Original subtitles

~- Heil, workmen - Heil, my Führer$

~One people, one Führer$

~Get set$

Mrs Riefenstahl, if you had your life to live over again

how would you live it?

I think my life was very hard but also very rich

I think I would say, "Yes, I want

to live again"

The same way you did?

This I don't know, I hope I wouldn't make so many mistakes

What are your mistakes?

- My mistakes? - Yes

Would you say that one of them was your close association with Hitler?

Looking back now

"The Blue Light" was my first film

I was immersed in that world when I made it

When I showed this scene of me climbing the rock face

to my friend Carl Mayer, who was a famous screenwriter

- Yes - He said to me, "If they"

I don't know if the word "Nazi" existed back then,

but to me it was like he said, "If the fascists,

the National Socialists,

saw you,

you would become their idol"

I have to tell you something Let me turn this off

CONVERSATION WITH ALBRECHT KNAUS PUBLISHER -1978

- Where were we again? - '32

Yes, exactly

The first time I ever heard about Hitler was in early 1932

By then the term "Nazi" was in common use

- Really? - Yes

Yes? I need a handkerchief

Then there was that rally in Berlin

And as he spoke his very first words,

"My national comrades"

I was overcome by a very peculiar feeling

My whole body was trembling and I had hot sweats

And I was somehow

captured, as if by a magnetic force

If someone a 100 or 200 years from now

takes a look at your work,

what would you like for them to know about you?

What is the most important thing you would like someone

a 100 years or 200 years from now to know about you?

I think, "The Blue Light", because it is the key for my life

These photographs are from Riefenstahl's estate

They document 101 years of her life

The estate also includes her films and a large amount of footage

that never appeared in her officially released works

Some of the material appears to be random,

while other items are well sorted, or even carefully arranged

For something to be remembered,

other things must be forgotten

You said "naive" You used the word "naive" earlier

- Did I say "naive"? - Yes

Will you revise it?

I should rather say I was inexperienced in that area

You mean politically?

Yes, most certainly

Most certainly

Politics

is the opposite of everything

that has fulfilled and fascinated me throughout my life

- What is the opposite of politics? - Art

For me, I think it's art

Exploring things where you have to penetrate to a deeper level

If you feel things intensely as an artist, and I was born that way,

you live your life so ardently, so intensely, so passionately,

that there's no room for interest in real-world issues

So even today,

you don't believe that art and politics affect each other?

THE WONDERFUL HORRIBLE LIFE OF LENI RIEFENSTAHL

Now comes an interesting part

This effect is created by the camera elevator

Now the camera pans

over to one side

and then it pans back

over to the other side

And these two shots combine

to create the form of a circle,

and the resulting effect is very powerful

The columns of flags overlap here

Those are the Stahlhelm flags

Exactly in sync with the music

- Interesting? - Super

That was the best scene of the day

Wasn't it super?

When you made "Triumph of the Will", you made it for Hitler

Oh no, never I would say this

I've got the order to do this and I've made my duty as good as I was able

LENI RIEFENSTAHL IN HER OWN WORDS

If Roosevelt gave me the order and I must make a film

about the planes, I would do my best

The same would be if I get the order of Stalin to make something

In the moment I have the camera, the cameramen, the sound, everything

I see the work

~They are mistaken$

~The state does not give us orders,$

~we give orders to the state$

~The state did not create us,$

~we are creating our state$

~My Führer$

~You are Germany$

~When you act, the nation acts$

~When you judge, the people judge$

You asked me if the film had a message

When I edited the film, I did realize

that there is a certain message You can find it in the film

~You have been our guarantor of victory$

Hess's rally speech in particular,

when he says, "Hitler is our guarantor of peace"

~Adolf Hitler$

~Sieg Heil$

"Peace, peace" That's a constant in the film

There's no mention of other political goals or motives

There's no mention of antisemitism, there's no mention of racial theory

It's just about work and peace

~A people that does not hold dear its racial purity$

~will perish$

But doesn't an artist who makes films have a broad impact on people?

- Yes - And doesn't such an artist

have a very special responsibility?

What responsibility should I have?

After all, back then 90 percent of the people were enthralled by Hitler

You think I should have been a resistance fighter?

There were only very few

Should I have joined those few, or what do you mean?

My two guests tonight are two elderly ladies, one could say

They are both in their seventies

Most of you will probably know one of them:

Leni Riefenstahl

Next to Mrs Riefenstahl is someone

who I think very few people know, Elfriede Kretschmer

Mrs Kretschmar, we know Mrs Riefenstahl made films

What did you do?

I worked

I was a worker

- Were you politically active back then? - Yes, very much so

I couldn't go along with all of that I just couldn't do it

My upbringing, my belief in a different Germany

than what it became for 12 years

I was lucky I was what you'd call a "German woman"

I was blonde, blue-eyed, and so on

But what the men went through in Hamburg

I can only speak of Hamburg

In the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, in Neuengamme

Since you're both from the same generation,

when was the first time

you heard the name Riefenstahl?

It was when I saw your film "The Blue Light",

which I found fascinating on a technical level

But with the later films I was actually

quite saddened that a woman would make films

that were against all of humanity

And even today I still maintain

that no one, or at least no one who lived in a big city,

can claim they didn't know what was happening

We were in our 30s at the time,

and we knew what we were doing

But how does someone end up

shooting films like that?

