Was Leni Riefenstahl, the infamous film director, a Nazi collaborator who knew about Adolf Hitler’s concentration camp? In the documentary “Riefenstahl,” which debuted at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, director Andres Veiel examines this question using documents that he has never seen before from Riefenstahl’s real estate, including private films, photos, recordings, letters and more.
“We were very conscious that she had manipulated a lot and that she had deleted some (from her archives),” Veiel says. “In a way, our gift was that she made a mistake. She left a lot on her property and accused her of far more liability for her guilt and accomplice.”
Riefenstahl, who passed away in 2003 at the age of 101, is known for his documentaries “Triumph of the Will” (1935) and “Olympiad” (1938). The documents defined by fascist aesthetics were funded by the Nazis. Liefenstahl’s friendship with Hitler and other high-ranking Nazi officials was well documented during World War II. However, during her long life after the collapse of Nazism, she remained an apollogeti, spending decades denying her relationship with Nazi ideology and claiming Holocaust ignorance. She was never formally convicted of being a participatory Nazi crime.
Veiel, who calls Riefenstahl a “prototype of fascism,” said creating a documentary about Riefenstahl would be “an urgent need for me.”
“Riefenstahl’s visual world is about victory right now,” Veiel says. “The victory over doubt, ambivalence, supposed weakness, imperfection. Reinterpreted in light of her private property, Riefenstahl’s extensive legacy provided a new take on the timeless charm of imperial greatness and the need for a trained, perfect, victorious staging to see him rise again today.
Variety spoke with Veiel about “Riefenstahl,” which will be screened at Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles until September 25th.
Several documentaries have been made about Leni Liefenstall, including Ray Muller’s long, praised three-hour document, “The Wonderful, Fearful Life of Leni Liefenstall” in 1993. Why do you make another documentary about her life and work?
There are so many very good movies (about Riefenstahl), so we took a big opportunity (making this movie). The challenge was that we could somehow surpass the knowledge we already possess. Also, what does (her story) mean today? I felt it wasn’t a film from the past, it’s somehow a warning from the future.
He said there are some gaps in the Riefenstahl property. Can you give me an example?
I came across a presentation of a daily Express interview with Riefenstahl in 1934, but there were no actual interviews. I then got it from a newspaper archive. Here, Riefenstahl had read Hitler’s Mein Kampf in 1932 and declared that after the first page he had already become a passionate national socialist. Such documents would have been destroyed at once, a painstakingly constructed legend that she is a “non-political person.” So, the question is, how can we approach the protagonist who did everything to maintain her legend, half, and lies, not just in her life, but in her wealth?
Do you think Riefenstahl should continue to be celebrated with her functional film techniques? Do we need to separate art from artists?
Well, I don’t think we can separate art from politics. She is the best example. She used her aesthetic to celebrate the dictatorship. This ultimately was responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews as well as 60 million. But of course, she was a very good director and she was even a better editor. It shows excerpts from “Olympia,” including the well-known high-diving sequences. In this way we give space to the beautiful, strong and victory celebrations of Riefenstaal. Sequences still have a strong influence today. It would be wrong not to show that. The hidden images of these images are communicated elsewhere, for example, in the context of photographer Willie Zilke’s fate. He shot the prologue of “Olympia” mostly himself. Shortly after filming, he broke down and committed to a mental hospital. Within six months he was forced to sterilize. Leni Riefenstahl was notified of this but did not intervene. She didn’t give you any fucking shit. She is interested in her career, where she finds out she is a mild empty of illness, part of her ideology.
While I was making this film, you said, “There was a moment when I had to force you to not just leave (Riefenstahl). How did you overcome this unwillingness?
Life comes before guilt. Her life may have developed quite differently in the 1920s. Her enthusiasm for the Nazi regime did not begin in 1932. Decades ago, there were numerous biographic, historical and generational influences decades ago. This property, along with other sources, gave us the opportunity to approach Riefenstahl in all her contradictions.
