1. The document analyzes Leni Riefenstahl's photography work and films, arguing they promoted fascist aesthetics and ideals of physical perfection, community, and submission to an irresistible leader.
2. It asserts Riefenstahl's biographical details and claims about her relationship with the Nazi government are untrue and that she was in fact a key propagandist who directed propaganda films for the Nazis.
3. The document discusses fascist aesthetics as focusing on displays of physical perfection, sexuality converted into magnetism for leaders, and the idealization of violence and total power over others.
3. First Exhibit
A book of 126 splendid colour photographs by Leni Riefenstahl
THE LAST OF THE NUBA. Photographs Dated From 1927-1972.
4. ââ
...and each of them shows some version of an ideal
presence, a kind of imperishable beauty... that only
gets gayer, more metallic and healthier-looking with old age.
ââ
5.
6. ââ
And here is a biographical sketch of Riefenstahl on
the dust jacket ... - full of disquieting lies.
ââ
7. ... and soon she was
herself making - and
starring in - her own
talkies, such as ...
The Mountain ïŹlm
1929
8. ââ
Mountain climbing in
Fanckâs ïŹlms was a visually
irresistible metaphor for
unlimited aspiration toward
the high mystic goal...
...both beautiful and
terrifying, which was later
to become concrete in the
FĂŒhrer - worship.
ââ
9. Riefenstahl herself
directed 6 ïŹlms, the ïŹrst
of which was another
mountain ïŹlm...
allegorizing the dark
themes of
Longing,
Purity,
& Death.
10. ââ
The facts, denied by R.
since the war, are that she
made Triumph of the Will
with unlimited facilities
and unstinting ofïŹcial
cooperation.
(there was never any
struggle between the
ïŹlmmaker and the German
minister of propaganda)
ââ
13. ââ is that
The truth
Olympia was
commissioned and
entirely ïŹnanced by the
Nazi government.
(a dummy company was set
up in Riefenstahlâs name
because it was thought
unwise for the government
to appear as the producer)
ââ
14. LIES
1. P. 74 «a biographical sketch ... full of disquieting
lies»
2. P. 75 «The facts are, of course, inaccurate or
invented...no such ïŹlm exists.»
3. P. 77 «The next ïŹlm Riefenstahl directed after The
Blue Light was not âa documentary on the
Nuremberg Rally in 1934â»
4. P. 77 «R. made four non-ïŹction ïŹlms, not two»
15. LIES - continued
5. P. 78 «Except for the bit about her having once been
a household word in Nazi Germany, not one part of
the above (bio) is true.»
6. P. 80 «even the plausible-sounding legend of
Goebbles objecting to her footage of...Jesse Owens
is untrue.»
7. P. 80 «More lies: ...»
8. P. 81 «R. prefers to give the impression that... but
the truth is that 4 of the 6 ïŹlms she directed were
documentaries made for and ïŹnanced by the Nazi
government.»
16. LIES - continued
9. P. 81 «...no evidence supports Râs persistent claim
since the 1950s that Goebbels hated her...»
10.....
17. ââ
Because of her unlimited personal access to Hitler, R. was
precisely the only German filmmaker who was not responsible
to the Film Office of Goebbelâs ministry of propaganda.
ââ
18. ââ
...it was not her âacquaintanceâ with the Nazi
leadership but her activities as a leading
propagandist for the Third Reich that were at issue.
ââ
19. ââ
It (The Last of the Nuba) was the final rewrite of the
past ... confirmation that she was always a beauty
freak rather than a horrid propagandist.
ââ
20. ââ are
...if the photographs
examined carefully... it
becomes clear that they
are continuous with her
Nazi work.
[It] is about a primitivist
ideal: a portrait of a people
subsisting in a pure harmony
with their environment,
untouched by âcivilizationâ
ââ
21. ââ
All four of Râs commissioned Nazi films... celebrate
the rebirth of the body and of community, mediated
through the worship of an irresistible leader.
ââ
22. ââ are tales
The Alpine ïŹctions
of longing for high places,
of the challenge and ordeal
of the elemental, the
primitive;
they are about
the vertigo of power,
symbolized by the majesty
and beauty of mountains.
ââ
23. ââ
The Nazi films are epics of achieved community, in which
everyday reality is transcended through
ecstatic self-control and submission; they are about
the triumph of power.
ââ
25. Fascist Aesthetics
ââ
The fascist dramaturgy centers
on the orgiastic transactions
between mighty forces and
their puppets, uniformly garbed
and shown in ever swelling
numbers...
Fascist art gloriïŹes
surrender, it exalts
mindlessness, it
glamorizes death
ââ
27. Utopian Aesthetics
ââ implies an
...utopian aesthetics
ideal eroticism:
sexuality converted into the
magnetism of the leaders and
the joy of followers.
The fascist ideal is to
transform sexual energy into a
«spiritual» force, for the beneïŹt
of the community.
ââ
28. ââis always present as a
The erotic (that is, women)
temptation, with the most admirable response being
a heroic repression of the sexual impulse.
ââ
29. There is a general fantasy about
Uniforms
ââ SS?
Why the
Because the SS was the ideal
incarnation of fascismâs overt
assertion of the
righteousness of violence,
the right to have total power
over others and to treat them
as absolutely inferior.
ââ
30. Sadomasochism
ââ and
Between sadomasochism
fascism there is a natural link.
«Fascism is theatre»...as is
sadomasochist sexuality.
Sadomasochism is to sex what
war is to civil life:
the magniïŹcent
experience.
31. The End
...to which all sexual experience tends... is deïŹlement, blasphemy.
ââ
The fad for Nazi regalia indicates
something quite different: a
response to an oppressive
freedom of choice in sex, to
an unbearable degree of
individuality;
the rehearsal of enslavement
rather than its reenactment
32. Conscious Aesthetics
ââ
Sadomasochism has always been
the furthest reach of the sexual
experience...
The colour is back,
the material is leather,
the seduction is beauty,
the justiïŹcation is honesty,
the aim is ecstasy,
the fantasy is death.