In my opinion, they are Pied Piper films, if I may say so

I could never accept anything like that

I never wanted to make a documentary

I was commissioned to do it

- And I - By whom?

- By Hitler Hitler had - I would have refused

Yes, maybe

But no one would've refused

Back then, the whole world was enthralled by Hitler

One year after that, Mr Churchill said,

"I envy the Germans for their leader"

And I saw all the diplomats at the Nuremburg rally

They paid court to Hitler, but I didn't film that

- We're not accusing you - The lady said she wouldn't do it

The whole world?

Back then, all the ambassadors were represented there

- Ambassadors aren't 'the world' - Germany was admired

But the entire press as well

The entire press

Back then, I couldn't foresee

what was going to happen Nor could millions of others

And you just have to believe that You can't always

In retrospect, I'd be happy if I'd witnessed it like you

I'd be so happy about it

Because then I could say, "I witnessed it, I knew about it"

But these days it's much more difficult

for those who didn't know because no one believes them

No one believes them

And that is very difficult, believe me It's incredibly difficult

CONTROVERSY FOLLOWING LENI RIEFENSTAHL'S TV APPEARANCE

GERMAN MAIL (WEST)

After the talk show appearance,

Riefenstahl receives hundreds of letters and phone calls

She meticulously sorts and archives the strong public reaction

"I would like to congratulate you, also on behalf of many people I know,

on your courageous appearance on the talk show"

"How can you put a personality of Leni Riefenstahl's caliber

opposite someone like Mrs Kretschmar,

who had nothing to say except that she 'worked' Who didn't have to work?"

"As you have realized, the majority of West Germans are on your side"

~I would just like to say that, after the program on Saturday evening,$

~I deeply admire Mrs Riefenstahl$

~Her whole demeanor impressed us Thank you$

Hello?

~Dear Mrs Riefenstahl,$

~don't let those swines like Rosenbauer bring you down$

~Justice will prevail in the end$

~Certainly there were many reactions$

Many? It was more than anything I've ever experienced

I'm getting more and more letters

Audience letters

(1) Letters to the broadcaster and newspapers

(2) Normal mail/autograph requests

(3) Letters with flowers, telegrams, or money

(4) Private letters

(5) Foreign letters

(6) Letters from National Socialists

(7) Letters from those with different views, Communists, Jews etc

One moment, please I have to call my assistant

Horst? Horst

Stay here with me, Horst

Horst is my assistant He's a student of mine

He set it to 'record', and now we've got so many cassettes

Kettner, Mrs Riefenstahl's assistant

~I wrote a reader's letter$

- Yes? ~- And I made it very clear$

~how disgraceful it was to watch$

~Mrs Riefenstahl being humiliated$

~by a clueless and crude talk master$

~and turned into an object of agitation by a hateful activist grandma$

You phrased that very well

~I'm a screenwriter by profession I write TV scripts for "Crime Scene"$

One man repeatedly crops up in the photos taken during these years:

Horst Kettner

He is 40 years younger than Riefenstahl

Their relationship begins in 1967

From that point on they are partners in both life and work

We didn't feel the age difference be it younger or older

We always felt the same age

After all, when there's a 40-year age difference,

one partner must always give in

And that's me

Many people admire me for putting up with her for so long

It's the other way round

- Leni says it's the other way - The other way round

In the late 1970s,

Riefenstahl and Horst Kettner move into a spacious home

near the shores of Lake Starnberg

It is from here that Riefenstahl, aided by her numerous supporters,

campaigns to influence the public perception of her biography

- Riefenstahl speaking - ~I'd just like to say this:$

~You have no reason to be nervous$

~You have achieved a great deal in your life$

Yes, but the press derides it They don't honor it at all

~You shouldn't put so much store in the gutter press, you know?$

~I'm an editor at the "Abendzeitung" in Munich, Mrs Riefenstahl$

The "Abendzeitung" in Munich?

So it's going to be another hatchet job?

~For your information, newspapers such as BILD$

~- are actually right-wing$ - Yes, but it has a Jewish slant

~Well, Springer publishers invested in big offices down there in Tel Aviv$

Yes, exactly

BILD newspaper described them as "Pied Piper films" in their article

"TRIUMPH OF THE WILL"

NEGATIVE

~May the bright flame of our fervor never be extinguished$

~It alone is what gives the creative art$

~of modern political propaganda its light and warmth$

~The era of excessive Jewish intellectualism is now over$

~The breakthrough of the German revolution$

~has cleared the path for the German spirit$

~In one bold, grandiose sweep,$

~we have herded together the enemies of this land$

~They should beware$

~One day our patience will run out,$

~and then we will finally shut the Jews' impudent lying mouths$

It was a very big thing with Goebbels

He was crazy because he practically risked his life to get me

- So it was an adventure? - I had many adventures with Goebbels

He read 'Zarathustra' to me, he kneeled before me

He tried everything to get me

One night, he drove away with me in my car and we turned it over

- And - Like in a bad film?

