All language subtitles for The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993) [ENG]

We are in the presence of
a legend with many faces

loathed by many,
admired deeply by others.

Her name is still taboo in Germany.

Leni Riefenstahl, the most influential
filmmaker of the Third Reich,

the last great surviving
image maker of the Nazis.

A film about Leni Riefenstahl,
can content itself

with updating the old prejudices.

Or it can attempt to deconstruct
her myth, and to look at it afresh

A feminist pioneer or a woman of evil.

One thing is certain, she is still

the most famous female
film director in the world.

This film will approach her
without preconceptions.

What do you feel,
looking at those pictures?

Well, really as if the person
in this picture is not me...

but just some actress

This innocence, enthusiasm...

then the fall from fame,
the great disappointment...

how do you see all that today?

It's all so long ago now,
I've long since got over it

I don't think about it anymore

At my age...

I'll be 90 this year...

many decades have now gone by.

They were bad times

It's like another world
but no longer live in that past

Guest Dance Performance

An Evening of Dance

I really only wanted to go on stage
as an experiment

To see whether I would make a good dancer

But I had such a huge success, I was
immediately engaged by Max Reinhardt

Then Prague wanted me, and Zurich.
It was incredible, intoxicating

It was incredible

This station here at Nollendorfplatz
totally changed my life

I was standing here waiting for a train

I had to go to the doctor. I had hurt
my knee badly and couldn't dance

I was impatient because the train
was late

But, as it drew in, I suddenly saw
a poster for a film...

'Mountain of Destiny'

It showed a mountaineer
stepping across a chasm

I was so fascinated I missed the train

I stood rooted to the spot

I read: 'Mountain of Destiny'
Mozartsaal Cinema, Nollendorfplatz

It was right here. I forgot
the doctor and everything else...

and went to the cinema

'Mountain of Destiny'
directed by Arnold Fanck

was the first feature film
in the history of cinema

to set its drama high in the mountains.

When she saw it, the film
was to change Riefenstahl's life.

Frank had invented an evocative new genre

the mountain film.

It was a totally new kind of film

The first mountaineering film

The first with sequences so filled
with movement

The clouds were alive with movement.
We'd never seen that before

Fanck was breaking new ground

His use of slow motion, lighting,
the composition of his shots...

It was all artistic
and way ahead of its time

I didn't know much about film but
realised I was looking...

at a very special art-form
on the screen for the first time

Riefenstahl immediately
set off in search of Fanck,

and quite by chance met his leading actor

Luis Trenker in a hotel in the Dolomites

She came up and said she wanted
to star opposite me in my next film

She's crazy, I thought. Then she
gave me a lovely photo of herself

I sent it to Fanck and wrote:

Dear Fanck, this woman is beautiful

She's determined to be in your
next film, starring opposite me

It's all a fantasy...

but I enclose her photo.
Do what you like with it

Fanck was smitten,
and was so fascinated by her

that he asked her to play
the starring role in his next film

I'd hurt my knee seriously while dancing

So I sent Fanck my photos
and the rave reviews

Presumably because of the pictures
and reviews...

..he visited me in hospital

To my amazement he handed me
a script on which was written:

"'The Sacred Mountain' written in 3 days
and nights for Leni Riefenstahl"

Then Fanck wrote to me:

You're the one who's crazy.
She'll be Germany's greatest star

She's going to be your leading lady
so see you get on with her

The script said I had to be buried
by an avalanche

We were quite mad to do it

I can show you the spot
or as near as makes no difference

Up there

We stood on a rock-face like that

Maybe even steeper

I had to cling...

onto a rock with my hands...

until the avalanche came down

Not just once but two or three times

People today say it was madness,
but Fanck demanded our all

This is where I did my first directing

Since the last time we filmed here...

sixty-six years have gone by

I will never forget this scene

It wasn't only my first time
as director...

it was the first time
I had to wind a camera

In those days there were
no electric cameras

It would all have gone wonderfully
but there was an accident

The moment I began
turning the handle to shoot...

there was a terrible bang
as a torch exploded

The boy holding it was behind me.
There was a sheet of flame

My face was burnt

but I went on filming

I could feel the pain...

but I finished the shot

And when I'd finished
I looked in the mirror

My face was black

Then I heard a little boy had also
nearly been burnt...

but they rescued him

In the Berlin of the early 1920s,

war profiteers and
black market millionaires

flaunted their wealth

But, for most of the people,
life was wretched

Many was starving

Soup kitchens and food queues
were a common sight on the streets

Social unrest was rife.

Berlin, 60 years later

For this film, Leni Riefenstahl and her
companion of many years, Horst Kettner

visit the legendary
UFA Filmstudios in Babelsberg

This is where all the
classic German silent film were made

The camera follows you...

and you tell us how you first
came to the studios

- As I'm walking along?
- Yes, is that a problem?

- I can't speak when I'm walking
- Couldn't you walk a bit?

No, I've never done that in my life

I've never talked while I'm walking
I'm not a ghost

Just try it

I'm just saying I can't talk
while I'm walking

Even when I dream, I lie down or sit.
I can't talk and walk

No one told me...

You won't listen, will you?

I did listen

I'll ask you a question roughly like this

You'll answer while we pull back slowly

But you can't walk backwards.
I'd have to speak like this

But I'm here

How did the studio atmosphere strike you?

It was very impressive

Three big films were being made here

Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis',
with Brigitte Helm

Murnau's 'Faust' with Camilla Horn
and our film 'The Sacred Mountain'

Admittedly, we were in a small studio

But here in this studio, where I
later shot scenes for 'Tiefland'...

they'd built some fantastic sets

They were hundreds of extras

Did you meet any famous directors?

I never met Lang...

but Fanck wanted me to go for the
part of Gretchen in Murnau's 'Faust'

I got hold of a long blonde wig

Fanck was convinced Murnau would hire me

Muranu was interested

I was on the short-list
but Camilla was his final choice

Leni Riefenstahl never
became star tied to the studio

From her first film,
she was drawn over and over again

away from Berlin, into the mountains

This was my favorite area

There's hardly a rock-face or peak
I haven't climbed

See how steep it is?

To the left of that ridge, there's
a sheer drop of over 2,000 ft

Wonderful!

For these mountain films,
the actress from Berlin

had to learn to ski and rock climb

and quickly became a skilled mountaineer

She even climbed without ropes
and in bare feet for the cameras

In those days, mountain climbing was strenuous
activity practiced exclusively by men

But Riefenstahl never had any
difficulty asserting herself

Later on, she would become the only woman

to play a significant role
in the rise of National Socialism

You can only get a general shot
of the mountains behind me

The camera must be on me...

or it won't work

If you want me to talk about
climbing, I must face the rocks...

But we're too far away...

No, while I'm talking, you can film
the rock-face with the telephoto

You can edit that in

- The mountains will be too small
- But we need a general shot

Yes, but not like that

You must find a cinematic solution

The mountains make no impression

You can only do it in the cutting,
never with a camera-angle

Don't tell me you want a Hitler-salute

Over there is the famous east face

We had to bivouac a rope's length
below the summit

Way down, I could see lights
in the huts below

I suppose I didn't realise...

It was fascinating because
you forgot everything

All your worries and problems...
you just concentrated on not falling

It's a sport...

which involves the whole body

It gives you a feeling of freedom,
being so close...

to the rocks, to nature,
and the mountains

When you reach the top...

there's such a feeling of bliss...

you just want to experience it
as often as possible

For the best of Arnold Fanck's
mountain films,

Riefenstahl persuaded the director
to hire the famous stunt-flier Udet

And to bring in his co-director, one of the
great names in German Cinema, W.G. Pabst

Yes, Fanck was so wonderful
outdoor director for filming nature

Pabst was a fabulous
feature-film director

I brought the two together
and it worked wonderfully

That's the reason why 'Pizpalü'
was such a success worldwide

These shots are from a home movie,
filmed by a member of the crew

on Morteratsch Glacier in St. Moritz

When Pabst told me to look right...

I looked left.
When he said left, I looked right

So he said, "You're not the director.
Stop looking from the camera's angle"

He was the first to make me see..

I'd a talent for directing

An entire rock-face was
iced over to create the illusion

that the glacier had
moved into the valley

Working with Fanck was always
a mental and a physical challenge

We were on an ice-wall in 'Pizpalü'

It was minus 28 degrees

The Engadine hadn't been so cold
for 50 years

We were working at night and the
wind-machine blew snow in my face

- He might lose consciousness
- Tie hum tight or he'll fall

Pabst was quite different from Fanck

Fanck gave very few directions.
We had to more or less improvise

But Pabst knew exactly what he wanted

Without acting out the part for us,
he put the actor...

in the mental state he wanted,
which is very important

You forgot the camera and became
the character you were portraying

Maria, the rope!

