Riefenstahl

The Plot: Leni Riefenstahl started out as an actress and a director in Weimar-era Germany, making her name with films like The Blue Light. Not long after, she drew the attention of the Nazis who saw something in the way that she framed her subjects including herself. She was hired to document Nazi rallies in Triumph Of The Will where Adolf Hitler later became a close associate. In later years, she denied that she was a collaborator and stuck to her guns right up to her death in 2003 at the age of 101. However, history is still judging her – as it should…

 

The Verdict: What more can be said about filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl that hasn’t already been said? Quite a lot it seems. With fascism rearing its head once again, even right on our own doorstep, Riefenstahl still remains a controversial 20th Century figure even now long after her death. Whatever one may think of her and her own personal way of squaring off her association with the Nazi regime, she has earned her place not just in cinematic history but in history itself. She was a trailblazer in her own way, a young woman marshalling up to 30 cameramen to capture history as it unfolded before her eyes. This was at a time when there were very few female documentary filmmakers. As abhorrent as they are in their propagandist depiction of the glory of the Third Reich, her films are still important historical documents that used a variety of cinematic techniques like montage. They are there for current and future generations to discover what happened, though not how and why.

What of Riefenstahl herself though? Andres Veiel’s documentary Riefenstahl sets out to deconstruct its subject and then interpret her through new material that has come to light. Following the later death of her partner, Riefenstahl’s estate has opened up her extensive archives. Sorting through some 700 boxes of material over the course of four years, Veiel and his team have put together a profile that sits uneasily with its subject. Riefenstahl was an outspoken person who was quite happy to discuss her career, but she also had an ability to see only her view. In an interview, she’s challenged about the way she filmed the 1936 Olympics in Berlin but simply states that she filmed reality as it was with strong bodies on display. A documentary filmmaker worth his/her salt knows that it’s more than just about pointing a camera and shooting. It’s about the relationship with the subject and the way the film is edited, while keeping at some distance to allow for the director’s own interpretation.

Veiel is to be commended for not setting out to do a direct hatchet job on Riefenstahl. Instead, the film takes a more sophisticated look at the apparent contradiction at work over the decades of her long life. He has stated that ‘I wanted to understand the figure of Riefenstahl in her development, without exculpating her in the process. Wanting to understand a person is not the same as looking at them sympathetically.’ Amidst Riefenstahl’s claims that she was ordered to make documentaries for the Nazis, there are her denials that she knew about the atrocities on human life that they committed. Damning evidence suggests that she knew about them, witnessed them and was complicit. And yet she remained unrepentant on her association with the Nazis to the very end, getting quite agitated with interviewers who pushed her further on this in revealing, previously unreleased footage.

As a piece of filmmaking, Riefenstahl is a provocative and illuminating documentary that calls into question the power of memory, selective or accurate, in getting to those all-important kernels of truth. There’s a strong investigative foundation at play here, cautiously approaching its subject and judging her through her own words and actions. Whatever one might think of Riefenstahl as a famous/infamous director, she remains a fascinating historical figure who will remain so for a long time to come. As such, this well-made and vitally important new documentary provides clear-minded insight into the mass of contradictions that was Leni Riefenstahl.

Rating: 4 / 5

Review by Gareth O’Connor