Yes By the way, I shouldn't forget to mention

that two times, once when he was minister and we were in his apartment,

he wanted to take me by force

THE WONDERFUL, HORRIBLE LIFE OF LENI RIEFENSTAHL - UNRELEASED FOOTAGE

45, 3047, 48, 49, 50

- Rolling - Sound speed

Okay

Goebbels wanted to have me at any cost, he wanted to make me his lover

But he wasn't my type at all

I didn't feel attracted to him

Hitler had no idea what had happened with Dr Goebbels

All the affairs he had with me

May I just correct you? You used an unfortunate phrasing:

- "All the affairs he had with me" - No, that's not good

Can we do it again, please?

When we read Goebbels' diaries from early 1933,

one has the impression you visited Hitler and Goebbels at home like a good friend

That's pure fantasy It's not true

I know those comments in his diary I never

You visited him about ten times, went to the cinema

It can't be true, just do the math

I wasn't with him ten times That's untrue

You should take a closer look, Mr Müller

We need to stop because it's not correct

If you like, we'll check it entry by entry that's written there

But socially He would've had to invite me to his home at least once

- And he didn't? - No Not once

Not even to Schwanenwerder, where they'd all go

Not only did I not go, I wasn't even invited

- I'm so upset about what you said - Let's take a break

Unheard of

- I can show it to you - Then show me where it says

that I would come and go like a good friend

- Okay, let's take a break - Horsti

- Horsti, I have to defend - They're filming all of this

Yes, maybe so No, they can't film this

I won't carry on if you keep filming

outside of the interview when I'm upset

- I won't go on No way - I can show you

- We're having a conversation - No, you can film that,

but not when I said stop

- But we continued and you - No

I was talking off the record

- But it wasn't - Would I say that in front of a camera?

- You said I should prove it to you - Yes No No

But then we carried on

No, everything from there must go

- Calm down, this won't help - Excuse me No

- I won't be abused here - You can't call it off now

Take that away until it's cut

~I read the interview with you in yesterday's evening paper$

- Yes ~- And you said$

~- that you want to write your memoirs$ - Yes

~And that would be a huge success$

~- You should do it It takes a long time$ - I know

But I went through it all,

it's all written in my body and in my mind

Riefenstahl works on her memoirs for over ten years

Page after page, she grapples with the task

of shaping how she will be remembered

I'm trying to find something here

A new page

Let's see what you wrote today

I'll go around you

The assault by Goebbels is just one of many that she describes

in the draft of her memoirs

"Feelings of desperation"

"Father especially irritable"

"without tenderness"

"The first man"

"Although I didn't want to admit it,

I had developed strong feelings for the tennis player Otto Froitzheim

I was informed that he intended to invite me for tea

at his flat in Tiergarten

He put on a gramophone record

and without resisting I let him pull me out of my chair

I danced with him as if hypnotized

He practically tore my clothes off,

and tried to take me by brute force

He entered me,

and I screamed out in pain"

"Shame"

"Love"

Riefenstahl describes the encounter with Otto Froitzheim

in exactly the same way in different stages of the writing process

However, she varies her accounts of other events

Almost as if she needs to make sure herself

"Rauchfangswerder"

"My father often said,

'It's a pity you weren't born a boy'

I was barely five and my father wanted me to learn how to swim

He made me a life jacket out of reeds

and tossed me into the water

I can still remember those seconds of drowning,

the thoughts

Before I lost consciousness in the water

I was overcome by a feeling that death by drowning was not so bad

I soon became a strong swimmer"

"the men"

"I saw my father"

During the writing process,

she records conversations with her publisher

and other acquaintances on tape

CASSETTE TAPES MANUSCRIPT

MEMOIRS

Since you mention childhood, another thing that happened

when I was about 12 or 13

- Is that clear enough? - Yes, certainly

CONVERSATION WITH DIETER WILD JOURNALIST

As children, we used to steal

One day, I was in a general store

and I secretly took a bar of chocolate

My father beat me half to death

He had a coat hanger or something, and he gave me a terrible beating

Then he locked me up in a toilet for about 12 hours

But I still wouldn't accept that I was wrong Imagine that

Just a moment

These passages do not appear in her published memoirs

And in later interviews she makes no mention of them

My mother

saw my life as the fulfillment of her own life

You mean your mother was also ambitious?

She, too, had the wish to play a part?

So basically one could say that you are

the daughter of a stage mother, to put it provocatively

"Stage mother"? She was never on stage

It's when a young girl's career

I see When the mother

is dictated by a mother who tries to achieve

what she herself dreamed of doing

Yes My mother would say, "You can't give up, Leni

- You must persevere You really must" - Yes

- Cheers - Cheers Thank you

Isn't it nice to meet again?

This won't be the last time

CONVERSATION WITH SCHOOL FRIENDS ALICE AND HERTHA

How sweet, Horst Thank you

Would you like another coffee?

- No, thanks so much - And you?

You know what I wanted to ask you, Alice?

How old were we when we first met?

Well, I joined the school

- and I noticed that you were very pretty - yes?

You were incredibly ambitious

You would throw a fit,

sometimes it was an act and sometimes it was genuine,

if things didn't work out

or if you didn't get the praise you expected for your work,

if you didn't get an A

You had a black tulle dress

and you looked like a femme fatale

And Mrs Kollmorgen said,

"Your daughter is a beauty", and we looked up the word

You know what she did?

