We are delighted to be partnering with Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF) once again and working with the Silver Screen Critics as they comment on this year’s programme. In this article, the critics give their thoughts on Reifenstahl.
Maureen Buche
Leni Riefenstahl has been described as the most famous — and the most infamous — cinema director of the 20th century. She is noted for her innovative technical breakthroughs in filmmaking. Her use of tracking shots and slow-motion filming at the 1936 Berlin Olympics — long before digital photography — is spectacular.
Leni was hugely talented, creative, charming, tireless, fiercely ambitious and determined to succeed in an area dominated by men. She has been admired and reviled for producing the best propaganda films of all time. Her powerful images transformed Hitler and Goebbels into iconic, heroic figures.
This documentary, Riefenstahl, is an important reassessment and review of her life — made possible when Andres Veiel gained full access to her huge, previously unseen archive. Hitler encouraged her and financially supported her. She epitomised his idea of Aryan womanhood. Like him, Leni celebrated the superior, the healthy, the victorious and the body beautiful. Neither had time for the weak, the imperfect or the foreign. Leni refused to take any responsibility for the Nazi atrocities throughout her long life, protesting that her ‘blindness’ was shared by 90% of the populace. Veiel offers us possible evidence to the contrary in this film.
The people living in Germany’s Weimar Republic after WWI were humiliated by reparations they could no longer pay after the banks failed in the Wall Street Crash. There was mass unemployment, poverty and civil unrest. Hitler promised peace, stability, economic success, strong leadership and a Fatherland that would be great again. The horrors of antisemitism and the extermination camps crept up slowly.
We could ask ourselves whether, in those early circumstances, we might have chosen the economic safety of compliance, or risked resisting.
This documentary is beautifully presented. The excellent, clear archive material flows seamlessly, sometimes in colour, sometimes in sepia. The background music by Freya Arde is quietly, appropriately supportive. There is footage of Leni’s early life, then her dancing, acting, climbing dangerous rock faces, and later, her magnetism following a meeting with Hitler.
The film depicts her making her award-winning films, The Blue Light, Triumph of the Will and Olympia, film of the early Kronkie massacre of Polish Jews, and another where she used Roma children from an internment camp, most of whom were later exterminated.
Leni was fiery and beautiful. She was friends with many high-ranking SS men and married one for two years. She lived with a man forty years her junior for the last four decades of her life. As a couple, they filmed the Nuba tribe in southern Sudan.
The documentary is fascinating, absorbing and thought-provoking. The archived film and photography is brilliant. Whether your interest is in WWII, Hitler, or the art, this is a film everybody should try to see.
Eileen Murphy
During a recent read of Richard Evans’ book Hitler’s People, I found myself perplexed by the mystery: right to this day, how can bad people thrive and so readily perpetuate evil?
Helene Bertha Amalie “Leni” Riefenstahl, the filmmaker and propagandist of the Nazi era, lived into her late 90s, and did so in comfort. She was something of a celebrity in the 60s, photographing the likes of Mick Jagger. Her association with Nazism was excused on the basis that she was a naive young woman, illustrating how sometimes patriarchal attitudes can be turned to advantage.
This film examines her life using a wealth of archival material. Displaying extracts from her masterworks Triumph of the Will and Olympia, as well as clips from a vast resource of material in German and English, her talent was undeniable. Much of her work was carefully preserved and curated in Riefenstahl’s home.
A clichéd phrase in storytelling is how one must “show” not “tell”. This film shows Riefenstahl the individual without judgement or commentary, an apt format for a subject who was so skilled in image-making. While her creative genius is evident from key, powerful clips from her films, it’s also clear how she set up and directed these shots. The documentary hammers home the point that she was also a master in presenting her own image.
There is an almost comical shot of her coquettish gaze as she flatters some of the Nazi bigwigs. Later in life, we see her take great pains to ensure flattering use of light as she is photographed. Occasionally, the film captures moments when her mask slips; her body language betrays her during a telling interview with a female contemporary who challenges her version of the past.
For much of her lifetime, she was indulged and celebrated. This is one striking example of how we read an artwork differently with the benefit of experience. Sadly, in present times, our reading is informed by a frightening foreboding of an artist’s collaboration with evil.
Reifenstahl screened at DIFF on 25th February 2025.
For 11 unforgettable days in February, Dublin transforms into a vibrant hub of cinematic excellence as the Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF) brings the best of Irish and international cinema to the capital in a celebration of storytelling. The festival welcomes lovers of film, dreamers, and curious newcomers alike.
From world premieres to intimate screenings, exclusive Q&As to parties and celebrations, DIFF offers a unique journey into the world of cinema — all set against the buzz and energy of the Irish capital. It’s a contemporary cinema experience that connects communities, ignites ideas, and inspires a lasting love for film throughout the year.
Read more about the work they do here or submit your film here.
