RIEFENSTAHL
Type: historical-psychological documentary
By Andres Veiel
Throughout his life, from ’45 onwards, Leni Riefenstahl tried to make people forget that she had not only been Hitler’s director but the one who had contributed to creating the myth of Nazism with her films – Triumph of the Will in 1935 and 1938.
The beautiful idea of Andres Veiel’s documentary, Riefenstahlis of contrast those declarations with the strength of the images she had filmed. Without adding a wordlets the viewer compare the noise of the declarations (sometimes shouted in anger) to the silence of the photographs.
A moment from the documentary “Riefenstahl” by Andres Veiel
And the result leaves no escape: History cannot be changed. But to this he also adds extracts from a 1976 broadcast where the director had been compared with a trade unionist, Elfriede Kretschmercapable of shattering the wall behind which Riefenstahl defended herself, claiming that she “didn’t know”.
A convenient truth that Kretschmer dismantles but which fails to undermine the “certainties” of the director, who brings in her defense the many letters received from the Germans after that broadcast. Thus allowing the documentary to broaden the lens to include too many ambiguities in an entire country.
For those who want to discover the true face of Leni Riefenstahl.
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