of the German director Leni Riefenstahl. Admired as one of the greatest German directors of all time (for example, Quentin Tarantino), he is also despised for glamorizing the Third Reich. Riefenstahl herself always denied that she was a Nazi.
He thought he was an artist who worked for Hitler
In interviews, he always emphasized that he did not know about the atrocities of the regime. After his death in 2003, this self-created image was quickly destroyed. The stark contrast between her own statements and historical facts has already become the subject of a recent television documentary Riefenstahl – the end of the myth and is further explored in the documentary Riefenstahl 39. Director Andres Weyel has carefully combed through all his work; things in search of letters, clippings from newspapers and official documents to compare the word Riefenstahl with reality.
This study shows even more clearly how manipulative Riefenstahl was
But at the same time, it is very interesting to see how his huge ego and fearless ambitions helped shape his place in the history of cinema. In response to questions at the Ghent Film Festival, Weyel said that initially she wanted to create an avatar of Riefenstahl in her film, an alternative Leni, created on the basis of personal letters and diary entries from her belongings. But in the end, the material itself turned out to be so clear that it could speak for itself. There is no doubt that Riefenstahl had a deep sympathy for the Nazi movement and admired it.
The film contains a treasure trove of historical material
Weil convincingly shows that his own worldview fully corresponded to the Nazi ideology. The shot of the television interview, made with the cameras turned on during the break in the interview, is very telling. Riefenstahl repeatedly became angry when asked about her responsibility as an artist and her participation in the Nazi movement. But Riefenstahl’s taped telephone conversations with many of her admirers are even more revealing.
Andres Veyel himself considers his film a lesson for today
Whenever his creative integrity was questioned, he received letters of support and phone calls expressing sympathy. Many Germans agreed that resisting the Nazi movement in the 1930s was very difficult and that Hitler’s passive supporters were condemned too harshly. Riefenstahl’s ability to recreate his own image and change the past in his favor is similar to the fake news created by populists like Donald Trump.