She once said to her mother,

"You know, Mommy? I think Hertha will look quite nice when she's older"

So very gracious of her

That's so typical of my friend Leni

- You were the first one to - I was an early developer

I looked like your nanny

We showed each other our breasts, and mine were the biggest

I was a terribly late developer in that area

I began stuffing socks into my bra in my schooldays

- Because I had no breasts yet and - We can't say that

Sure, we can

- I did all sorts of things - You used paint

- I put red paint on my knickers - To show off her period

But she hadn't had one yet

I thought that none of you took me seriously

THE WHITE HELL OF PIZ PALU

From the mid-1920s Riefenstahl works with Arnold Fanck,

the famous director of many successful "mountain films"

Although she had never acted before,

Riefenstahl demands a leading role

The film is shot under extreme conditions

STORM OVER MONT BLANC

Tethered by a rope, she once plunges 15 meters into a crevasse

She risks frostbite while shooting at minus 20 degrees

Riefenstahl is the only woman on set

All of the men are First World War veterans

"Memory is the only paradise from which we cannot be banished"

STORM OVER MONT BLANC

In 1933, Ernst Udet writes in his memoirs:

"My generation has been shaped by the war

The weaker ones were broken by it

But for the rest of us, the will to live has grown stronger

We were soldiers without a flag

But the Führer gave us one to hold up"

You say, you were just there to take a picture of what was going on in Nuremberg

Absolut It was nothing made for the film

I was only six days before the rally was starting in Nuremberg

You have been quoted as saying that it was staged for your benefit

This have written journalists but not I It was nothing staged

You've probably read also,

there was one critic who said that this film could never have been made

by anyone not fanatically at one with the events depicted

And another critic called it

"a hymn of praise to brute strength and mindless hysteria"

This is the opinion of critic people

But this has nothing to do with the truth

~We want you,$

~German boys and German girls,$

~to take in all of this$

~The Führer of the German youth has the floor$

~We want to ensure$

~that this people will not one day end up enfeebled,$

~but that it can instead be tough$

~And while you are young, you must harden yourselves for this$

~You must learn to endure hardship$

~without ever$

~collapsing$

~Because whatever we achieve today,$

~and whatever we do, we will pass away$

~But in you, Germany will live on$

~And when there is nothing left of us,$

~you must take the flag$

~that we raised from nothing,$

~and hold it in your fists$

This is side 1, Leni Riefenstahl,

November 14, 1976

CONVERSATION WITH ERNEST A OSTRO JOURNALIST

Can you remember the first time you met Speer in person?

It was one day before the rally, on a lawn somewhere

- At the grounds? - Yes

It was in 1933

And

I said, "It doesn't matter whether he's a National Socialist,

or a Jew, or whatever,

this man is a great person"

We immediately felt a rapport

when it came to art and our professions

We were somehow quite similar

Strong willed, idealistic,

prepared to make sacrifices, and also uncompromising

It's so nice to meet you As the Reich Architect, you built all this

What can you tell us?

The Luitpoldarena will be finished this year

The Luitpoldhalle is finished too

But everything you see here is just the beginning of a huge ensemble

that will be built in the coming years

The architect Albert Speer was responsible

for the construction planning of the Nuremberg Rally

In 1942, Hitler appointed him Reich Minister of Armaments and Munitions

Speer organized the mass recruitment of concentration camp inmates

and forced laborers for the German armaments industry

Hundreds of thousands of prisoners

succumbed to the inhumane working conditions

Speer is convicted at the Nuremberg Trial

and sentenced to 20 years in prison

He is released in 1966

While in prison he begins writing his memoirs,

which become a worldwide success

I don't want to hold a press conference

- Just one question - No, no questions whatsoever

On the day he was released he said,

"Oh, I'm quite fine" He deliberately downplayed it

And I thought, my God, how is that possible?

Albert, you know, I need your advice about something

Before I finish my memoirs I need advice about the contract

~Your memoirs? Yes, sure$

- So I don't make any mistakes ~- Don't you have someone$

- Oh, lots, whoever I like ~- Well, especially in that case$

Yes, well, I mean

almost all of the big publishers are basically waiting for it

I've always fought as if my life was at stake

Until I got my way

The Reich Ministry of Propaganda

grants Riefenstahl a huge budget for her film "Olympia",

which at the time is the most costly documentary project in film history

When you're obsessed with your work

it radiates a certain kind of energy that is very persuasive to people

Back then, a lot was uncharted territory

I'd already developed some innovations

I practiced for months in advance

because I knew it was the only way to transcend the "Wochenschau" newsreels

It was the only way to make a really vibrant film

So I assigned the camera operators according to their skills and abilities

They all wanted to outdo each other

They were very competitive and wanted to do the best possible work

~The long jump competition$

~has come down to a battle between the German Luz Long$

~and the fastest runner in the world Jesse Owens$

~806 meters$

~Asakuma for Japan$

~Meter by meter, Germany's starter Emmy Albus is catching up to$

~the outside runners from Holland and Canada$

~The deciding race in the 100-meter sprint$

~The world's six fastest runners$

~are lining up$

~Borchmeyer,$

~Wykoff,$

~Owens$

~USA USA Owens, Owens, Owens$

Why Jesse Owens?

