chap 5 10/6/04 12:10 pm Page 75 Reappraising Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will •Alan Marcus Leni Riefenstahl, who died on 8 September mountains. It has been argued that this filmic 2003, aged 101, was one of filmmaking’s most genre was imbued with a fascistic subtext,4 contentious directors. The power of two of her although others dismiss this reading, suggesting epic documentaries, Triumph of the Will (1935) instead that the genre represents a rejection of and Olympia (1938), the two-part film on the nationalism.5 Whether it was the wholesome 1936 Berlin Olympics, have cemented her place charisma or athleticism Riefenstahl exhibited in in film history. More criticism has been written these films, her performances found favour with about Riefenstahl than any other director, except Adolph Hitler. Hitler was an eager filmgoer, and perhaps Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles. She in 1932 he and Riefenstahl met for the first time. remained an intensely enigmatic figure, one who She was receiving international awards and managed to pursue the five professions of recognition for The Blue Light, and he was on dancer, actress, director, photographer and diver, the verge of taking political control of Germany. chronicled in a handsomely illustrated book Their highly visible association, profiled on the marking her centenary.1 Publicity surrounding the cover of Newsweek magazine in 1934, featuring publication of the book reawakened debates a head shot of Riefenstahl with the caption about Riefenstahl’s career in film and her ‘Hitler’s Friend’; while the cover of Time involvement with the Third Reich. magazine in 1936, with a photo of Leni partially Over the years, a range of studies have clad climbing a mountain on skiis, subtitled appeared following Film Culture’s tribute in ‘Hitler’s Leni Riefenstahl’, underscored the 1973, by Barsam, Infield, Berg-Pan, Cooper, controversy surrounding their relationship. It was Loiperdinger, Deutschmann, Salkeld, Chauvelot, precisely because of this special relationship Hinton, Leeflang, Rother and Trimborn, as well as between a dictator and a filmmaker, that some Riefenstahl’s own lengthy autobiography in of the most discussed and influential films in 1992.2 As Riefenstahl approached her 99th cinema history came to fruition. birthday, she agreed to be interviewed by the In this article, I focus on one of the key films author on 13 June 2001.3 Previously unpublished which emerged from that relationship, Triumph excerpts from this interview allow us to of the Will (Triumph des Willens), which I reconsider her role as a filmmaker, and to discussed at length in my interview with compare her statements with views she has Riefenstahl. In addition to her advanced age, she expressed elsewhere, and with the literature on had suffered broken ribs and lung injuries in a her contributions to cinema. helicopter crash the previous year while in the Riefenstahl starred in six ‘mountain films’, Sudan revisiting the Nuba people, whom she had starting with The Holy Mountain (Der Heilige photographed and filmed between 1962 and Berg) in 1926, before directing her first 1977. Despite concerns about how her health contribution to this genre, The Blue Light (Das might affect the interview, her recollections were Blaue Licht), released in 1932. The genre drew its sharp and her demeanour was forthright and inspiration from the German Romantic spirited. I was intrigued by some of her answers, movement, the purity and beauty of nature and not for what new insight they offered, but for the challenge of man’s engagement with the how they reaffirmed how she wished others to Film Studies • Issue 4 • Summer 2004 • 75 chap 5 10/6/04 12:10 pm Page 76 • Reappraising Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will • Leni Riefenstahl 76 • Film Studies • Issue 4 • Summer 2004 chap 5 10/6/04 12:10 pm Page 77 Reappraising Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will • interpret her films and motivations. In particular, For many years it was thought that all copies I was interested in the way she considered of Victory of Faith had been destroyed or lost Triumph of the Will to be a realistic portrayal of during the war and its aftermath, as Barsam the Nazis’ 1934 Nuremberg Rally and the events wrote in 1975 and Hinton confirmed in 1991.12 surrounding it, and her role as a filmmaker in Barsam therefore only accords the film a passing shaping that representation. reference in his classic text. However, When speaking about Triumph of the Will, it Loiperdinger and Culbert revealed in 1988 that a is important to do so in the context of two good 35mm print of the film is held in the other related films which straddle its Filmmuseum at the Stadtmuseum in Munich. production: Victory of Faith (Sieg des Glaubens, Their article examined in detail for the first time 1933) and