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Can nefarious propaganda also be great art?
Chronology
Explores the artistic legacy of Leni Riefenstahl and her complex relationship with the Nazi regime, juxtaposing her self-portrait with evidence suggesting awareness of the regime’s atrocities. This question will always arise when discussing the work of German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. She is admired as one of the greatest German filmmakers in history (by Quentin Tarantino, for example), but she is also despised for portraying the Third Reich as glamorous. Riefenstahl herself has always denied being a Nazi.
In her own words, she was an artist working for Hitler
In interviews, she has always stressed that she was unaware of the regime’s atrocities. After her death in 2003, the image she created was quickly destroyed. The striking contrast between her own statements and historical facts was already the subject of the recent television documentary “Riefenstahl – The End of the Myth” and was explored in greater depth in the documentary “Riefenstahl”. Director Andres Veiel has thoroughly searched her entire estate, looking for letters, newspaper clippings and official documents, to compare 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 see how her enormous ego and fearless ambition helped shape her place in film history. In a question and answer session at the Ghent Film Festival, Veiel said that he initially wanted to create an avatar of Riefenstahl in his film, an alternative Leni, created from personal letters and diary fragments in her estate. But in the end the material itself was so clear that it could speak for itself. There is no doubt that Riefenstahl felt 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 consistent with Nazi ideology. The recordings of the TV interviews, made with the cameras running and the interview interrupted, are very significant. Riefenstahl repeatedly gets angry when asked about her responsibility as an artist and her involvement in the Nazi movement. But even more significant are Riefenstahl’s recorded telephone conversations with her many admirers.
Andres Veiel himself considers his film 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 oppose the Nazi movement in the 1930s and that passive supporters of Hitler were judged too harshly. Riefenstahl’s ability to project her own image and shape the past to her advantage is similar to the plethora of fake news produced by populists like Donald Trump.