Well, Jesse Owens stood out for me

It was the first time I'd ever seen black people

CONVERSATION WITH RAIMUND LE VISEUR JOURNALIST

And I was electrified

Yes Why?

They were very well built

- and moved like big cats - Yes

~Get set$

During the actual competition

I wasn't aware that I'd focused on him so much

I only realized during the editing

Madame

Madame, I'm very pleased to be interviewing you for Pathé Journal

How is the lighting?

- Invited by Tobis Berlin - Wait a moment What?

PARI'S WORLD'S FAIR

Don't talk

I'm sure your film will be a great success

because all of Paris is already talking about it

Thank you very much

That's it

- Okay - Okay?

I've seen several of the films

you've made

I was always fascinated by the camera techniques you employed

For the time, it was sensational

But what you did

In the Olympia film, there were these beautiful,

very nobly-figured people portrayed on screen

I didn't make them they were like that

Yes, and you portrayed them But I asked myself the question:

Would you have made a film

- about disabled people? - No

- Would it have interested you? - No

- Why not? - That's not my job

That's what I mean If you say,

- "I won't make a documentary" - Wait

At the Olympics, I didn't have a choice

I had 30 cameramen filming the event

And that's what's in the film Nothing was staged or reconstructed

I didn't alter the people, dress them up, or have them pose

What you see in the film was shot by 30 different cameramen

from very different positions

And they filmed reality as it was

Of course I didn't film, or the cameramen

I didn't shoot it myself, I just told them where to stand

And of course they didn't film Jesse Owens wiping his bum or anything

They preferred to film him in his concentration, on the start line

It was the Olympics, and everyone wants to be the best

That goes for all Olympics, not just the German Olympics

It's the same in Montreal, in Rome, in Japan, everywhere

It's very puzzling why people always accuse me

of embellishing things in that film

Of course the athletes look much fitter than a man with a fat belly,

but I can't help it

I didn't conjure them up or anything

We needed some images of people for the prologue

So we decided to shoot by the sea, at the Curonian Spit,

because of the sky and the calm background

I delegated the conception of the prologue to Zielke

He was a brilliant creator of images

No other, let's say, 'regular', cinematographer could measure up to him

Because of his ideas and his methods

you knew he'd do things you had to keep in check

I'd seen some of the footage Zielke had shot, and it was fabulous

It was very stylized He filmed against the light

so the bodies were only half-lit and looked very beautiful

We worked together on the somewhat difficult scene of the transformation

In a slow-motion shot we see

Myron's discus thrower gradually starts to awaken,

like a statue coming to life

Willy Zielke works to the point of exhaustion

Not long after the film shoot, he suffers a breakdown

and is committed to an institution due to an alleged psychosis

Riefenstahl is regularly informed about his condition,

but does not react

In August 1937, Zielke is forcibly sterilized in accordance

with the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring

"What makes the Greek ideal of beauty immortal

is the wonderful combination of the most magnificent physical beauty

with brilliant mind and noblest soul

This, too, is in the interest of the nation

that the most beautiful bodies should find one another

and so help to give the nation new beauty"

Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf"

Do you remember the premiere?

- Yes, very well - Tell me about it

Shortly before, they told me:

"The film cannot be shown"

The reason they gave me

was the "Anschluss" with Austria

Many of the countries whose representatives

raised their arms in the Hitler salute

will fall victim to his expansionist policies a few years later

Austria is the first casualty

AUSTRIA

In March 1938, German troops march over the border

Hitler calls it the "Anschluss", the annexation

After Riefenstahl's premiere is cancelled she follows him to Innsbruck

It was incredible

He was still beaming from his success

I said, "Forgive me, my Führer, for addressing you here,

but I am so deeply upset

that my premiere has been postponed"

Then I had an idea and I said,

"I'd know of a good date: your birthday"

Then he looked at me and said,

"Yes, but I have so many parades to attend

and so many appointments"

And then he said, "You know what? It's not a bad idea

Let's do it on my birthday"

A FILM BY LENI RIEFENSTAHL

During her extensive premiere tour for "Olympia",

she writes to Hitler:

"My Führer, you know how to bring joy to others better than anyone else

When I arrived at the Lido for the Film Biennale,

the first thing I found were the beautiful roses

and birthday telegram you sent to me

I could hardly believe that you found time in your hectic schedule

to think of me for even a moment

The film's impact as German propaganda

is much greater than I could have imagined

And your image, my Führer, is always applauded,

even in Finland

I will be traveling to Oslo, England and America

I am so happy that you have not completely forgotten me

I am always thinking of you

Yours truly, Leni Riefenstahl"

KONSKIE POLAND

My life would have been nicer

if I'd died at the peak of my career

And that was exactly

up until the outbreak of war on September 1, 1939

Up to that point, my star had been constantly rising

In the early days of the war, the Reich Chancellery commissions Riefenstahl

to film the Wehrmacht's campaign in Poland

Shortly after her arrival,

she is confronted with the reality of warfare

Riefenstahl leaves Końskie

A few weeks later she asks to be released from her position as a war correspondent

Less than a year later she begins shooting "Lowlands"