Day of Freedom – Our Armed Forces! the production history and narrative structure of (Tag Der Freiheit – Unsere Wehrmacht!, 1935).6 the film, and its usefulness as preparation for What has been referred to as ‘the Nuremberg Triumph of the Will. What we discover is that Trilogy’ contains a closely interrelated symbiosis. Victory of Faith provides many parallels with the Riefenstahl was commissioned by Hitler to later film, and illuminates the degree to which make a film about the 1933 rally, whose theme Riefenstahl was able to hone her methodological was ‘Victory of the Faith’, designed to celebrate and stylistic techniques in making the sequel. the Nazis coming to power when Hitler was Victory of Faith was her first documentary, and as appointed Chancellor on 30 January 1933, such proved to be a valuable learning ground. and later assumed dictatorial powers under One cannot help but sense that the mystique the Enabling Acts. She recounts verbatim in surrounding the film’s disappearance was akin to her autobiography a discussion with Hitler the accidental match which destroyed Robert when she told him that she had no experience Flaherty’s first documentary film about the Inuit, in making documentaries and did not wish to which prompted his second effort, Nanook of embark on this project: ‘I talked to Hitler the North (1922). In fact, Riefenstahl met almost beseechingly, and slowly he relaxed and Flaherty, ‘the father of the documentary’, when calmed down’.7 she was in England in 1934. Both artists’ films This was the fifth annual Nuremberg Party champion the individual human spirit, though Rally, with hundreds of thousands of members of Flaherty did it from a humanistic perspective, the military and civilians taking part during the while Riefenstahl favoured heroic ideals. event, which lasted from 30 August to 3 Riefenstahl was fortunate in securing as chief September 1933. It has been suggested that cameraman Sepp Allgeier, who had shot a because of a feud between Joseph Goebbels and number of the feature films she appeared in, Riefenstahl she was not informed by his including The White Hell of Pitz Palu (Die Weisse Propaganda Ministry of Hitler’s request, and only Hölle vom Piz Palü, 1929) and Storm Over Mont found out about it shortly before the rally.8 In her Blanc (Stürme über dem Montblanc, 1930), and interview with Hitchens she claimed that she only who would go on to shoot Triumph of the Will had two days to prepare.9 This explanation is the next year. Cameramen Franz Weihmayr and restated in her autobiography, intended, in part, Walter Frentz, sound engineer Siegfried Schulze, to explain the quality of the filming of Victory of and composer Herbert Windt also worked on Faith, as compared with the more sophisticated both films. This allowed Windt the unique production of its sequel, Triumph of the Will.10 opportunity to refine his compositions, infusing Loiperdinger and Culbert have uncovered them with marching music and nationalistic documents which show that in fact Riefenstahl songs, so that they performed an integrated role had a number of advance production meetings in linking the sequences and heightening their with Hitler and Goebbels to discuss preparations emotional impact. So satisfied was Riefenstahl for making a film about the Führer in the months with his work, that she asked him to compose leading up to the Rally.11 the music for her later films, Olympia and Film Studies • Issue 4 • Summer 2004 • 77 chap 5 10/6/04 12:10 pm Page 78 • Reappraising Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will Tiefland (1954). In the technical and creative Roehm and consolidate his power over the SA. team Riefenstahl assembled, ones sees a Whereas in Victory of Faith Riefenstahl’s team development and progression of style, technique had shot 50,000 feet of film, though she asserts and maturation of themes in the execution of it was only 4,000 feet, in the significantly bigger the two films. production of Triumph of the Will, they shot an The structure of Victory of Faith bears some estimated 350,000 feet.14 With more resources strong similarities to Triumph of the Will. The and using a much bigger crew, Leni Riefenstahl, film starts with early morning shots of still only 32 years of age and able to profit from Nuremberg and then proceeds to show Hitler her earlier experience, was now in charge of a arriving by plane and driving through the town cinematic force of 172 people, including 36 to the acclaim of the crowds. Allgeier was able cameramen and assistants under the supervision to film from the back seat of Hitler’s open of Allgeirer. According to Barsam, Riefenstahl limousine, a shot which records Hitler’s POV and depended heavily on Allgeirer, estimating that 50 plays an integral function of welding the viewers’ per cent of the finished film was shot by him identification with the leader.