Nuremburg, Germany 1934, the biggest political day of the year for the Germans, Party Day. Adolf Hitler has just taken office as the feuer, a newly created office, making him dictator over the German nation. The country is introduced to there new leader, through speeches given to the masses by now infamous characters of German Socialist campaign. Documenting it all, a 32 year old young woman named Leni Riefenstahl. The events captured become part of one the most controversial films to have been printed on celluloid.
Triumph Des Willens, a propaganda film, for the Nazi party is in my opinion visually stunning and brilliantly directed. The film’s creator does not receive such acclaim from the masses, blacklisted after the war Leni Riefenstahl is beyond any doubt a brilliant director but is her banishment from Hollywood justified? I intend to show that one of film’s most innovative directors was unfairly persecuted and she should be held in the same regard as any other controversial film maker.
Born in Berlin, Germany in 1902 Leni Riefenstahl started as a dancer and painter in Berlin. An injury to her knee quickly ended her dancing career, but her desire to express her self did not die. (Leni Riefenstahl-Biogrpahy) First appearing in films in 1925 as a dancer, after her injury she took on acting (Leni Riefenstahl-IMDB). Her first part as an actress came in 1926 in the German film Der Heilig Berg (Leni-IMDB). She quickly was taken under the wing of her director, Arnold Fanck, and in 1932 directed her first film, Das Blaue Licht. The Blue Light was considered very groundbreaking at the time, attracting the attention of one Adolf Hitler, who considered the film to be one of his favorites(BBC-News). Riefenstahl’s career and her life just took a very important turn.
She was commissioned, by Hitler, to shoot documentaries for the new government of Germany. Her first film of this kind was Der Sieg des Glaubens in 1932 followed a few years later in Tag der Freiheit in 1935(Leni-IMDB). These films simply portrayed the majesty of the German army, the political and strong propaganda elements seem to be lost and considering the year, the German’s had not become any real threat yet. This was the real turning point in her life, though she would not know it for some years.
Her documentary about the Sixth Party Congress at Nuremburg, Triumph of the Will, was and still is considered extreme political propaganda for the Third Reich. The film itself is absolutely breathtaking, the cinematography and the editing make it incredibly powerful. The film’s excellence and might may have led to its downfall. The film did very well, winning a gold medal at Venice in 1935 and another gold medal at the World Exhibition at Paris in 1937.(Leni-Bio) The industry saw the artistic value in this piece and rewarded it accordingly, all of this happened before Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939. What if this film had not been effective? What if it had not been any good? Would Riefenstahl’s career have been saved by a lack of interest in her film? She was not so lucky it seems, the film was a great success but inadvertently also for the Nazi Party.
Riefenstahl was again commissioned by the German government, to document the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Olympia is a two part epic again portraying all of German’s might. This film is considered Riefenstahl’s masterwork, for which she employed a multitude of new camera techniques which are still in use today. The film won the gold medal in Paris for 1937 and first prize in Venice for 1938 as the world’s best film. The film was also named to the Ten Best Film’s of all time in 1956 (Leni-Bio).
Now what is important to understand is that up until 1939 Germany was not at war and that in the wake of the depression a few years earlier the German people were happy to be able to get behind there country. The Nazi’s may have been terrible people but they installed a sense of nationalism into the population people were proud to be German again. Despite the political policies of the German government towards non-Aryan races it is suffice to say that the entire population, Riefenstahl included, thought along these same lines. A wonderful example from Riefenstahl’s Olympiais the portrayal of Jesse Owens, the African-American runner. He is shown in the same light as every other athlete and even though he is of an “inferior race” he emerges victorious overall. Riefenstahl shows this in her film, if her film were true propaganda then it would have made sense for Owens to have been omitted (Thompson/Bordwell).
As Germany thrust its political might toward conquering the world, Riefenstahl took a break from filmmaking, as all of Germany ultimately did, she married to a German major, Peter Jacobs in 1944(Leni-Bio). After Germany’s defeat on May 7, 1945 Riefenstahl would find her filmmaking career was basically over. It would be ten more years until she made another film (Leni-IMDB).
In the wake of an event like World War II it does seem human to immediately look for those responsible for the War itself, and after stories of the holocaust that took place at the hands of Germany it is to be expected that all things German are going to be on the out for some time to come. Leni Riefenstahl’s case seems extreme though, a little over ten years prior, her film’s had been award winning features heralded for there cinematography and sound, now she is out of a job. It is true her films are very powerful, but are they propaganda, or merely filmed with a strong sense of national pride?