While filming with Arnold Fanck,
Riefenstahl and Luis Trenker

were themselves learning how to direct

Fanck was a perfectionist,
a stickler for details

Even when his actors were
being tested to the limit

Oh, I'd rather not think about that

It wasn't just bad, it was awful

Fanck's plan was to have me hauled
up and let an avalanche drop on me

I said, "Count me out.
It's out of the question"

So he said, "Leni darling,
it won't be a real avalanche"

"We'll just drop a bit of snow on you"

He was very persuasive and promised
extra money

I agreed and was tied up with rope

The camera crew were up above,
and off we went

I'd only gone 10 feet...

when a real avalanche enveloped me

I screamed, my ears and eyes hurt

Fanck kept the camera rolling on and on

Then they pulled me in

For weeks I was black and blue
all over. I really hated Fanck

In 1920s Berlin, the National Socialists
were parading through the streets

And the young fanatic named Goebbels

was gaining notoriety with
his inflammatory speeches

As the struggle for power
raged between the rival parties

the Babelsberg studios decided
to try and take on Hollywood

In the studio,
now named Marlene Dietrich Hall

Riefenstahl furthered her education
when she met Josef von Sternberg

Von Sternberg brought me
to the studio every day...

until it got too much for Marlene

I liked her a lot, I idolised her.
She was exceptional but very jealous

One day we had quite a row
in the studio, She started it

There was this famous scene
where she sits on a barrel...

and sings 'Falling in Love Again'

She starting behaving very crudely...

to try and make me leave in disgust

Sternberg noticed and stepped in...

but she said she'd leave the film
if I came to the studio again

He said to me, "Leni, you're
the complete opposite of Marlene

"You're both very special
but quite different

"I've shaped Marlene...

"into this wonderful creation...

"and I'll do the same for you

"You haven't been discovered yet"

I really regret the fact that, when
he offered me work in Hollywood...

I was unable to go

I was deeply involved with a man
at the time...

and didn't want to leave him

I have that to thank...

or to regret
for my not going to Hollywood

When Von Sternberg later saw
Riefenstahl's own first film,

he was able to make a more
precise judgment about her

Yes, he'd seen me in 'The Blue Light'...

where I played the role of Junta...

an innocent, naive child of nature...

who is intentionally asexual...

whereas Marlene was the sexy type,
erotic, a sort of sphinx...

a star, an elegant super-star

He thought I was the absolute
opposite of Marlene

I think that was probably true

While Riefenstahl made films for Hitler,
Dietrich chose to emigrate

In his memoirs, Von Sternberg makes
no reference to Riefenstahl

In the streets of Berlin,
Nazis were still struggling to win elections

Hitler, waiting in the wings
was certainly ready, but, was Germany?

We Germans wanted a Führer...

and we got one, right?

We Germans are all like that,
we want a Führer

And what happens?
This ghastly Hitler comes along...

and everyone says,
"Wonderful, here's a real Führer

"Someone to tell us what to do"

There's something in what Marlene says

For us, at school and at home...

discipline came first.
She's right there

Germans would be very
enamored of someone...

they thought they could
model themselves on

They're happy to let themselves
be led, that's for sure

While the Germans rallied around their
new Führer in ever increasing numbers,

Riefenstahl set off again for the mountains

In the south Tirol,
she made her first film

a romantic fairy-tale, which
she produced, directed and starred

This rocky peak in the
Brenta Massif of the south Tirol

is transformed by Leni Riefenstahl's
camera into a mysterious presence

mythical and Wagnerian

The girl holding the crystal
is an outcast, a witch

The crystal or crystals...

are in fact the symbolic theme
of 'The Blue Light'

Junta...

who is a wild, innocent mountain girl...

was fascinated by the light
in this grotto

In the mountains was a crystal grotto
which only Junta knew about

It was only visible...

by the blue light of a full moon
shining through a crack

Then it was a shimmer of blue

Symbolic...

of the ideal one always dreams of
but never attains

That's the film's theme

Why did you choose a fairy-tale
for your first film?

I suppose because Dr. Fanck's films...

although realistic, were set
in fairy-tale landscapes

I found that a conflict of styles

Fairy-tale landscapes and realistic
action didn't work together for me

But since I also loved beautiful,
fairy-tale, picturesque landscape...

I thought it would be better
to fit a fairy-story into it

No one in the film understands how
power of a mysterious mountain

had access to the precious stones

You witch

Go away, you ugly old witch

How beautiful

Before I worked with Fanck,
when I was a dancer...

I'd written scripts but no screenplays

Then I met Carl Mayer,
the famous playwright...

who'd written the material
for Murnau's film...

and Bela Balazs, who was
the best screen-writer then

They liked my material so much
they gave me some good tips

Balazs even helped me for free

Balazs wrote the dialogue
and I did the visual scenes

It was the ideal collaboration

Here, for instance...

I drew the waterfall
and the position of the sun

It says here, 7:10 a.m.

Shooting must be finished by 8

I even put the lens to be used:
a 7.5 focal length

It's all noted

You put down every scene in writing

I fine-tuned every scene through
the camera, worked out the light...

and tested everything in advance.
It ran like clockwork

We even did a rush of every scene

We made a negative to see whether
we could improve on it

We placed a lot of importance
on picture quality

Riefenstahl was a perfectionist,
and would only settle for the best

For her first film, she ordered a special
lens to be sent over from Hollywood

and asked the labs to develop a
new film stock for the night scenes

I was able to do that because Agfa
made some special film-stock for me

It was later called R-Stock

If you use it with a red filter,
the blue comes out dark, almost black

I could do climbing shots as if they
were at night, without a spotlight

It was an experiment

As Rosselini and De Sica told me,
I was the first...

to film in real locations, like a church

We built nothing in the studio

I was given permission to film
in a church...

while the priests were
conducting a service

The inn scenes were filmed in Bolzano

In fact all the interior scenes...

were shot in real locations
for the first time in a feature film

When the film was ready, I showed it
to Agfa, who were the distributors

They didn't like it at all
and I was also disappointed with it

The film did not look as I'd envisaged it

So I went and showed it to Fanck

And he said, "Come back tomorrow
and we'll improve it

"It has weaknesses and boring bits"

When I went back the next day...

he'd cut up my copy into hundreds
of pieces and completely re-edited it

I was horrified

His version didn't work either.
All my effort was wasted

Riefenstahl's steely determination
enabled her to conquer

not a new rock-face, but also to
overcome all obstacles in her career

The fight in the editing room
was to prove the first of many

And she always got her way

For several days, I just wept
and then I began to edit it again

And this exercise was very therapeutic

Although I didn't like Fanck's cut...

I noticed lots of things he'd done...

which I'd never have thought of,
like the inter-cutting of scenes

Fanck had cut too much but I saw
it was wrong not to cut at all

So I took it over and edited it
in a rhythm...

I felt right for the subject.
I hadn't done that before

If a director shoots a scene
that goes on too long...

he doesn't always realise
it needs cutting

A particularly important scene was
in the moonlight...

when the peasants shut their doors

At first I'd edited it - man shuts the door,
next a man shuts door and so on

That was the logical way but Fanck
did it differently

He had one man starting to shut his
door, the next continuing the action

This variety gave more interest
and tension

It was a very special method
which I intuitively understood...

and which I applied to my subject

I still did things more slowly than
he had, but not as slowly as before

I was learning

Don't close the shutters...

in this fine weather

It's full moon

Ah, the blue light

I played this girl Junta,
who is a kind of witch

It's as if it were a premonition
of my own life

Junta was loved and hated

It's been the same for me -
I've been loved and hated

Just as Junta lost her ideal...

through the shattering of the crystal...

in the same way I lost my ideals
at the end of that terrible war

To that extent the film was indeed
a premonition of my own destiny

Were you already in contact with
the National Socialists?

I didn't know of their existence.
I hadn't even heard of Hitler

When I was filming 'The Blue Light'
I had no idea

Didn't Hans Jaeger say something
to you about Hitler?

He said to me:

"Are you going to this National
Socialist meeting today?"

I didn't understand so I said
"Why? What about it?"

"Hitler's speaking today in Berlin,
in the Sports Palace", he said

"So what?" I said

Then he said, "I've a feeling...

"that if you heard him,
it could change your life"

I laughed and asked
"How could it do that?"

So Jaeger, who was an anti-Nazi,
though I didn't know that, said:

"Take my advice and go"

And as I was curious, I went

And indeed it did change my fate

I know, my comrades...

that it was hard for you when
you thought change must come...

and it never came

When endless appeals were made
to you that the fight must go on

Calls not to act but to obey

To resist but not to bend under
this monstrous pressure

It was the first time I'd ever seen
a political meeting

I found it immensely impressive and
I was carried away by the atmosphere

Hitler really fascinated me

So I immediately wrote him a letter

I wanted to meet him. I thought:

May be he is the man who can save Germany

When I asked his adjutant
why I'd received a reply, he said:

"The Führer was thrilled with
your dance by the sea...

"in 'The Sacred Mountain'"

What was your impression of him?

