The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl
by Ray Müller
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Actor: Josef Goebbels, Leni Riefenstahl, Marlene Dietrich, Rudolf Hess, Walter FrentzDirector: Ray Müller
Brand: Kino International
Cinematographer: Jürgen Martin
Writer: Ray Müller
Producer: Dimitri de Clercq
Producer: Hans Peter Kochenrath
Producer: Hans-Jürgen Panitz
Producer: Jacques de Clercq
Producer: Waldemar Januzczak
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; German (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 180 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-09-02
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Kino Video
DVD Reviews of The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl
DVD Review: Five Stars for Leni!
Summary: 5 Stars
When I put this movie on, frankly, I expected to see an evil Nazi supporter who made the most successful propaganda movie of all time. That's what the hype suggested.
But that's NOT what I saw.
What I saw was a genius, an artist, a tremendously articulate woman who was devoted to her art and got caught in a political trap like millions of others and, in the end, was vilified for basically NOT being political at all. The filmmaker asks her "Don't you think it's the duty of an artist to be politically aware?" What nonsense! It was disgusting to see the filmmakers attempt to further vilify Leni with slimy trick questions like "Have you stopped beating your wife?". Fortunately, they failed. In every case, Leni's sincerity and honesty and self-examination and the way she articulated what actually went on in her mind and her immediate environment shone through as truth in the face of the obvious disrespect and manipulation of the filmmakers.
I was extremely irritated by the repeated attempts of the filmmakers to draw her into politics when it was clear that all Leni wanted to do in her life was make good, artistic films and was simply doing so in a time and a place where she would have been damned if she did and damned if she didn't. As another reviewer points out, "Why were the likes Richard Strauss and Karajan welcomed back into the fold and Riefenstahl wasn't? She was a woman, that's why. Haven't women always been pilloried for things that men are forgiven, excused and rehabilitated?"
The film maker tries to make a big deal out of Leni's declaration that she was NOT friendly with Goebbels and his diary entries where he claimed she was. Anybody with a smidgen of psychological knowledge can see that Goebbels wrote his diary as a fantasy, not as fact. As Leni pointed out, he was a master of the lie! Leni's version has the ring of truth. Goebbels was a disgusting little man and anyone who knows his history knows that what Leni says about him describes him accurately.
It strikes me that trying to lay responsibility for the events of Nazi Germany on Leni is just shameful. Imagine yourself in her world, at that time and that place, and tell me truthfully that you would have done different. You wouldn't. Why? Because if you aren't doing anything to resist the current Fascist takeover of the planet, which is a lot more obvious now that we have the example of the Hitler Reich to compare it to, then you have no excuse. Leni had no such example from history that would help her to know that Hitler and all he stood for was a recipe for disaster. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.
As they say, hindsight is 20/20. Leni herself says that what she learned about Hitler after the war was over has affected the whole rest of her life. And not just because she was black-balled, but because the horror was so shocking she has never recovered from it. She plainly says that you face either living with that knowledge or dying, and you face that choice every day. She obviously chose to continue living, but it is obvious that it came at a great cost. But there is no bitterness.
One other point: Leni has been vilified for making "Triumph of the Will." She explains everything about this to the viewer and it all makes perfect sense considering what we now know about Nazi Germany and what we know about pathology in politics. What Leni actually did was make a fantastic film that shows us as clearly as anything ever could exactly how anyone and everyone can be deceived by psychopaths in power. She didn't stage or control what was being filmed, she just recorded it and used her genius to edit the film into art. It is thanks to her that we have a record of that time and those events. This film should be watched by everyone so that they can be aware of how pathological people in power can deceive so many people. In fact, there is a strong resemblance between the followers of Hitler and those who supported George Bush and now, Barack Obama. Leni's film is a lesson from history that should be taken onboard along with the reading of Political Ponerology (A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes)
If you want to see some really sick propaganda films, just watch American movies or fake news and lying journalism on TV every night. Remember that Project Mockingbird was a program to place the CIA in control of journalism. In fact, I would suggest that the makers of this film were trying to create propaganda against Leni.
I'm pretty disgusted with the people making this film and their transparent efforts to corner, pigeonhole, defame Leni. Throughout the film, her honesty and rational answers makes them look petty and pathetic and agenda driven.
If you are interested in Nazi Germany, in film making, in women's issues, this is definitely a film for you. I give it five stars for Leni, not for the filmmakers. She's the star and what a star she is! This is a fascinating film simply due to her presence, her amazing self. The world really lost a great artist for humanity when they sidelined Leni.
Description of The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl
WONDERFUL HORRIBLE LIFE OF LENI RIEFE - DVD MovieDirector Ray Muller's three-hour portrait of controversial filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl grapples with the central controversy of her career: was she a "pure" filmmaker whose political naiveté allowed her stunning visions to be harnessed by Hitler, or was she the key mythmaker of the Nazi propaganda machine? The dancer turned actress turned director is well represented with generous clips from her work both in front of and behind the camera, from the ethereally beautiful The Blue Light through the romantic fantasy Teifland, with special focus on her two most famous works: the stunning propaganda piece The Triumph of the Will (a chillingly brilliant work of demagoguery which she helped design and stage as well as film) and the poetic, technically breathtaking documentary Olympia. After her exile from filmmaking, she became an acclaimed ethnographic photographer and more recently a scuba diver and underwater photographer. Though she was over 90 at the time of the interviews, Riefenstahl's energy and commanding presence dominate the film and overpower Muller. At one point she practically grabs the directorial reins from him. The film never really resolves her complicity as a Nazi propagandist; she maintains her innocence while Muller questions her assertions with contrary evidence, but he appears too awed to really push the issue. Whatever your feelings, it's hard not to come away from this film just a little awed by the talented and tenacious Ms. Riefenstahl yourself. --Sean Axmaker
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