Can despicable propaganda also be great art? It is a question that forever will be raised when German director Leni Riefenstahl's work is discussed. She is admired as being one of the greatest German directors ever (by Quentin Tarantino for example), but she is also despised for making the Third Reich look glamorous.
Riefenstahl herself has always denied being a nazi herself. In her view, she was an artist who happened to be working for Hitler. In interviews she has always insisted to have been unaware of the atrocities of the regime.
After her death in 2003 this self created image was quickly shattered. The striking contrast between her own statements and the historical facts were already the subject of the recent TV documentary 'Riefenstahl - the End of a Myth', and are more deeply researched in the documentary movie 'Riefenstahl'.
Director Andres Veiel has painstakingly combed her entire estate, searching for letters, newspaper clippings and official documents to confront 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 huge ego and her fearless ambition helped shape her place in cinematographic history.
In a Q&A during the Film Festival in Ghent, Veiel said that at first, he wanted to create a Riefenstahl-avatar in his film, an alternative Leni, created from the 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 deep sympathy and admiration for the nazi movement. Veiel shows convincingly that her own world view was completely in line with the nazi ideology.
The film contains a treasure trove of historic material. Very revealing is the footage of television interviews, made when the cameras were kept running while the interview was interrupted. Riefenstahl repeatedly becomes very angry when questions are being asked about her responsability as an artist and her involvement in the nazi movement.
But even more revealing are the taped telephone conversations Riefenstahl held with her many admirers. Whenever her artistic integrity was put into doubt, she received letters of support and sympathetic phone calls. Many Germans agreed that in the 1930's it was very hard to resist the nazi movement, and that the passive supporters of Hitler are being judged too hard.
Andres Veiel himself considers his film a lesson for today. Riefenstahl's capability of recreating her own image and shaping the past in her advantage, is similar to the multitude of fake news that is being created by populists like Donald Trump.