Interestingly, quite the opposite
of my impression at the Stadium

There he'd seemed a politician...

trying to enthuse people

Now he seemed a modest,
private individual

You couldn't imagine him
stirring the masses

He seemed very natural,
straightforward, modest and friendly

When I'd seen his face on posters,
I'd thought him decidedly ugly

But when I met him personally,
that all disappeared

You just didn't notice his features
and the mustache

He radiated something very powerful

You forgot all the rest

But as a man he did not interest me
at all

You sensed he had a kind of
demonic power of suggestion?

Yes, at the public meeting...

and even more strongly when I met him

He radiated something which had
a kind of hypnotic effect

That frightened me a little

I didn't want to lose my own will
and my freedom

I already felt...

I had to avoid this atmosphere
at all costs

It would paralyse one's free will

What did you make of
his political programme?

I knew nothing about it...

and had no time to find out
because I was off to Greenland

She was soon being typecast.
In this big Hollywood production,

Leni Riefenstahl once again plays
the part of the beautiful daredevil

The plucky rescue pilot in the Arctic

She embodied an ideal which Hitler
was cleverly to exploit

Incidentally, he said then:

"When we come to power,
you must make my films"

I certainly didn't take him
seriously. I said:

"I can only do what I enjoy. I'm
an actress, I want nice parts to play"

It is precisely these roles which
created the image of Riefenstahl

that Hitler so admired,
a heroic superwoman,

the queen of the mountains,
enthroned high among the peaks,

beyond the reach of the masses,
an idol, a myth larger than life

In other words, exactly what
Hitler himself so much wanted to be

but so conspicuously lacked
the artistic tinge to achieve

Then Hitler said, "Well, when
you're older and more mature...

"maybe you'll understand my ideas"

I was ignorant then

In January 1933, Hitler
became Reich's Chancellor

with immediate consequences

German men and women...

the age of pettifogging
Jewish intellectualism...

is at an end

The breakthrough
of the German revolution...

had cleared the path ahead for Germany

I consign all that is un-German
to the flames

I consign to the fire the writings...

of Heinrich Mann...

Ernst Glaeser...

and Erich Kästner

As ever, at the crucial time,
Leni Riefenstahl was absent

Down with time-servers
and political traitors

filming in the Swiss Alps

I heard nothing about the book-burning.
We hadn't television then

I learnt about it on my return...

and particularly about friends of mine...

Who had emigrated?

I found their letters in my post

They wrote to me and that really upset me

And when I was summoned...

to see Hitler, I immediately
spoke to him about it

His face darkened suddenly and he said:

"I must ask you, Fräulein,
not to speak to me on this matter"

You did try to raise the subject?

Immediately. It was the first thing
I tried...

and realised it wasn't possible

He immediately called his adjutant
and had me ushered out

He wouldn't talk to me about it

Clearly, something in Germany
had fundamentally changed

In the brutal boycott of Jewish shops
gave her no cause to doubt

How could she have overlooked
what she saw around her in Germany?

My friends who'd emigrated...

and Manfred Georg in particular...

urged me to stay and stick it out

By staying, we could prevent
the spread of anti-semitism

We were to be a bulwark against it

And we all thought it was just
electioneering...

a temporary thing that would die down

We didn't foresee the danger

Didn't 'Mein Kampf' open your eyes...

to Hitler's aims?

It was very interesting

I hadn't read it all -
just a few chapters

Some things in it appealed to me
very much

Everything that dealt with
social problems

I think that was why Hitler had
so many supporters then

Six million unemployed, the poverty...

Obviously I didn't like
his racial theories

I made notes in the book which later
happened to fall into Hitler's hands

I had written 'good' or 'bad', 'not good'
etc. So I had made my choices

- How did he react to this critique?
- He laughed

Ladies and gentlemen

Goebbels' diaries for the year 1933
give the distinct impression that

With one bold and magnificent stroke...

Riefenstahl was on good terms socially
with both Hitler and Goebbels

we've put our enemies to flight

What was your relationship with
the Propaganda Minister, Goebbels?

The worst you can ever imagine

We met before they came to power

It was in the lift at the Hotel Kaiserhof.
We were both going up

He pursued me and was determined
to have me

He wanted me as his mistress and so on

But he was not my type at all

I felt nothing for him

He never forgave me for rejecting
him. Later it became worse

I can say he was almost an enemy

Reading Goebbels' diaries for
1933, we get the impression...

you were on visiting terms with
him and Hitler

You must show me these entries.
I've never read them

I've never read anything saying I was
on visiting terms. It's sheer fantasy

Saw Leni Riefenstahl this afternoon,
suggested a film about Hitler to her

She was enthusiastic

In the evening to Madam Butterfly
with Magda and Leni

At the start of 1933 I'd never
visited him. He never said I had

Drove back with Hitler in the evening

Later at home, Philipp von Hessen
and Leni Riefenstahl called 'very nice'

I never went there

Nor to Schwanenwerder, where
everyone went

I wasn't even invited. Not once

Saw a film with Hitler starring
Hans Albers, terrible rubbish

Gerda, Maria and Leni Riefenstahl
were there. Three beautiful women

This makes me so angry.
What you say is incredible

Let me show you

That I was on social terms... there's
nothing about that in the diaries...

It's simply not true. Herr Müller

OK, show me where it says I was
in and out of their houses, socially

What to believe? The diaries of Goebbels
or the memories of last surviving witness

Goebbels was a master of the lie

Nuremberg, the imperial castle of the
Holy Roman Emperors, the Kaiserberg

A place special significance for Hitler

In his imagination, Hitler saw himself
in the tradition of the German Emperors

And like them based his ideal of the
Führer on an image of the Roman Caesers

That's why the congresses of the
Nazi party were organized in Nuremberg

Today, very little remains
of the Nazi buildings,

the popular enthusiasm for the big
courage is no longer comprehensible

This is where the great march pasts took place
involving as many as a hundred thousand men

Riefenstahl's film of the 1934 Party
Congress was the turning point in her life

It changed everything

38,000 workers on parade for the ceremony

Later Congresses were filmed
by other directors

But they've long been forgotten

The first film was to have been
the one and only

Never two or three.
Just the one Party Congress film

But the first one in 1933
was never completed

We only filmed a few metres
before we were interrupted

The Party didn't want us to make
the film despite Hitler's commission

It was boycotted

Until recently, Riefenstahl's first film
of the Nazi Congresses in Nuremberg,

Victory of Faith, was
thought to have been lost

Many doubted that it was
ever actually been made

Grotesque as it may sound, the Party
who were supposed to make the film...

didn't want me to make it

But you were involved in the other
film? You brought that up yourself

I know, but it's very hard
to keep them apart

We can cut it out

It's hard to keep it separate

I'm happy to talk about it
but not in this bloody light

Reporting to the Führer

100,000 Storm-Troopers, Stahlhelm...

In those days, Hitler and Ernst Röhm

were still the partners
in the struggle for power

and SS on parade before the Führer

Heil, SA

You talked about the first film
and the second. You can't do that

I have to say what the first film is.
You can't talk about both at once

- You mentioned the second film
- And you the first

- That's the one I want to discuss
- Not me. I hardly did anything on it

With its amateury shots of Hitler,
and rather elementary camera angles

Victory of Faith is perhaps understandably a
film Riefenstahl is very reluctant to talk about

To this day, she is annoyed about
the conditions in which she had to film

and which made it impossible for her
to achieve her usual perfection

No, the first one wasn't
a proper Party Congress film

It was just a few shots I put together,
because Hitler wanted it

It has nothing to do with my technique

You can only discuss technique
in 'Triumph of the Will'

In the first film there was no technique?

No, we couldn't prepare. When I arrived
the Congress was in progress

Let me explain why. My dear
Herr Müller, I could do nothing

The party forbade it. Hitler and
Goebbels had had a row

If you mention the first film...

I must say why I couldn't use
my techniques

Go ahead

But, my God, it's too important
to discuss here!

Not only was the camera work shoddy,
but the organization of the event itself

seemed uncharacteristically chaotic

The Nazis have not yet learned
how to march like Nazis

It is quite obvious that both Hitler and
Riefenstahl were still trying to get it right

The first wasn't a proper film

Just a few scenes of them running
around here, which we put together

Didn't you edit it yourself?

Yes I did. I had to put it together
but I had scarcely any material

A society...

However some sequences already have
the characteristic Riefenstahl touch

without regard...

to origin, class...

profession, wealth or education

A society...

which feels itself bound
together, united...

in one great faith and one great purpose

In places like this, the mark of
Riefenstahl was unmistakable

Not for position...

A dramatic intensity humped up by
the composition and the editing

and not for party

Not for profession...

and not for class...

but united in our one Germany

Your clients were satisfied?

They'd have been happy with any old
newsreel provided it showed swastikas

Nevertheless the film had to be
edited. It became a short

It was shown in some cinema
or other, I forget where

Hitler and the others liked it

It was interesting
but they weren't satisfied

Hitler insisted I make another film
the following year

Were you dissatisfied too?