It is her last big project for the regime

A film based on one of Hitler's favorite operas

Riefenstahl writes the screenplay, directs, and plays the leading role

While on set, she becomes acquainted with Peter Jacob,

a member of the SA and a major in the mountain infantry

According to his Wehrmacht records, Jacob is a hands-on, committed Nazi

They marry in 1944

and spend the last year of the war together

The last conversation I had with Hitler was during the war, in 1944

All I can remember is that he'd just shaken my husband's hand

He barely acknowledged him

He spoke in a kind of monologue for almost an hour

He talked about England, Mussolini, and Italy

He still firmly believed that he would win the war

And that was the last time I saw him

We heard on the radio that Hitler had committed

- that Hitler was dead - Yes

My whole past rose up before me

All the past impressions I'd had of that man,

And that was all over now, I was destroyed

LENI RIEFENSTAHL IN HER OWN WORDS

Leni Riefenstahl,

you became famous as, one might say, the focal point

of many things that were going on in Germany at the time,

Hitler-Germany

And

with the end of that period

a long silence This silence needs explanation

Why? What has happened?

You mean the time after the war?

Yes

We have lost the war

I think

that is the question, yes?

We have lost the war

Special Interrogation Series No 3

Leni Riefenstahl (wife of Wehrmacht Major Jacob) was

arrested by American troops in her house in Kitzbuehel

I don't know

Natural, I can say something what I have seen

from my point and so

But we are

not thinking about

what can happen later That was really our mistake

Just the same, from the point of your enthusiasm,

did you feel that Hitler had a very strong personal magnetism then?

I mean, natural Now it is perhaps dangerous to say it but it was

I think it's perfectly reasonable to

It was, it was, natural Yes It was

One may or may not consider R's statements

reliable Nevertheless they give one the impression

of honesty, and dread which she expresses

about the Regime and its leaders seem sincere

During all these years R had heard of Kzs now and then,

but had no actual conception of what they really meant

I have only heard the one name of the concentration camp Dachau

And for this I have asked two or three times and they told me,

in this camp are people, not Jewish people,

there are people who are spies or so people

But when people disappeared, this interests me

- What is "disappeared"? - When people went missing

How I know this? How I know this?

My friends, my Jewish friends,

they go away much earlier

The latest was my doctor '38 he was going to America, yes?

And so I don't know one people who goes

How?

Footage from the shooting of "Lowlands"

Riefenstahl procures 50 Sinti and Roma from an internment camp

to work as extras

Many of them are children

"Siegfried, our little Gypsy"

"Siegfried, a test for Leni's patience"

Over the next few years, most of these extras are deported to Auschwitz

where they are murdered

"Deceased"

After the war, Riefenstahl claims that she has met all the extras

and that they are alive and well

Well

Please

Better you finish

I am too excited

BADEN STATE COMMISSARIAT FOR POLITICAL CLEANSING

FREIBURG TRIBUNAL 2ND DEPARTMENT

RULING IN POLITICAL CLEANSING PROCESS

"It is certain that, in a formal context, Mrs Leni Riefenstahl, born 22081902,

was neither a member of the NSDAP nor any of its organizations

and thus there is no presumption of guilt in accordance with Directive 38"

"She had no interest whatsoever in producing propaganda for the NSDAP

Her acceptance of the two film commissions (Nuremberg Rally and Olympia)

does not indicate anything to the contrary"

RULING IN POLITICAL CLEANSING PROCESS

AGAINST RIEFENSTAHL-JACOB, LENI

FOLLOWER / SYMPATHIZER

SANCTIONS IMPOSED:

THE OFFENDER IS BARRED FROM HOLDING PUBLIC OFFICE

The tribunal's ruling in December 1949 is tantamount to an acquittal

Three years later, Riefenstahl's past catches up with her once again

~Poland$

"Revue" magazine confronts her with new accusations

LENI RIEFENSTAHL IS SILENT ABOUT THIS

"In reality, Leni Riefenstahl is one of the few German women

who not only knew about the terrible crimes

but who actually saw them with her own eyes"

I don't know if you've heard of the book titled "The Final Solution",

but it contains a passage

that describes an event during the Polish Campaign

CONVERSATION WITH ERNEST A OSTRO JOURNALIST

- Come on, drink up - Thanks

- It's my second cup - No, be my guest

Anyway, "On 10 September 1939,

Leni Riefenstahl was in the office of Generalmajor Langhäuser,

she entered his office

She witnessed the shooting of 22 Jews"

- No, that's not true - May I continue?

- You see how unheard of that is? - Wait a moment

"She said she could not carry on with her work,

- with her film crew" - It's all lies

- "when such atrocities were" - I never saw any atrocities

- Happening" - It's just not true

The estate contains a letter dated 1952

written by an adjutant to Riefenstahl's now divorced husband Peter Jacob

The adjutant describes details of the massacre:

"According to a report submitted to the 10th Army,

your wife is alleged to have said

(probably referring to a scene that was to be filmed on the market place):

'But the Jews have to be removed from there'

It's what anyone else would have said too,

because having a bunch of people working in a ditch,

surrounded by more or less disciplined German soldiers,

isn't a good background for filming

A lance corporal passed on these comments

and it ended up sounding like this:

'Get rid of the Jews'

Prompted by this remark and a few persuasive kicks,

some Poles attempted to flee

and then shots were fired"

If this statement is true,

Riefenstahl's set direction played a role in the death of the Jews in Końskie

Mrs Riefenstahl, we should decide if you want to take a different stand

so you don't feel that you're being judged here

I'm here, and I'll do what's demanded of me

- And what is that? - Whatever you like

I'll answer, just ask me If I shouldn't talk, then I won't

As you like I'm not really free to choose

We, Mrs Kretschmar, Mr Kiesewetter, and others,

can't always share the opinions that you represent

- You must understand that - You don't know my opinions

- I haven't even been asked - May I ask you now?

