The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl

We are in the presence of a legend with many faces

loathed by many, admired deeply by others.

Her name is still taboo in Germany.

Leni Riefenstahl, the most influential filmmaker of the Third Reich,

the last great surviving image maker of the Nazis.

A film about Leni Riefenstahl, can content itself

with updating the old prejudices.

Or it can attempt to deconstruct her myth, and to look at it afresh

A feminist pioneer or a woman of evil.

One thing is certain, she is still

the most famous female film director in the world.

This film will approach her without preconceptions.

What do you feel, looking at those pictures?

Well, really as if the person in this picture is not me...

...but just some actress

This innocence, enthusiasm...

...then the fall from fame, the great disappointment...

...how do you see all that today?

It's all so long ago now, I've long since got over it

I don't think about it anymore

At my age...

...I'll be 90 this year...

...many decades have now gone by.

They were bad times

It's like another world but no longer live in that past

Guest Dance Performance

An Evening of Dance

I really only wanted to go on stage as an experiment

To see whether I would make a good dancer

But I had such a huge success, I was immediately engaged by Max Reinhardt

Then Prague wanted me, and Zurich. It was incredible, intoxicating

It was incredible

This station here at Nollendorfplatz totally changed my life

I was standing here waiting for a train

I had to go to the doctor. I had hurt my knee badly and couldn't dance

I was impatient because the train was late

But, as it drew in, I suddenly saw a poster for a film...

...'Mountain of Destiny'

It showed a mountaineer stepping across a chasm

I was so fascinated I missed the train

I stood rooted to the spot

I read: 'Mountain of Destiny' Mozartsaal Cinema, Nollendorfplatz

It was right here. I forgot the doctor and everything else...

...and went to the cinema

'Mountain of Destiny' directed by Arnold Fanck

was the first feature film in the history of cinema

to set its drama high in the mountains.

When she saw it, the film was to change Riefenstahl's life.

Frank had invented an evocative new genre

the mountain film.

It was a totally new kind of film

The first mountaineering film

The first with sequences so filled with movement

The clouds were alive with movement. We'd never seen that before

Fanck was breaking new ground

His use of slow motion, lighting, the composition of his shots...

It was all artistic and way ahead of its time

I didn't know much about film but realised I was looking...

...at a very special art-form on the screen for the first time

Riefenstahl immediately set off in search of Fanck,

and quite by chance met his leading actor

Luis Trenker in a hotel in the Dolomites

She came up and said she wanted to star opposite me in my next film

She's crazy, I thought. Then she gave me a lovely photo of herself

I sent it to Fanck and wrote:

Dear Fanck, this woman is beautiful

She's determined to be in your next film, starring opposite me

It's all a fantasy...

...but I enclose her photo. Do what you like with it

Fanck was smitten, and was so fascinated by her

that he asked her to play the starring role in his next film

I'd hurt my knee seriously while dancing

So I sent Fanck my photos and the rave reviews

Presumably because of the pictures and reviews...

..he visited me in hospital

To my amazement he handed me a script on which was written:

"'The Sacred Mountain' written in 3 days and nights for Leni Riefenstahl"

Then Fanck wrote to me:

You're the one who's crazy. She'll be Germany's greatest star

She's going to be your leading lady so see you get on with her

The script said I had to be buried by an avalanche

We were quite mad to do it

I can show you the spot or as near as makes no difference

Up there

We stood on a rock-face like that

Maybe even steeper

I had to cling...

...onto a rock with my hands...

...until the avalanche came down

Not just once but two or three times

People today say it was madness, but Fanck demanded our all

This is where I did my first directing

Since the last time we filmed here...

...sixty-six years have gone by

I will never forget this scene

It wasn't only my first time as director...

...it was the first time I had to wind a camera

In those days there were no electric cameras

It would all have gone wonderfully but there was an accident

The moment I began turning the handle to shoot...

...there was a terrible bang as a torch exploded

The boy holding it was behind me. There was a sheet of flame

My face was burnt

...but I went on filming

I could feel the pain...

...but I finished the shot

And when I'd finished I looked in the mirror

My face was black

Then I heard a little boy had also nearly been burnt...

...but they rescued him

In the Berlin of the early 1920s,

war profiteers and black market millionaires

flaunted their wealth

But, for most of the people, life was wretched

Many was starving

Soup kitchens and food queues were a common sight on the streets

Social unrest was rife.

Berlin, 60 years later

For this film, Leni Riefenstahl and her companion of many years, Horst Kettner

visit the legendary UFA Filmstudios in Babelsberg

This is where all the classic German silent film were made

The camera follows you...

...and you tell us how you first came to the studios

- As I'm walking along? - Yes, is that a problem?

- I can't speak when I'm walking - Couldn't you walk a bit?

No, I've never done that in my life

I've never talked while I'm walking I'm not a ghost

Just try it

I'm just saying I can't talk while I'm walking

Even when I dream, I lie down or sit. I can't talk and walk

No one told me...

You won't listen, will you?

I did listen

I'll ask you a question roughly like this

You'll answer while we pull back slowly

But you can't walk backwards. I'd have to speak like this

But I'm here

How did the studio atmosphere strike you?

It was very impressive

Three big films were being made here

Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis', with Brigitte Helm

Murnau's 'Faust' with Camilla Horn and our film 'The Sacred Mountain'

Admittedly, we were in a small studio

But here in this studio, where I later shot scenes for 'Tiefland'...

they'd built some fantastic sets

They were hundreds of extras

Did you meet any famous directors?

I never met Lang...

...but Fanck wanted me to go for the part of Gretchen in Murnau's 'Faust'

I got hold of a long blonde wig

Fanck was convinced Murnau would hire me

Muranu was interested

I was on the short-list but Camilla was his final choice

Leni Riefenstahl never became star tied to the studio

From her first film, she was drawn over and over again

away from Berlin, into the mountains

This was my favorite area

There's hardly a rock-face or peak I haven't climbed

See how steep it is?

To the left of that ridge, there's a sheer drop of over 2,000 ft

Wonderful!

For these mountain films, the actress from Berlin

had to learn to ski and rock climb

and quickly became a skilled mountaineer

She even climbed without ropes and in bare feet for the cameras

In those days, mountain climbing was strenuous activity practiced exclusively by men

But Riefenstahl never had any difficulty asserting herself

Later on, she would become the only woman

to play a significant role in the rise of National Socialism

You can only get a general shot of the mountains behind me

The camera must be on me...

...or it won't work

If you want me to talk about climbing, I must face the rocks...

But we're too far away...

No, while I'm talking, you can film the rock-face with the telephoto

You can edit that in

- The mountains will be too small - But we need a general shot

Yes, but not like that

You must find a cinematic solution

The mountains make no impression

You can only do it in the cutting, never with a camera-angle

Don't tell me you want a Hitler-salute

Over there is the famous east face

We had to bivouac a rope's length below the summit

Way down, I could see lights in the huts below

I suppose I didn't realise...

It was fascinating because you forgot everything

All your worries and problems... you just concentrated on not falling

It's a sport...

...which involves the whole body

It gives you a feeling of freedom, being so close...

...to the rocks, to nature, and the mountains

When you reach the top...

...there's such a feeling of bliss...

...you just want to experience it as often as possible

For the best of Arnold Fanck's mountain films,

Riefenstahl persuaded the director to hire the famous stunt-flier Udet

And to bring in his co-director, one of the great names in German Cinema, W.G. Pabst

Yes, Fanck was so wonderful outdoor director for filming nature

Pabst was a fabulous feature-film director