To me it wasn't a proper film.
Just some shots

Again and again one can see clearly that
Hitler was not yet in sole command

Beside him, and on the
same level stands his

storm trooper commander, Ernst Röhm

Shortly afterwards, Hitler had
him assassinated

An attempt by the the party
to boycott her filming angered

angered Riefenstahl so much that she
immediately complained to Hitler

I explained exactly what the problem was

Goebbels was present, and you can
imagine what happened next

Goebbels went white as a sheet

Hitler was furious, beside himself.
He said:

"This must never happen again.
You will make the film next year"

I said I can't. I'll never do
another one"

I'd made up my mind not to

I ran out in floods of tears...

and soon after I got home,
there was a phone call to say...

I had to go and see Goebbels

It was the day Goebbels went to Geneva...

to announce that Germany was
leaving the League of Nations

That's why I remember

I got to his office in the Propaganda
Ministry and he screamed at me:

"If you were a man and not a woman...

"I'd throw you downstairs

"You're a dangerous woman.
Never let me set eyes on you again"

That's how it ended

And everything that came later
resulted from this hate

In 1934, Riefenstahl was back
filming in Nuremberg

This time she was given a free hand,
a triumph of her own will,

TRIUMPH OF THE WILL

or a pact with the devil

Today it's easy to think that

Now that we know all the terrible
things he did and got others to do...

then clearly it was a pact with the Devil

But we didn't know then

Hitler probably was schizophrenic,
both a devil...

and its opposite, but we could
only see one side of him

Not that terrible, dangerous side

I just wanted to act

I didn't want to take on
this terrible workload

I wasn't against it for political
reasons. Not at all

I just wanted to do something different

But Hitler's wish was his command

It would have been difficult
if not impossible to get out of it

I made one last attempt by driving to
Nuremberg where I knew Hitler was

I saw him at a meeting with Speer
and others, and he had the plans

He said:

"Fräulein Riefenstahl, give me six
days of your life, just six days

"I want this film to be made by an
artist and not a Party film-director"

"I'll make it", I said...

"if you promise me I'll never have to
make another film for the Reich...

"for you or the Party"

At vast expense, Riefenstahl made
'Triumph of the Will', which to this day

is regarded by film historians as
the best propaganda film of all time

Riefenstahl has always maintained
that the making of this film

was just a job, which she
performed to perfection

When I began my documentary...

I wondered what I could do to
make it better than the newsreels

In 1934, when I made
'Triumph of the Will'...

newsreels were very static,
no movement, no travelling shots

I thought the shots should be made
mobile and thus more interesting

That's why my crew began trying
to shoot on roller-skates

But above all I needed
lots of different...

camera positions

It doesn't look like a documentary,
more like an art film

How did you achieve this
artistic intensity?

It's a feeling for links between images

A connection between one picture
and the next...

or from one visual colour-range,
say from grey tones, to another

It's like a musical composition

It's very important...

to put climax at the right point
in a film...

so that there's a continuous build-up

We stand here

We stand at the ready...

to take Germany into the new age

Germany

I tried a hundred different ways
at the editing stage

It took me over five months

First I was working 12 hours
a day, then 14, 18...

and in the end 20

That meant I couldn't do anything
but sit at my editing-suite...

trying to find ways to avoid jumps...

so it would all flow
in an interesting way

I tried hundreds of ways

Comrade, where are you from?

From Friesland

And you?

- From Bavaria
- And you?

From Kaiserstuhl

And you?

From Pomerania

And from Königsberg

From Silesia

From the North Sea coast

From Black Forest

From Dresden

- From the Danube
- From the Rhine

And from the Saar

One people...

one Führer, one Reich

Germany

This artistic depth you mention...

brought accusations against you later
of glorifying the Nazis

But those people should have tried
making the film themselves

Either one makes a newsreel
and those were made...

or one can try to make
the material into a film...

that's more interesting -
but without posed shots

In Flanders...

in the west...

in the east...

in the south...

on land and water and in the skies...

the Red menace and forces of reaction
have been brought down

Did you notice that in this film...

there was no commentary
in the normal sense of the word?

There's no commentator
to explain everything

That's one way it differs...

from a documentary and a propaganda film

If it were propaganda, as many say,
there'd be a commentator...

to explain the significance and
value of the occasion

This wasn't the case

The looming close-ups
of Hitler in this film

were the first that
the German people had ever seen

It wasn't hard because Hitler
never let himself be distracted

You could dance round him all you liked

Didn't you build a track round him?

Yes, that was one idea. I had to film
3 or 4 of Hitler's speeches

How could I make each one different
and avoid repetition?

I thought, for one of the speeches,
of laying a circular track round him

The speech would be more interesting
than if shot from a fixed point

We want a final end to class differences

You must not let them develop among you

We want one day to see one Reich

You must make yourselves fit for it

We want this people one day
to be obedient...

so you must learn obedience

We want our people to be
peace-loving but also brave...

so you must be peaceable

You see that lift there?

We had such difficulty getting
permission for that. I'll run it back

We got permission...

to build a tiny camera lift
into the flag-poles

The effect was very good

What's striking is the contrast...

between the huge crowds
and one individual - Hitler

Is that a conscious technique?

There was nothing else.
Just Hitler and the people

Wasn't it difficult since you had
no idea about politics...

to edit political speeches?

That has nothing to do with politics.
It's a technical matter

If a 2-hour speech,
regardless of it content...

trees or fish or politics -
needs cutting down to 5 minutes...

any editor will take out
everything he can

The speech must have a beginning
and an end...

and two or three important
sentences in the middle

Everything else has to go. You need
a real beginning, an end...

and in the middle
something which thrills the people

Any editor can do that.
It's not a problem

You were guided by the applause?

Yes, the effect, people's expressions

If you're an editor...

and you can cut out
Hitler wiping his nose or coughing...

you drop that and use the shots where
his expression is more interesting

Of course you do. An editor must
decide which shots work best

That isn't politics. Anyway, a speech
will only have one theme

We live by one great commandment...

and this was not given us...

by any earthly authority

It was given us by God...

who created our people

These Congresses were so well
staged, and still seem so today

Did you direct them or who planned them?

Don't make me laugh.
Why should I be involved?

I wasn't even a Party member,
let alone an organiser

What makes you think I was involved?

They were great productions.
Who dreamed them up?

- Hitler and Speer
- All by themselves?

Yes. I had nothing to do with it.
I knew nothing. I'd no idea about it

I just observed and tried to film it well

The idea that I helped to plan it
is downright absurd

Those crowd scenes look like
something out of a Wagner opera

You see such scenes in Moscow and Peking

You saw those huge parades
a few months ago...

in Peking and in Korea.
You see them everywhere

Those parades were vast

Far more grandiose than in
'Triumph of the Will'

You saw weapons and missiles going past

Platform decorated with hundreds
of red flags. All on a huge scale

It had to be filmed the way
an artist, not a politician, sees it

Hitler didn't want a political film.
He wanted an artistic film

That's what he got.
I'd no idea I could do it

My not wanting to make the film had
nothing to do with politics

I just lacked confidence.
It seemed an insoluble task

Still, you were later accused of
seducing people with this film

OK, a few idiots say that

All I can say is it's thoroughly stupid

It would mean that I staged it,
that I was Hitler himself...

and I'd made all these people pose for me

Didn't a film-maker have
terrific public influence...

in the days before radio and television?

Doesn't that artist have a special
responsibility?

What was my responsibility?

By that time 90% of the people
were in favour of Hitler

Should I have been a resistance fighter?
There were a very few of those

Should I have been one of them?

No, since you say politics didn't
interest you...

Not at all. To me the film wasn't
about politics, it was an event

I'd have made exactly the same film
in Moscow, if the need arose...

though I'd have preferred not

Or in America, if something of
the sort had taken place there

I shot the subject-matter as well
as I could and shaped it into a film

Now, whether it was about politics or
about vegetables or fruit...

I couldn't give a damn.
I don't get it

If I'd been political...

I'd have joined the Party
and I would have been interested

- I didn't mean it like that
- I never went to any meetings

I turned down all offers to make
other political films

I never made a single one

My question is this

If one works in the media, mustn't one
interest oneself in politics?

Nowadays, perhaps, but not then.
And anyway, who'd have done it?

Everyone was behind Hitler

If you were an artist today...

what would you feel your political
responsibility to be?

The artist should maybe ask himself
what will be done with his creation

How are we to judge artists...

who, for example, made films
during the Stalin period?

Like Eisenstein or Pudovkin.
What should we say...

about those who made films -
very good ones - in the GDR?

What should we say about artists who
made good films in the Third Reich?

What does political responsibility mean?
And to whom is one responsible?

Take politics today.
How can you tell...

who can assure us the right kind
of future?