I can only say this:

The people who lived during the Third Reich,

the people who endured so much

and had the opportunity to learn about those things

that I understand that they react with bitterness to those times

But there were many people, including myself,

who only saw it from the positive side

And for whom, only when it became known

when I was in prison and the war was over

and I'd heard about these terrible crimes

a whole world fell apart

We experienced such a shock that I, and many others,

will never be able to heal and recover

That's why I have always avoided these talk shows

This is the first one I've agreed to do in many years

because those wounds have still not healed

~- Madame, may I say something to you?$ - Yes

~Right until the end of the war, I also knew nothing$

~about the gassings in Auschwitz$

Yes, but that's historically well established by now

~But today, Hitler is portrayed as one of the worst political criminals in history$

Everyone knows that, of course But no one asked me about that

Wait, no one asked me about that

~I also knew Hitler, Mrs Riefenstahl$

~- I had dinner with him seven times$ - Yes

~Well, I did condemn him$

~because of the gassings he did$

You knew about that before?

And how did you find out that he was doing these gassings?

~- Oh, I just knew$ ~- $ Who told you?

~The Reich Chamber of Film received a secret correspondence$

~- every two weeks$ - Yes

~My husband would bring the letters home overnight$

~That's where I read it$

Can you remember when you first had written proof

that the gas ovens had been built?

That's historically important, but no one has figured it out yet

You'd be the only person in the world who had such proof

It would be fabulous

if you had such documents

containing the dates, times, and details of how people were burned

- It's outrageous ~- Gassed, yes$

That's what I meant: Gassed, or burned, or whatever happened

The sound running

Scene one, take two

~Rostock's Lichtenhagen district$

~has seen four days of widespread anti-immigrant rioting$

~The residents applaud Police and politicians look away$

~Foreigners out$

How do you feel when you see such images today?

THE WONDERFUL, HORRIBLE LIFE OF LENI RIEFENSTAHL UNRELEASED FOOTAGE

Terrible I think it's terrible

How can people act like that against women and innocent children?

Doesn't it stir up memories?

We've seen images like this in Germany before

I never witnessed that in Germany It never happened

Terrible things happened in Germany after the war,

but not that I never saw anything like that

Do you think

Listen, I don't want to get into political things like that

Because then people will say I don't want to comment on that

- But you can just say - But then I'll be a neo-Nazi

If I say that, I'll be labeled a neo-Nazi again That's how it is

That's why you can't speak the truth

Because if you do they execute you

They execute you if you speak the truth It's all lies

LENI RIEFENSTAHL TO SUE

"I NEVER HAD ANYONE GASSED"

It's really terrible, all the lies and deception

All the stuff they make up

I have never said anything antisemitic

nor have I ever said anything against Jews Never

I just told you that I was never in that camp

All I can do is tell you God damn it

- Rolling - Action

There are over 50 court cases documented here

These are the facts In most cases it was slander

They say you used Gypsies

from a concentration camp as extras in "Lowlands"

That's the most evil lie that was circulated

My blood boils when I hear that

Just a moment

I'm suing for defamation

If you were defamed you might sue as well

I wouldn't say Gypsies have to lie, but you have to decide

who's more likely to commit perjury, me or the Gypsies

This whole affair has put me under such strain

that I am leaving Germany for an extended period, for several months

I will probably only return to Germany for visits

In 1962 to '63,

Riefenstahl makes her first expedition to Sudan

I'll just describe it as it is -

Natu is playing various melodies on the guitar

Over the years, she frequently returns to the Nuba people,

often for months at a time

In Sudan, nobody asks questions about her past

A report for the Sunday Times

The headline: "Why did I live with an African tribe for months

and take these photos?"

When I think about this question,

I'd have to say

that this work is the logical development

of my entire professional career

In all the films I've made so far

I was always captivated by the beauty of the subject

In particular the harmony

that radiates when outer beauty is combined with inner beauty

That was in 1968/69,

when Horst joined me for the first time

and we had a car,

that made it much easier

That's where I slept

I lived there for months, and there,

it may sound incredible, but I was very happy there

That's me with the children and women

The first contact I made was through the children

I put on a small children's wrestling match

- Why does it say "Sport Schuster"? - Because Schuster sponsored me

They gave me two tents and some other things

Riefenstahl on her fourth expedition

She relies on the support of numerous German companies to finance the trip

In return, she grants them free use of the images

That was two years after my first visit

They carried me on their shoulders and shouted "Leni, Leni, Leni"

Their children were named after me, and a mountain too: "Monte Leni"

I wish I could have stayed forever

THE NUBA

THE PEOPLE OF KAU

What was it that made you want to go look for this tribe and make this book?

