EDITORIAL

ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF LENI RIEFENSTAHL

By 

Patrick Zarate

Das Blaue Licht. Net

PAGE 5 of 5

Aesthetics, Innuendo, Slander

Now is where the argument against Riefenstahl shifts and two distinct fronts appear. 

First there is the Susan Sontag argument that whatever Riefenstahl's complicity in the Nazi events, her visual aesthetic is inherently fascist and loaded with Aryan supremacy elements.

 Secondly , the "detail argument" that posits well, she has never apologized, she has not said it clearly enough that she sees Hitler as "evil" , in fact she has said that she "admired him", she hired Gypsy prisoners marked for extermination from a death camp to be in one of her films , she was Hitler's mistress, etc.

Let's start with the "detail" condemnations. 

There is no evidence that Riefenstahl and Hitler were intimate. 

In her memoirs, Riefenstahl clearly details each encounter (professional and social) that she had with Hitler. She notes that others had suggested him to her but that she never was inclined towards him that way. There has been no independent documentation to suggest that they were ever more than what Riefenstahl has stated. 

Riefenstahl never used individuals from a Nazi death camp as extras for a film.

The production for her last completed film Tiefland was arduous, fraught with problems and long delays. At one point, when the filming was in Spain and she did utilize Gypsy workers that were being held at an internment camp. This was long before any exterminations were being done, anywhere.  The story, which was later refuted in court[s], came out of a prominent  German magazine and made the accusation that she had used Gypsy's from a death camp; they to be eventually executed. Riefenstahl was indifferent to their fate, the article inferred. Although Riefenstahl has been successful in her lawsuits, this story continued to be a major stumbling block in getting her film career back and off the ground. 

Riefenstahl has expressed regret for her own film career decisions and for the German experience during the Third Reich.

She has repeatedly said that she wished she had never made the Reich sponsored films, specifically Triumph des Willens. She has said that she saw the terrible things done by her country (during her de-nazification experience) believing on viewing them that the only choice for German survivors was to die or find a way to go on. 

Riefenstahl has never said that she, to this day, "admires" Adolf Hitler.

Riefenstahl has said she had admired Hitler when she met him, (not at the present time) when she initially saw and heard his oratory at a NSDAP rally. This was in the very early 1930's. It seems that she admired his demeanor, his ability, the crowd's reaction to him. On the content of his political views she states she had no reference point or interest. She had remained uninvolved intellectually and in practice on all things political. When she did read parts of Mein Kampf she was critical of many elements of the text. 

On the idea that there has not been a sufficiently stated "apology":

It is my impression that Mrs. Riefenstahl is very fatigued of the defensive way she has to approach every interview, every TV show, every appearance, every book and article. She has made statements that show she will not take on the responsibility others think she should have to for films like Triumph des Willens. As stated above, it seems that this is an understandable and acceptable point of view, given the role of the artist (responsible or not) being vague at best. For the artist, the apology implies guilt which implies culpability. If the film was The Eternal Jew it would be a reasonable admonition. 

For a more advanced argument, I would refer the reader to well authored article "Leni Riefenstahl's Self Reflection and Romantic Transcendence of Nazism in Tiefland" by Robert von Dassanowsky (Camera Obscura, vol 35 1995/1996). Tiefland is analyzed as an escape mechanism for Riefenstahl who instinctually was coming to grips with the horror of the War, losing any illusions she continued to hold about Hitler ( see her biography following the death of her brother, the direction of the War, the mess that Germany was becoming, etc ) and it was an "internal emigration" for her to leave her Nazi infested homeland. This certainly makes the case for Riefenstahl's pre 1945 move away from nazi and fascist "ideals".

Susan Sontag's Misfire:

Which leads to the Sontag and fascist aesthetic argument. Again, for a well scripted retort, see the book by Audrey Saulkeld,  Portrait of Leni Riefenstahl.  Certainly Saulkeld would understand that you cannot reduce an artist, their life and their work down to a core of a few repetitive elements. 

Kubrick was called nihilistic, but not all his films are that. Bertolucci is alternating reduced to either the political or sexual which is ridiculous. David Lynch's films are defined as  "quirky" , a term that belittles so much of the complexity of his vision. Foolish texts exist on each of these artists which attempt to cram every frame of every film they made through some fixated hypothesis of who and what they are. 

 Sontag however, carries this "body beautiful" obsession she believes Riefenstahl is possessed with to such an extreme that she sees her work with the African tribes as part and parcel of the same Aryan ideologies.   A confirmed (in Sontag's eyes) fascist from Nazi Germany who sees the Aryan supreme in black people. Right.

Again, when you look at the body cults that were sweeping Europe, during that time. When you see that resurgence of Greco-Roman classicism by the traditional art world fearful of the Gaugen's , Picasso's modernist designers, it is no wonder that a conservative government like the Third Reich would want to promote it. Contact was prevalent throughout Europe with  groups or organizations promoting the classical ideal of the body beautiful. 

Of course, in most cases the Third Reich took such focus to an almost comedic extreme. Contrary to Sontag's belief that Riefenstahl is a "true believer" in the art world of Hitler's design, Riefenstahl notes in her memoirs her distaste for the shtick of Nazi classicism along with her depression over the suppression of modern art. 

How such a reductionistic view of any artist can be taken seriously is unknown to me. At any rate, it seems likely that it won't translate well to what Riefenstahl has been primarily photographing over the past quarter century (can we stay relevant  and contemporary when we critique the artist please ?); underwater life. Colors, patterns, shapes, organisms existing in the abyss of the ocean. Fascism ? 

As one noted critic of the Sontag diatribe noted, her rant on Riefenstahl is  little more than a fanfare of glaring word salad and contradictions which she eventually reworked prior to its most recent print.  Fascinating Facism, is a clear indicator of the obsessive nature of individuals convinced that their own perceptions are reality. Taking some heat or heed of the erroneous statements of "fact" and chronology of events, Sontag herself revised this important article, though the unsuspecting reader does not know of the edits and changes. Also, as  Saulkeld points out, perhaps it is the eye of the beholder which is locked into this simplistic, negative world view, not Riefenstahl. 

Conclusion

No doubt there are many other claims on why Leni Riefenstahl should not be allowed to work or have her work viewed, analyzed, displayed or discussed. 

Not all of them can be culled together or addressed at this site. 

I expect that I will receive notice on some very soon after the publication of DASBLAUELICHT.NET online. 

It is not the goal of our site though to be a political forum, ultimately. Rather it is a hope that we can provide a glimpse of the the beauty, artistry and complexity which Leni Riefenstahl has produced in her work.

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