It's our desire and intention...

that this Reich shall exist...

for thousands of years to come

We can be happy...

in the knowledge that
this future belongs wholly to us

There's another thing I want to say

If an artist dedicates himself
totally to his work...

he cannot think politically

That's true of practically every
artist in the past...

who produced great works

Be it Michelangelo, Rodin, Rubens
or the Impressionists

None of these people...

had any time a feeling for politics

And even if they had, they shouldn't
see into the future

You also asked -
I'll answer that later...

whether 'Triumph of the Will'
had any message

While I was actually filming,
of course I had no such thoughts

But when I was editing...

I did discover a certain message
in it. You can find it yourself

It's firstly the creation of jobs,
through the labour-service scheme...

and above all the speech by Hess
where he says:

You were...

the guarantor of victory

You are our guarantor of peace

Adolf Hitler. Sieg heil!

At the time we felt that one
of the messages was peace

It recurs throughout the film

Other political motives or objectives
aren't mentioned

There's nothing about anti-semitism
or race-theory

Work and peace are the only messages
in 'Triumph of the Will'

There were films with far more
swastika-banners...

full of political bias

'Triumph' had none of this...

so I never felt I'd done anything
that could do any damage

If it had been harmful, the French would
never have given it a gold medal...

Olympic's film on camera

That was a week before war broke out

At the time she says, all that matter
to her was the aesthetics of film

two years before the outbreak of war

The National Film Prize for 1934/35
is awarded...

to Leni Riefenstahl for her film
of the Nuremberg Party Congress...

'Triumph of the Will'

This work stands out as
a great achievement...

in the year's film output

It is especially relevant because
it presents our age

It shows, in monumental images
never before seen...

the thrilling events
of our political life

It is the great vision
of the Führer on film...

presented in images
of a vividness never before seen

Politically speaking,
the significance of this film...

was that it was in tune with the times

That's to say, 90% of Germans,
and a majority of foreigners...

believed in the peace
that was being proclaimed

When you look at
'Triumph of the Will' now...

you must be proud of it

But it had also made the second
half of your life extremely hard

How do you see it?

I've never been proud of it.
Neither today, nor then

Proud of what? All that was slaving,
all that work - it was ghastly

I nearly ruined my health
editing the film, and for what?

True, the film was considered
a good documentary

But since the war it's been slated
because it's seen as propaganda

Before the war, of course, the film
got all the international awards...

like the Gold Medal in Paris
and the one at the Biennale

But after the war
I not only got brickbats...

I was castigated because of it

So not only am I not proud...

I'm deeply unhappy I made it

If I'd known what the film would
bring me. I'd never have made it

Half a century later, the terrible legacy

of the Nazis is still
being digested in Germany

After the war, Leni Riefenstahl,
the obsessed and politically

blinkered filmmaker was boycotted
and universally despised

To this day, she's not been able to
make another film, that is the price

she's had to pay for her
brilliant career under the Nazis

This shot is one of my favorites

I got the effect... I brought out
the festive quality...

by using a telephoto lens

That's why the banners look
so densely packed

And here comes something else

It's the effect of the shots
taken from the lift

Now the camera swings...

to one side...

over to the right

And then the camera swings...

the other way...

to the left

These two angles produce
the form of a circle...

thus making a powerful impact

Here the two lines of banners appear
to be cutting across each other

That was made possible by using
different camera positions

And the editing gives it
a balletic quality

It's cut in time to the music

Those are the banners of the Stahlhelm

There were various formations
marching past

That's interesting too

The way they walk down the steps

Today, Triumph of the Will
remains under lockened key in Germany

Here, do you see?

People are still afraid to
examine the film seriously

Precisely in time with the music

Can a film really be that dangerous?

Or is it too vivid a reminder of
something that many would prefer to forget

Interesting, isn't it?

End of the first part

In 1936, Leni Riefenstahl made the official
film of the Olympic Games in Berlin

After the war, this documentary was
listed in America as one of the

world's ten best films

I wondered, could I make this film?
Could I make it interesting?

And suddenly I had before my eyes
a picture...

of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece

Not only the stadium...

but the whole culture -
the temples, the sculptures

The transition from the ancient world
to the modern...

had wonderful dramatic possibilities

It was easier to present it in purely
visual terms...

rather than as a series of actions

Riefenstahl was to direct the

entire film, even the sport sequences

Athlete models freeze by the
bold take for Riefenstahl's camera

Under Riefenstahl's direction,
the athletes would turn from

ordinary models into sporting Gods

- How did you prepare for the film?
- Mainly by training the cameramen

Everything depended on them

I had four or five young men
that I trained for months...

at athletics meetings,
football matches and so on

Often without film, just to practice
camera movements...

and get the quick reactions we needed

Never before had so much been spent
on preparing to film a documentary

Officially Riefenstahl had received
the assignment from the Olympic committee,

but it was the German Ministry of
Propaganda which actually provided

the funds through indirect channels

Despite the economic problems
of the times, the resources put

to the director's disposal
were almost unlimited

For the first time in many years,
Riefenstahl is reunited

You still look so well

I've no complaints

with two of her old cameramen

Congratulations

You never change, do you?

My two best cameramen here again
after half a century

Walter Frentz on the right
was an expert in handheld camera

On the left is Guzzi Lantschner

I'll tell you something.
Diving I can still do...

but that film - I couldn't make it again

Much too strenuous

We worked like mad

Late into the night.
We couldn't do that now

Look. Just as it was

Do you remember, Guzzi...

how we looked for places to get
the best angles?

We turned the stadium into a film studio

Many technical innovations
were tried out in Olympiad

It was the first film in which
pits were dug, so that the athletes

could be filmed against the sky

We had to fight for every hole we dug

You were always the one...

with the exact eye...

for a shot

Whether it should be half a metre
right or left

Riefenstahl now had the
full scope to apply the lesson

she had learned from Arnold Fanck,
her great mentor

The best idea we had - I think
it was your idea - was the catapult

We built a track with
a catapult on it which travelled...

alongside the sprinters

It was fantastic but they banned it

We had lots of new ideas

Yes. The most important one was...

digging a hole for the pole-vault

Out in the field, to the left

And we filmed the whole thing...

against the Olympic flame.
It gave us some marvellous shots

She was later reproached for many
of the images pioneered in Olympiad

Her critics felt that
the cult of the body beautiful

Riefenstahl's obsession with
strength and athletic perfection

were unmistakably fascist

The same was later said of her
photographs of Nuba tribesmen

It was important that each cameraman...

had a different lens and camera

You sometimes had a Bell & Howell
and sometimes Sinclair

- And you had a Bell & Howell
- With two speeds

Normal, 24 frames per second
and fast, up to 48

That was important for the diving

The body could be seen
so much more clearly

That was the first time...

Then we got the close-ups
with the Ascania

We had a special lens made for us -
a 600mm telephoto

They didn't exist then

Herr Shalck got those marvellous
close-ups

Even though we couldn't get near
the runners

We still got tight in on faces

Owens in the lead, Strandberg
behind him, Rosenthal creeping up

Metcalfe makes a spurt. It's over.
Owens wins the 100 metre sprint

I remember something else

The balloon. Do you remember?

Everyday we sent up a balloon...

with a tiny 5 metre camera...

to get an overall aerial view

Everyday it landed somewhere
different - on roofs and things

None of the shots were any use

Anyone finding this camera would
discover a little note in it

asking them to return it to
the Leni Riefenstahl production team

We had the balloon at the regatta
in Grünau

It crashed before the races finished

I cried. It was terrible

There was nothing they did not try out

A many of these experiments have become
standard practice in film production

A break in the shoot

Leni and her old campaigners
stop for coffee

I had so many arguments in those days

And them, in 1935, Churchill said
"I envy the Germans their Führer"

I thought "How can I be cleverer
than Churchill? He really said that"

Two years later, he said "The German
swine must now be slaughtered"

I like your style. You'll do

And you were well in there...

because you flew to Moscow
with Ribbentrop...

with the two copies of the Treaty

Stalin wrote a letter which
the Russian ambassador gave me

Riefenstahl refuses to get drawn into

That was a week before war broke out

a political discussion about the

Olympic's film on camera

At the time she says
all that mattered to her

was the aesthetics of film

I had 30 cameramen

Not all here. There were
other events in Grünau and Kiel

There were also indoor events and
the cameramen were spread around

Much of what is now a normal practice
in an age of electronic live reporting,

was first tried out then by Leni Riefenstahl

In Olympiad, she set new standards
for filming sporting events

and went far beyond the traditional
bounds of a sport documentary

Nothing was left to chance

Dramatic scenes, which her crew
could not get close enough to

during the competition, were
filmed in advance during training

and later spliced into the final footage

In this way, many of the documentary
sequences had changed the dramatic impact

of a feature film

It was worst when there were a lot of us

I had to assign jobs to everyone

I could only organise this
once the day's shoot had finished

There was a production meeting
every night

I'd have just 5 minutes
to talk to each person...

and give out assignments...

according to people's skills

The logistics of the operation
were remarkable

They had no walkie-talkies or talkback

Riefenstahl planned the entire
shoot like a military campaign

Every camera angle was
deliberate and coordinated

I really admired her

She had an incredible ability
for composing shots

And a tremendous eye

The shots she selected
were always just right

The winner is England

She had such energy and determination

When we began the Olympics film...

we wanted to dig a hole beside
the pole-vault...

so we could film the vaulters
against the sky

But the Olympic Committee said
it would endanger the athletes

So Leni said "Let me talk to them"
She went to the Committee and said:

"Our film will be ruined
if we can't do this"

She came back that night and said
"We can do it". I cried my eyes out

As a superbly organized sporting event,
the Berlin Olympics gave the Nazis

an opportunity to present
Germany as a peaceful,

tolerant and powerful nation.
And it is natural to assume

that Hitler would've welcomed the games

Hitler wasn't pleased
I was making the film

Hitler wasn't in the least interested
in the Olympics

He didn't like the Games at all.
He told me so himself

It was understandable

Hitler wouldn't enjoy watching blacks win

Seeing all those international stars
when he was such a Nationalist

A new world record.
And gold for America

Wasn't this a chance to
present a certain image of Germany?

