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. - Oh, 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.

8.06 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 22.08.1902,

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.