There seem to be two very well established sides to this argument, one is absolutely sure that these films are well planned propaganda, the other sees them simply as documents of Germany in the late 1930’s and were intended to be nothing more.
The opposition to Riefenstahl’s innocence may be in the majority and has quite a large amount of “evidence” in their favor. This quote is from the Royal Screen Journal, May 1935, in reference to Adolf Hitler and spoken by Leni Riefenstahl,
“To me he is the greatest man who ever lived. He is really faultless, so simple and yet so filled with manly power. He wants nothing, nothing for himself. He knows that he will never see the Germany of which he dreams, but he is content to work on for others, never deviating, never flinching from his task. He is beautiful, he is wise. (Fraser,Dorrell&Wilson;)”
Even more recently, in a text book covering the history of film, her films are referred to as “propaganda films (Thompson/Bordwell) .
In response, is it possible that Riefenstahl did not fully understand Nazi politics? Germany had been in turmoil before Hitler, he in some regards could be considered a sovereign to Germany. I can also find no quotations of Riefenstahl making any anti-Semitic or racial remarks and her films do not seem to carry that message of hate.
“Regardless of whether Triumph of the Will is accepted as a mere historical recording of events or as carefully contrived propaganda, the film cannot be properly understood without full knowledge of historical events occurring before and during this film.(Hinton)” This is an excerpt from an article in the Cinema Journal circa 1975. The writer goes on to add that Triumph of the Will is the “official document” of the Nuremberg party rally in 1934. If the film is simply a document of actual events how can we chastise a documentarian for simply documenting what actually happened?
Regardless of all opinions Riefenstahl did not direct a film again until 1954, Tiefland, in which she acted and also produced the film. The film is considered her statement on the nature of Nazi rule and “a cry for freedom from tyranny (Tiefland).” Riefenstahl, unbeknownst to her, had also used gypsies as extras, who were ultimately sent to die in concentration camps. The film was not finished before the war and could be completed until 1954, by then many of those in the film had perished.
Ultimately Riefenstahl was never a member of the Nazi party nor was she ever charged with war crimes. Riefenstahl said herself,
“I was only interested in how I could make a film that was not stupid like a crude propagandist newsreel, but more interesting. It reflects the truth as it was then, in 1934. It is a documentary, not propaganda (BBC News).”
Riefenstahl took up photography as her means of expression after the war, and was praised for the work she did in Africa (Leni-Bio). Riefenstahl made only one more film before her death, Impressionen unter Wasserwhich was released in 2002 to critical acclaim a full 48 years after Tiefland (Leni Riefenstahl-Filmography). Leni Riefenstahl died in September 2003 at the age of 101(BBC News).
Was Leni Riefenstahl simply a victim of circumstance? Put yourself in her position; you’re a young director and you are given incredible resources to make films,16 separate cameras in Triumph of the Will(Thompson/Bordwell), and the man offering this to you seems to be the savior of your country, could you say no? Who is to say anyone else would not have done the same thing in her position. It is understandable, the rational that did persecute her work, but at the same time very unfair. She seems to have made an error in judgment, hers just happened to be on a much larger scale. In the end she made great films and some of this footage is an incredible record of what went on in pre-war Germany. I say we give her credit for her innovations and forgive her for all errors in judgment.
Works Cited.
Leni Riefenstahl (2006). Retrieved December 5, 2006, from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0726166/
Leni Reifenstahl Biography (2003). Retrieved December 6, 2006, from http://www.leni-riefenstahl.de/eng/bio.html
Leni Riefenstahl Filmography (2003). Retrieved December 6, 2006, from http://www.leni-riefenstahl.de/eng/film.html
Das Blaue Licht (2006). Retrieved December 6, 2006, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022694/
Triumph des Willens (2006). Retrieved December 6, 2006, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025913/
Tiefland (2006). Retrieved December 6, 2006, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046431/
Film-maker Leni Riefenstahl dies (2003, September 9). Retrieved December 6, 2006, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3093154.stm
Fraser, J., Dorrell, A., & Wilson, S. (1981, July). Propaganda [Letter to the editor].Oxford Art Journal, 1, 65-69. Retrieved December 6, 2006, from Google Scholar.
Hinton, D. B. (1975, October). “Triumph of the Will”: Document or Artifice? Cinema Journal, 15, 48-57. Retrieved December 6, 2006, from Google Scholar.
Thompson, K., & Bordwell, D. (2003). Film History: An Introduction (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