Possibly - but Hitler wasn't interested

It took a lot of convincing
to make him come

Come to the Games and Germany
will do better, they said

He didn't care.
He didn't like the stadium

It was too small

He didn't like the architecture

Ask anyone who was there

They'll tell you Hitler had
no interest in the Games

The result of all this complicated
coverage was 250 miles of film

You shot 400 km of film. How did you
cope with so much material?

First of all, people don't understand
why we shot so much film

They should remember that
there were 136 different events

In the athletics heats, we never knew
if a record would be broken

So we had to film everything -
hence the quantities of film

Once again, Riefenstahl's
legendary sense of order

and impeccable planning
enabled her and her team

to keep a grasp on this vast project

Even so, the editing alone
took two years, as always,

she did it herself, obsessively
editing and re-editing her film

This little machine...

The Litax machine invented by
Dr. Fanck...

made it possible to edit very fast

We didn't have to splice the
strips of film into reels...

which was so time consuming

All we did was slot the film
into this machine...

and snap it shut

We could then look and edit the film
accurately

If I don't like a sequence,
I throw the film into the bin...

or put it round my neck for later

Then I take another sequence
and compare it

This enables me...

without exaggeration...

to work ten times faster than otherwise

This system only works for
documentaries, not for features...

because here the soundtrack
is put on later

One of the most difficult sequences
was the marathon.

The ultimate test of sporting endurance

Once again, she used
feature film techniques

to capture the sweat and the pain

I had to think hard how I could
shape the 26-mile race...

into a few short minutes that
would be exciting and interesting

I soon realised
I couldn't achieve this...

just by filming the race step by step

Instead, I'd have to try...

to show the feelings, the
mental state of the marathon runners

And I thought I could best
express that...

by showing the exhaustion in their faces

How, though their legs were like lead...

they didn't collapse but kept
going by sheer willpower

Willpower can't be shown visually
but can be indicated by music

If you listen, you'll hear the music
seeming to drive the runners on

The music expresses the will not to
collapse but to reach the stadium

The camera looks down the torso,
as we'd practised it...

to the tired legs almost
sticking to the asphalt

And this difference, this portrayal...

maybe raised the film above
the level of ordinary reportage

Leni Riefenstahl, on an official
mission, visits the exhibition

The star of German cinema speaks

You've been invited here
to present your film

It was very hard work but I'm happy
the task was entrusted to me

People don't understand why 'Olympia'
has taken so long to release

We shot 400,000 metres of film

And it's a huge task,
sorting through this footage...

putting it in order and
making a film out of it

Just viewing all the film took 10 weeks

I spent 10 hours a day
in the projection-room

That gives you an idea of what's involved

For the men's high diving,
we experimented a lot

Up till then it had been done
rather boringly...

with a single shot of the man
plunging off the board

We set up three cameras for this event

Guzzi Lantschner was up there
with a hand-held camera

And Hans Ertl below...

with an underwater camera

Over there was the slow motion camera...

so that the diving could be filmed
from all angles

The most interesting experiment
was the underwater shooting

It had never been done before

Ertl had built himself a camera
and sat in the water

He followed the diver down
till he hit the water...

switched to slow motion, changed focus...

and kept the camera on the diver
until he surfaced

It's the Japanese girl again

We experimented with the swimming too

Over there for the swimming...

we pushed the camera along on
a rubber raft, hanging from a rig...

to get close-ups of the swimmers' faces

But we couldn't use it in the finals

Higgins

Yldefonzo...

Koike...

Ito

A fight to the finish

I wanted a crescendo of intensity

I began mundanely enough
with the women's diving...

giving the diver's names.
With the men I left that out

I just edited to highlight the
diving itself and the movement

They looked like birds
swooping through the air

This looked very attractive...

so, to heighten the effect,
I used different tempi when editing

If you look, you'll see
the first dive is at normal speed

Then the next one is a bit slower -
not quite slow motion but almost

And so on until full slow motion

But even that wasn't enough.
They really had to look like birds

Her creative editing
techniques are seen to

greatest artistic effect in high diving

It's only when you disentangle
her handy work on an editing desk

that you realize how some of the
sequences were printed backwards

and that the diver was actually
springing out of water

reversing through the air and
landing back on the spring-board

I achieved this by sometimes
splicing in a sequence back to front

But it was hardly noticeable. It just
enhanced the feeling of movement

It simply became a form
of artistic expression

The creative sport photography
in Olympiad has rarely been bettered

To what extent, though, of these films
an expression of the Fascist spirit

which prevailed in Germany at that time?

Is Riefenstahl no more than
an artist obsessed,

blind to events outside her cutting?

The question remains unanswered

Today, aged 90, she still repeats
what she has always said

that art and politics are
two different things,

that one has nothing to do with the other

The premier of Olympiad took place
on Hitler's 49th birthday

Immediately afterwards, she went
on a European tour with her film

It was hailed everywhere as a triumph
and success

The German Film Prize 1937-38...

goes to Leni Riefenstahl...

for the film "Olympia"

April 1938, the premiere in Vienna

Eighteen months later, the
Second World War broke out

All Vienna welcomes you

Thank you for your kind words

I am so very happy to be in Vienna
and attending the premiere

I've not been here for five years

This is my first chance to see Vienna
since our Führer came to power

In November of that year, Germany
witnessed the notorious Kristallnacht

The persecution of the Jews
reached new extremes

But once again Riefenstahl
wasn't there to see it

It was on a boat sailing for New York
that she first learnt of the Kristallnacht

But her trip to Hollywood was a fiasco

The film industry which included many
German emigrants demanded a boycott

I didn't believe it. It seemed
impossible

I'd read so many false reports about
Germany in the American newspapers

I thought it was lies, so I said so

Its nothing true, what the American
newspapers write about the Nazis

I couldn't believe it but, when I got
to New York. I saw huge headlines

One page said "Synagogues burnt down,
shops looted. Jews persecuted"

On the next page:
"Riefenstahl says..."

Its nothing true, what the American
newspapers write about the Nazis

Whenever I was asked, I said
"It can't be true. It's impossible"

KILL THE JEWS

Now you're going to ask me
why I didn't leave Germany

You see, I loved my homeland

The ones who left were emigrants
and people who'd been banned

I could work. I was free. I hoped
it would never happen again

We all hoped it was an isolated event

All true art must imprint...

the stamp of beauty on itself

All that is healthy is right and natural

What is right and natural is beautiful

It's our task to discover true beauty

We must not be led astray...

by the mad, impudent drivel...

of effete literati who decry...

the natural and beautiful as kitsch

The pictures were awful

They were all kitsch

I hardly saw a picture I liked

I was very disappointed at the time
because my great love was modern art

Along with the French Impressionists
and Cranach

But what the National Socialists...

considered - or called or admired
as art - was for me kitsch

EXHIBITION OF DEGENERATE ART
ADMISSION FREE

Pure German artistic sensibility
means nothing to a rootless Jew

What he calls art must titillate
as depraved senses

It must be cloaked in corruption
as sickness

It must be unnatural, grotesque,
perverse...

or pathological

These febrile fantasies...

of incurably sick minds...

were once flaunted before the public
by Jewish art critics...

as the highest form of
artistic expression

Surely speeches like this
would've made any sensitive artist

stop and ponder

After everything that had happened
it was the least one could expect

Hitler made a speech about art
and it was so wrong that I thought:

"If he can be so wrong and yet
sound so convincing about art -

"so convincing many believed him -

"maybe he's making
political mistakes too"

That's when I began to have real doubts

I became much more critical
when I listened to his speeches...

but I must admit I was never an opponent

In 1939, German troops marched
into Poland

Riefenstahl was sent to
the front as a war reporter

But on her first day there she witnessed
the brutal ill treatment of Polish civilians

A photograph seems to
testify to her horror

Riefenstahl made an official complaint
to the Nazi General in charge

And left Poland immediately

In August 1940, the German troops
marched into Paris

The Blitzkrieg in the west was over

Riefenstahl sent a
Euphoric telegram to the Führer

Mein Führer, it is with indescribable joy,
deep emotion and warm gratitude,

that we share your greatest
and Germany's greatest victory,

the entry of German troops into Paris

Your deeds exceed the
power of human imagination

they are without equal
in the history of mankind,

how can we ever thank you?