You mentioned you were worried about civilization coming to these tribes

but do you not help to bring civilization to them by photographing them?

No and I have make the most of these photos with long lenses

I was very far from them

That had not destroy their life

But the civilization must come, natural But slowly

Very slowly

I have seen that especially money gives this people not luck

Let's talk about your photographs

You say in your book that physical health and beauty are the Nuba ideal

There was a period when this was the ideal in Germany also

I think it was also an ideal in Rome and in Greece and in many countries

Not only in Germany

With these photographs you immortalize this beauty, health and strength

People will draw parallels

with that film which became so controversial, "Triumph of the Will",

which also, many people say, was a glori- fication of healthy, handsome German men

If they write about you things what is not true and what is very bad

then you will have the same thing

Natural I have suffered horrible about this

Because through these rumors and these difficulties

it was not possible more to work for me

It's a fantastic book

I'll show you some of my favorite head shots

That would be nice

For example, this one is very beautiful

Let's see how close I can get

That's interesting

So

I'll put this here carefully

Somewhere down here

There are no birds here

But they How much should I put in, Horst?

All of it?

- Go for a walk, shall we? - Fine

Come on

Go inside

- Albert, how lovely - ~Yes, hello$

What about your house in the Allgäu?

~- We're going there now$ ~- $ Is it finished now?

~- Yes$ ~- $ Great

So tell me, when are you there in case I want to call you?

~I'll give you the number I only give it to my closest, most intimate friends$

~- That includes you$ - Oh, thank you

Albert, I wanted to ask you how much you get paid

~It depends$

~Usually, when I go to the BBC for an hour or so,$

~they pay a few hundred marks$

Oh, how about that

Well, I don't do any smaller things for less than 5,000 marks

And Canada already paid 10,000 ten years ago

Ella, isn't it like in Germany, that when programs are broadcast

the TV guides do the advertising?

~Yes, and it says what I told Leni:$

~"The Nazi-era filmmaker"$

And I'm in danger,

because there are so many anti-Nazis in Switzerland

that when I go there for a show and I'm introduced as a Nazi whatever,

- you can imagine what it's like ~- Yes$

- Hello? ~- This is Swiss TV in Geneva$

- One moment, please - ~Thank you$

~Claude Torracinta$

You know, Mr Claude,

you don't realize how often they've put me through the mangle

Every time I go on television they claim that I share the blame

for all the atrocities, for the concentration camps,

all the crimes It always happens

If someone ever used the word "Holocaust",

- I would end the interview ~- Yes$

~Mrs Riefenstahl, it's just archive material$

- It's such a ~- What I'd like to say$

I am not responsible for what happened

Why do you want to show that?

TONIGHT LENI RIEFENSTAHL

Good evening

For the first time in the history of "Destins",

our invited guest is absent

Today, Mrs Riefenstahl demanded that we cut

certain political scenes,

especially those about the fate of the Jews

When she demanded that we cut certain scenes,

we assured her that we would not edit the show

by cutting political scenes,

especially those concerning the Jews in Germany

Mrs Riefenstahl then decided

not to participate in our studio interview

where she would have been free to share

her convictions with the audience

by responding to my questions

Thank you for watching Good night

Your assistant already put two cushions on the chair

- There - Everything's nicely prepared

- Exactly - Yes

I'll hold the chair

Hold tight so you land properly

- I have to - There

Tell us how you want it so you're comfy, okay?

SPEER AND HITLER: THE DEVIL'S ARCHITECT UNRELEASED FOOTAGE

- Is that okay? - I have to Where is the camera?

The camera is here, look

- We're talking - It's where my hand is

- You talk towards me - Towards you?

Yes, we'll be talking and we'll open the frame to the right

Okay, let's see if I can see anything

I have to

Put them away for a moment I have to let my eyes adjust

I can see it

This wrinkle here has to go It should be hidden

Okay, let's put the box on the other side

So the wrinkles are hidden

I'll just go past Let's move the cable over here

We'll do it differently, it's no problem

- As long as it looks good - Exactly

- Careful - Yes, exactly

- I'll bring the - It's okay

It would be good if the light came from there

Sure, we can do that

Now the light is on the camera axis, Mrs Riefenstahl

Let me take that from you

That's about right

You can turn it Just let it run

You can't block it out any more, can you?

The overhead lighting?

The overhead lighting can't be

Decades after filming "The Blue Light", Riefenstahl returns to the waterfall

This is the last footage Horst Kettner shoots with her in the mountains

It shows how she would like to be remembered

And what she wants to be forgotten

- Riefenstahl speaking ~- I'll say it to you straight:$

~When I see all the fuss nowadays, I ask myself:$

~Who is actually honest?$

~And who was ever more honest than Leni Riefenstahl?$

~That little woman who portrayed$

~the most beautiful human beings and not the cripples$

~She was condemned, judged, and persecuted$

~That shows the rotten state of this bloody country,$

~and that's why I condemn it$

~We need to have a certain detachment$

~- when it comes to today's chaotic times$ - Yes

~And one has to understand that this chaos was inevitable$

~It won't take all that long, but it will take one or two generations$

- Yes ~- And then we will return to morality,$

~decency, and virtue$

Yes, the German people are predestined for that