‘Riefenstahl’ Review: A New Portrait of Leni Riefenstahl Looks Closer at the Question: Was the Filmmaker Complicit in Nazi Crimes?
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic The infamous and virtuosic Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl made the two documentaries she became legendary for, “Triumph of the Will” (1935) and “Olympiad” (1938), nearly 90 years ago.
She herself lived to 101 (she died in 2003). The controversy that has surrounded her first reared its head more than six decades ago, catching fire in the mid-1970s, when Susan Sontag published her influential and accusatory essay about Riefenstahl entitled “Fascinating Fascism.” Ever since then, there has been a hot-button ferocity to what we might call The Riefenstahl Question.
That heightened quality — like the question itself — refuses to die. The question is: Is it fair to brand this Nazi filmmaker a Nazi collaborator?
She made her films for Hitler, who she was personally chummy with, so there’s no doubt that on some level she made a devil with the devil.
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