Simply to offer you my congratulations
is an inadequate expression of the feelings

that have stirred me

I didn't send the telegram...

because our troops were in France,
and because of our victory...

but because we thought the war was
over. We were in a frenzy of joy

For three days the bells rang
and people kissed on the streets

We all believed this terrible war
was over

It was in this mood that I sent
Hitler my enthusiastic telegram

However there was
no question of peace now,

after Germany's attack on Russia
the conflict in Europe escalated

and became a World War.

But Riefenstahl has retreated
to the mountains again

She had begun work on
Tiefland, the lowlands

A film version of d'Albert's opera

It was forced on me...

because I wanted to keep my head
down and avoid making war films

"Tiefland" was a neutral subject

Since "Olympia" had paid off...

I was completely free and had
enough money to make a film...

from a purely artistic perspective

Once again, Riefenstahl had an
opportunity to dance.

Set in Spain, the story
tackles the social conflict

between farmers and land owners

When the production was later moved
to Bavaria, they needed characters

who looked Mediterranean

Gypsies were brought in from a
Gypsy concentration camp near Salzburg

to be used as extras

This is one of the main accusations
that continues to be levelled

at Riefenstahl to this day

List of extras from detention camp
in Leopoldskron

With Hitler's support at the beginning
of the project, Riefenstahl was given

Come to the castle.

She shall dance for me

as much foreign currency as she needed
to start filming in Spain

But the production was dogged
by misfortune

It was a disaster from the start

We began by looking for
our locations in Spain...

to keep costs down

But the war came and we couldn't
stay in Spain

Our crew left by the very last plane

We then had to build all the sets
with mountains behind

We had to build an entire
Bavarian village. It was very hard

Then the snow came and destroyed
the village and it had to be rebuilt

As we weren't part of the war effort,
we waited 2 years for a studio

We had to tear our sets down
so propaganda films could be made

Many of these look like paintings.
How did you achieve this effect?

It was my intention, with this film...

to concentrate on the visual...

and maintain the art of filming
in black and white

At that time there was a big switch
to colour

Most films were in colour and hardly
anything was in black and white

Black and white is a special kind
of art, like graphic art

I wanted to make a film...

which would prove there are
effects in black and white...

that can't be bettered - or
achieved at all - with colour

God be with you, Pedro

Good day to you, Nando!

- I'm glad to be up here again
- You're up from the Deep Valley?

I've brought flour and salt.
Up here, Pedro, I feel so much freer

I worked a lot with filters

Here I used an orange filter
so this shot - I remember clearly...

had to have an aperture
of around 3.2...

- For depth...
- No, for an airy, atmospheric effect

In my films I always made sure the men...

actors or not, were lit differently...

from the women

They were lit...

from the side so their features stood out

Whereas, what's important with
women is to make them look...

young and lovely

The same lighting can make
a woman look...

20 years youngers or olders,
depending on the angle

Make yourself beautiful

That's how you must look

With a young woman, who must
look beautiful...

you need a very soft light from the front

No side-lighting at all, so no
facial lines or flaws are visible

The only really pretty subjects
to photograph are babies

They've absolutely no wrinkles

Even if a woman has only slight
lines on her face...

they'll appear worse on film

Lighting is very important

Marlene Dietrich always had
the same lighting

Same lighting with a lamp right above her

It shone down on her face, gave
her shadows, and made her look thin

Another woman would need
different lighting

What kind did you need?

I needed a soft front light - quite
high, but not as high as Marlene's

I didn't want to look as gaunt as her
but I did need soft front-lighting

Wait till I'm sitting

I just want to see what I need

Better go in a bit closer

To achieve this picturesque effect...

you must look for subjects which
make a composition in themselves

You can't set up a camera just anywhere

Outdoors, the aperture is generally
reduced because there's so much light

This gives a sharp focus and robs
the shot of air and atmosphere

To avoid this sharpness and still
keep a feeling of realism...

I used very strong filters

I could filter out the light
without reducing the aperture...

and achieve this picturesque effect -
sometimes with coloured filters

The hut wasn't built and then filmed

First we chose it, selected the
background and set up the camera

Then, using the eye of the camera...

we incorporated the hut
into the whole composition

That's how we achieved
this harmonious effect

- Can I have something to drink?
- Yes, I've plenty of milk

The film was almost finished
when the war ended

Everything was carted off to France
where it lay for 10 years

The French hacked it about
and tried to make it into a film

A lot of footage was lost

I had to employ several lawyers
to get the material back

Then I had to put it together.
It was quite a saga

While Riefenstahl was working on
Tiefland, the war entered its final phase

As the bombs rained down on Berlin,

Riefenstahl took her production
company, and set off for the Tirol

She acquired a farmhouse at the foot of
the Wilder Kaiser mountain near Kitzbühel,

an idyllic refuge, in the
midst of total war

Here she continued to edit Tiefland,

right to the final days of the war

Obsessed with her work,

she can hardly to have heard the allied bombers
flying over daily on their way to Berlin

At what point was her
image of Hitler shattered?

My image of Hitler was shattered
much too late

Right at the end of the war

When I saw he wasn't visiting
the bombed cities...

and seeing the misery for himself

And that he even recruited old people
and children for the 'Volkssturm'...

I was appalled. His image
was totally shattered

When did you last see Hitler?

After my war-marriage,
which was on 21st March, 1944

My husband and I were invited...

to the Berghof

That was the last time

He was very distracted and kept up
a continual monologue

He no longer seemed like a man in
touch with reality, more like a ghost

The final battle for Berlin

By the beginning of 1945, it was
all over for Germany

The country lay in ruins

First French and then American
troops marched into the Tirol

And Riefenstahl was arrested in Kitzbühel

It was a time that beggars description

So sad, so dreadful.
All our ideals were shattered

One just could not comprehend it all

It was a terrible fall into the abyss

It was only when I was interrogated
by the Americans in Dachau...

that I saw pictures of the camps

I'd never seen any pictures
or heard anything about them

It was such a terrible shock

I couldn't believe...

human beings could do such things

And these things had been done
on Hitler's orders

It was quite a time
before I could believe it

And, when I did, my life fell apart
because I'd believed in Hitler

It was so shattering...

that one's own life seemed
utterly unimportant

There were only two possibilities

Either to live with this appalling
burden of guild weighing us down...

or to die

It was a constant dilemma,
to live or to die

This bloody struggle had so far caused
60 million human lives in Europe alone

After you discovered the crimes
of the Third Reich...

did you look on your work differently?

No. I was just appalled and confused
to have lived through that period

I did look at it differently...

to the extent that I put myself
into the minds of the victims

How awful for them to see those
swastikas, the SS men and the SA -

people we'd never thought of as criminals

It was a breakdown that's
actually been permanent

I've never recovered from the horror

People say of me:

"She's blind. She doesn't want
to know

"She'll always be a Nazi"

But none of this applied to me

I was never a Nazi,
so I can't be one still

I condemn all that happened but it
doesn't help. They don't believe me

At the denazification trial in Freiburg,
Leni Riefenstahl's connection with the

National Socialists was scrutinized closely

Most of the witnesses who testified
at the trial are still alive

and continue to confirm the statements
they made then

Riefenstahl's trial attracted
huge attention from the world's press

Finally the court declared that
she couldn't be condemned as a Nazi

but classed as a sympathizer

The judges found no political activity
in support of the Nazi regime

that would justify punishment

There were many however, who
remembered Riefenstahl's

prominent position in the Third Reich

and were unhappy with the verdict

Character assassination is all too easy

I've been attached countless times

The most incredible things
have been said about me

For instance, that I was Hitler's
mistress, his lover...

Goebbel's lover, or Goering's -
or of all of them

That I'd used gypsies from
a concentration camp for a film...

which I never did

All this was stated...

to try and finish me and
ensure I never worked again

After the war, for over 20 years,

Riefenstahl lived alone with her
mother in an attic in Munich

She was never to make another film

Despite this, she still receives
fanmails from all over the world

For in the 1960s, she made a well
publicized comeback

In her travels she had discovered
a new continent

and a fresh inspiration in Africa

In 1962, Riefenstahl travelled to
the southern Sudan to visit the Nuba

a remote community of around a 100 tribes

who'd had a little contact
with the outside world

Her love of Africa had begun
some years earlier,

when she visited Kenya to make a film
about the modern day slave trade

The film was called Black Cargo,
and was never finished

On her way back to Nairobi, Riefenstahl
was involved in a major car crash

and nearly killed

It was a grave setback, but she never
lost her passion for the dark continent

Her first book of photographs of
the Nuba was published in 1973

How did your fascination
with the Nuba begin?

