the Films of Leni Riefenstahl

Leni Riefenstahl is surely one of the most remarkable women of our time. Born into a middle-class family in Berlin in 1902, she aspired to be a dancer. However, during her formal training in her early 20s, she suffered a crippling injury to her knee. While undergoing physical therapy, she discovered the film "Mountain of Destiny" by Arnold Fanck, which was about mountaineering in the Dolomite Mountains. She became obsessed with the film and managed to meet its director. Impressed by her spirit and fresh-faced beauty, he decided she would star in his next film, "The Holy Mountain", another mountaineering film.

After starring in another half dozen films in as many years, Riefenstahl was given an unprecedented opportunity: to direct the official documentary film on the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. She threw herself into the project, overseeing hundreds of crewmembers and helping develop many revolutionary techniques and pieces of photographic equipment. "Olympia" was an unparalleled artistic achievement and a breathtaking tribute to the athletes that competed. Some derided the film as Nazi propaganda, but in fact, the film is nearly apolitical. For example, it focuses at length on Jesse Owens and other athletes from (later) Allied nations. "Olympia" was hailed as a masterpiece around the world.

Impressed with her work, Adolf Hitler required her to make a film to promote the aims of the Nazis, which Riefenstahl did. "Triumph of the Will" became a very effective propaganda device for the Nazi Party. Riefenstahl later explained that she had very little choice in the matter; those who refused to do the Party's bidding were routinely imprisoned or killed. It is also important to remember that film directors in every country were required to make propaganda films during the war.

To be fair, it is important to remember that "Triumph of the Will" (not her choice of titles) was made before Hitler annexed Poland. When the Nazis began to show their true intentions, Riefenstahl regretted her involvement, and hoped for some way to show the public that they should not believe the image that Hitler was attempting to project. That was where "Tiefland" came in.

"Tiefland" surely must be one of the tragedies of cinematic history. Filmed during WWII, it is an unmistakable statement against the evil of authoritarianism and a call for freedom of the common people from tyranny. Ostensibly a "folk tale", it tells the story of a poor gypsy dancer in Spain who is desired and eventually imprisoned by the tyrannical lord of the land. Marta, played by Riefenstahl herself, only wants freedom and peace for the oppressed peasants. Her salvation comes in the form of a lowly shepherd who loves her.

In many ways, "Tiefland's" story is somewhat old-fashioned for the early 1940s -- fairly predictable and quaint. But under the surface is an undeniable denouncement of oppression and tyranny. No doubt, Riefenstahl used the allegory as undiluted as she dared. The lord is dark and tempestuous, rather like Hitler. He rules the peasants without a care for their welfare. Had it been filmed in Germany, it probably would have been banned and resulted in Riefenstahl's arrest. That would come very soon, but from the victorious Allies, rather than the Axis.

As soon as the war was over, Riefenstahl (like thousands of others who had worked in the Nazi Party) was detained while it was determined whether or not she should stand trial for war crimes. She was never officially charged, but nevertheless she spent four years in detention, and her rolls of film for "Tiefland" were stored carelessly. When she was finally able to regain possession of her film, she could find no support or financing for its completion. She labored on, and in 1954 - ten years after filming began (and with many of the cast and crew dead from the war), Tiefland was finally complete. Naturally, no one would help release a film by the woman that was (wrongly) claimed to have been "Hitler's girlfriend", and so, Tiefland remained in its cans.

Despite near global censure at the hands of the US film industry, Riefenstahl determined to continue her work as a documentary photographer, and has done a number of beautiful, critically acclaimed books of photographs. Ironically, most of them celebrate African tribes such as the Maasai and Nuba, surely the very people that the Nazis considered unworthy of life. Riefenstahl is still actively photographing in Africa, in her late 90s, and remains one of the most misunderstood figures in cinematic history.

Hitler was quite pleased with the results, and film critics - even outside of Germany - praised its technical and artistic accomplishments. In 1935, Riefenstahl was invited to make another documentary film, this one of the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin. This was a monumental undertaking, but Riefenstahl was well-suited to the challenge. She assembled a crew of some sixty cinematographers, and used dozens of different cameras - and three different kinds of film - for different situations. She had trenches dug along the track inside the stadium to be able to film from ground-level. She utilized unmanned camera-carrying blimps and balloons for aerial shots. She developed slow-motion methods, underwater cameras and panoramic techniques. In short, the documentary was the most complex, sophisticated cinematic effort of the first half of the Twentieth Century, and it was the achievement of a woman.

When Olympia was completed, Riefenstahl sought to have her documentary shown in the US, whom she thought would be receptive to it. Instead, most film industry people in Hollywood boycotted the screenings, due to its supposed glorification of Hitler and Nazism. Never mind that African-American athlete Jesse Owens figures as prominently as Hitler in the film, nor that athletes and anthems of many allied nations were honored.

The few brave critics who did see the film were unanimous in their praise. The film critic for the Los Angeles Times reported "…It is a triumph of the camera and an epic of the screen. It is regrettable that political issues have intruded because, contrary to rumour, the film is by no means propaganda, but simply an excellent camera study of great sporting events carried through with artistic skill, imagination and an international vision…" Olympia was awarded the grand prize at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, and the first prize at the Venice Biennale, where it was called "the best film in the world".

Nevertheless, the film was branded as "Nazi propaganda" by enough powerful members of the Hollywood film industry to effectively ban its public screening, and smeared Riefenstahl as a Nazi herself. After spending the majority of the war under a kind of house arrest, and four years after the war as a prisoner of the allies, she was finally freed, although much of her equipment and film stock was confiscated and never returned.

In 1940, she had begun work on a film that would show what she really thought of the Nazi party and of her relationship with it. Entitled "Tiefland", it is a parable about a girl who is used by a evil and powerful man to suit his own desires. Riefenstahl, who plays the heroine, is eventually rescued by a simple, kind shepherd. Had it been shown in its day, the allegory's meaning would've been clear and she would no doubt have been severely punished. Riefenstahl was unable to finish Tiefland for another thirteen years. When she finally managed to complete it, she was still considered "tainted" from her association with the Nazis, and no distributor would touch it.

Realizing that she could never again make films, Riefenstahl turned to still photography. She traveled to Africa and lived with the Nuba tribe, photographing them in all their exotic beauty. Two books resulted from this period, but even bookstores who sold them came under attack as supposedly supporting a Nazi! In 1974 at the age of 72, she took up SCUBA diving and photographed material for another book, which despite its neutral subject matter, once again came under threat of boycott. Now,at the age of 100, Riefenstahl is still an active photographer, and has seen the techniques and styles that she created be used by filmmakers everywhere. She also notes how few women are able to make films, or enjoy any significant influence in the industry. Although she tries not to be bitter, she still wonders why the world has been unwilling to forgive her for two documentaries she made sixty years ago.