With a photo

An ordinary photo that I happened
to see in an old issue of 'Stern'...

when I was lying in hospital
in Nairobi, after a car accident

This photo, which I always keep
on my desk...

where I'm working with the Nuba,
had changed my life

It shows two wrestlers...

Nubas, just what I wanted
for my film 'Black Cargo'

I needed men like that but in Kenya
and Tanzania I couldn't find any

The Masai were slim and graceful...

but black athletes of the kind
I needed weren't to be found

So I went looking for them

At the age of 60, Riefenstahl went
to live alone with the Nuba

for eight months

This is the little bed where I slept
for months...

with hundreds of wild dogs around me

Strangely enough, I was happy

Wrestlers from different tribes assembled
to play for a wrestling festival

Funded by a friend, August Arnold,
who ran a camera company in Munich,

Riefenstahl took both
photographs and film footage

of the Nuba during his stay

Her Nuba footage has never
been shown publicly before

But it was her Nuba photographs
that brought her back to prominence

The photos weren't so important. I
went there to get to know the people

But, as always when I'm travelling,
I took a few shots

Whatever appealed to me - their
lifestyle, the way they moved...

their physical types, their faces,
their rituals

I never thought I'd publish the results

The Seraba, a herdsmen's encampment

The young men would live in
the Seraba encampment,

cut-off from the village,
and prepare themselves for

the traditional wrestling contests

The adolescents go through
an initiation rite

Only then can they take part
in the wrestling

As a mark of their membership
of the Seraba, the young men

cover themselves with ash
and paint their bodies

The ash has a ritual significance.

It is meant to give them
strength and beauty

The Nuba were strange beings to me

I'd never met native Africans before

They surprised me by their character

They were poor

They only had their land and
a little water but they were happy

They weren't suspicious. We soon got
to know each other using a few words

They were so warm and cheerful

It made me think "How little
one needs to be happy"

I've often been back and
I've always felt at ease there

Over 3000 metres of film footage
of the Nuba is stored in

Leni Riefenstahl's basement

But the film about the Nuba,
a pet project for so many years

has never been completed

It is true that some important material
was destroyed during processing

But what prevents such an enthusiastic
editor from cutting her own work

Just before setting off on her
second Nuba expedition

Riefenstahl was to have a decisive encounter

She met Horst Kettner,

40 years her junior, he
nevertheless became her companion

working and travelling with her
as he still does today

For the next Nuba expedition,
Riefenstahl would be better equipped

Horst would be her cameraman

She had trained him herself
in the course of her travels

A wrestling festival
among the Masaki Nuba

These Masaki Nuba wrestling
festivals begin

after first harvest in November

and last until the end of March

The contests never end brutally

The wrestler who throws his
opponent on his back wins

There is a referee to oversee
the fair play

A 160 miles away, is another tribe

with very different customs and language

These are the Nuba of Kao.
They're Nuba too but quite different

Their nature is quite unlike
the Masaki Nuba

They're wild.
Not as peaceable as the other Nuba

It's difficult to work with them
but worth the effort

They're artists

More gifted than any other tribe
I've seen

They paint wonderful masks

Each one more interesting than the last

And they do them in just 20-30 minutes

What are they for?

Purely to beautify themselves.
It's just decoration

There's a ritual symbolism to
the signs found on many of them

For instance...

some have exaggerated their eyes

They want to make their eyes seem larger

And on others the lines are
stylised representations...

of gazelles and other animals they know

It's amazing. Every mask is different

I'm more attracted by an aesthetic
subject than by an ugly one

I can't be creative with
a negative subject

I only become creative and have ideas...

when dealing with something
which stimulated my enthusiasm

That's been true of all my films

A dance ceremony of the Nuba of Kao

These ceremonies take place
after the traditional knife contests

Only virgins are allowed to dance

The girls woo the fighters
with their dancing

According to an American anthropologist

the Nuba consider their own bodies
as the highest form of art

It's not just the masks of these Nuba
that are interesting...

but also their hair decorations

Here you see, for example,
this notch in the hair

And here too. That means he's a
Kaduma - they're the only men...

allowed to fight

Comparing her famous Nuba photographs
with the massive film footage,

it is easier to understand why her
promised Nuba film never materialized

Working without a professional cameraman

and unable to dictate and
influence all the actions,

Riefenstahl, the obsessive perfectionist
couldn't be in total control of the material

and could not reach the aesthetic
heights to which she aspired

You mean Susan Sontag?

It's a mystery to me...

how such an intelligent woman
can talk such rubbish

I took these pictures...

of the Nuba, just as they live,
unobserved, without posing

What can be fascist about that?
I don't understand

Her involvement with the Nuba led
once again to doubts about her intentions

and questions of her aesthetics

The cult of the body beautiful

The celebration of masculine power
and strength

Riefenstahl had heard these
reproaches before

It's a lot of rubbish

If you're living among such natural
people and carry a camera...

and they don't want to be photographed...

you can still take shots
because they get to know you

But what has that got to do with
Strength and Beauty?

I've not changed these people

They're very healthy human beings.
There's no sickness in the tribe

The old people sit in dark houses,
in shadow, so you can't film them

Those who walk about outside
are mainly young, healthy

Many also happen to be beautiful

But I didn't create them. God did

Have you ever thought how one
might define a fascist aesthetic?

I don't understand the question.
I've no concept of fascism...

unless it be the Hitler salute...

or the fascist salute with
the raised right hand

- I can't imagine anything
- No visual aesthetic?

No, I've no idea what that might mean

In the 1970s, Riefenstahl
discovered another refuge

far from the madding crowd, underwater

Horst, could you kindly bring me the
reel with the sharks in close-up?

We've a shot somewhere of Herbert...

with a fish in his mouth
and the shark snatching it

I'd like that shot

I think it's in Reel 3.
I'll fetch it for you

Please, it's important

At the age of 70, Riefenstahl
passed her scuba diving test

In order to be allowed to
take the test at all,

she had to claim to be only 50

Since then, she has dived
with Horst in some of

the world's most spectacular
underwater locations

She trained Horst to be her cameraman

Horst uses an underwater
video camera that is protected

by a casing designed by himself

They are now working on an
ambitious underwater epic

that would probably prove to be their last

How long can we stay underwater?

- Twenty minutes maximum
- We'll need to shoot all the scenes

As always, Riefenstahl takes stills
and supervises the lighting

while Horst operates the camera

At the age of 90, Riefenstahl is
probably the oldest diver in the world

Her increasing concern about
the threat to marine life

has led her to become
a member of Greenpeace

Give me the mouthpiece

- There's no air in it
- Yes, look

It was great

The 'crown of thorns' we filmed today
was good

But you didn't hold the camera steady

I was being pushed by the current

The visibility is very poor

We should really shoot it again

- There was too much plankton
- That's quite good

Well done. That's a good shot

I tried a bit of side-lighting

But you kept telling me to
take the lamp away

I meant the one with the blue filter

I see. You wanted the red

That's very good.
I like that very much

This is too dark, as if you had
under-exposed it

- That was deliberate
- Why deliberate? It was too dark

Now that's a good shot

Diving up a depth of a 100 ft.
they encounter a giant stingray

One touch of its tail would be lethal

That's really fantastic.
We were so lucky

In 18 years' diving, we've never had that

We've never had it before

Is that the first or the second?

That's the big one eating

From great mountain heights
and worldwide fame

Riefenstahl has descended
in the twilight years of her life

to a silent world

It is no longer the noble
human form that preoccupies her

but the exotic marine life
of the underwater kingdom

Underwater, far from the public gaze
is where she is happiest

But, even here she cannot escape

the long shadows cast by her past

I feel this country...

is still waiting for you to say publicly:

"I made a mistake. I'm sorry"

Being sorry isn't nearly enough

But I can't tear myself apart
or destroy myself

It's so terrible. I've suffered
anyway for over half a century

And it will never end, until I die

It's such an incredible burden,
that to say sorry...

It's inadequate, it expresses too little

Doesn't it hurt to read again and again
that you're irredeemable?

Of course it hurts.
It makes me very, very sad

But because it never stops and
people keep on saying it...

I have to live with it

It casts such a shadow over my life...

that death will be a blessed release

I feel people are expecting...

an admission of guilt from you

Well, what do you mean by that?
What am I guilty of?

I can and do regret making the film
of the 1934 Party Congress...

'Triumph of the Will'

I regret... no, I can't regret
that I was alive in that period

But no words of anti-semitism ever
passed my lips. Nor did I write any

I was never anti-semitic
and I never joined the Nazi Party

So what am I guilty of? Tell me that

I didn't drop any atom bombs.
I didn't denounce anyone

So where does my guilt lie?