To me, this movie is perfection.

Memorable, crazy movie

Better Late Then Never

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

"Die Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl" or "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl" is a co-production by several European countries that resulted in a German-language documentary back in 1993, so this one will soon have its 25th anniversary. At that point, German actress and filmmaker was around the age of 90 and still live on for over 10 years afterward. At one point in the film, she calls death a salvation for her, but she still needed to wait for quite a while. The writer and director is Ray Müller and this is his most known work, not only because of the subject, but also because of the awards attention it received. This documentary runs for a massive three hours and there are basically two things in here: old footage and new recordings. The former, of course, is taken from Riefenstahl's films in front of and behind the camera and we also see some scenes with the high-profile Nazi politicians. The new footage are all interviews with Riefenstahl about her work and especially about the political context she lived in being Hitler's favorite filmmaker.It was very easy to see how much she was still suffering from her past and that the lasts half hour is what she enjoyed the most, when Müller reports on her more recent work in Africa and under the sea as there is no dark connection attached to these movies. About her work from the first half of the 20th century, there obviously is and Riefenstahl keeps justifying and explaining it with the crucial difference between art and politics and how she cannot be blamed for the intentions Hitler and Goebbels had for their films. She was just a tool used by them (and it was impossible to refuse pretty much) and she tried to deliver still as a creative filmmaker. The truth is certainly in-between there somewhere, even if I must say that after watching this film it is difficult to really blame Riefenstahl for anything and lets be honest here: Isn't it already punishment how her name will be linked for ever to the Nazi regime and their horrible crimes and at least, she did not make any of these concentration camp film or the truly antisemitic ones like other German filmmaker. There were moments during these three hours where I felt that she was probably not entirely honest. For example, I don't believe Goebbels was lying in his diary about Riefenstahl being a frequent guest at the homes of Goebbels and Hitler, which is one of the most tense moments of the film when we see Riefenstahl truly in anger. Then again, she is right that Goebbels was a perfect liar, so who knows.All in all I enjoyed the watch. I don't think it is a film that will really get you interested in the subject of filmmaking, Nazi Germany and the controversial character Leni Riefenstahl. You already need to have an interest before to really appreciate this one. The one thing I was missing a bit was a more personal take on Riefenstahl's private and family life, which was missing entirely. But maybe Riefenstahl did not want it to be a part of this documentary and you cannot really blame her or Müller or anybody else for not elaborating on this area at all. It's also not necessary to turn this one into a success. Thumbs up from me. Go see it.

This is a a pretty good biography of Leni Riefenstahl; done in her dotage- about ten years before she died when she was relatively still quite active. Though the film does not really emphasize this, Leni was VERY active for a 90 year old woman and ultimately lived to be 101! Now, having mentioned that it should also be noted that about 80% of this movie covers the work she did before she reached the age of 43. Imagine a biographical movie of Bob Hope (her closest contemporary) that profiles his work from age 24 to 42 (end of WWII) and then passes over most of what he did afterwords until he was 90! One would certainly miss a lot of good biography! In the case of Riefenstahl the years from her early 40s to her early 60s are not of much interest, biography wise, as she was inactive due to one fact: Her side had lost the war. If the Allied side had lost the war then I think Leni Riefenstahl would have been quite active and well known throughout most of the world during that time.Since the side she was on did lose the war Leni was very hesitant to say that she really supported the National Socialist movement in Germany. When confronted with some written facts concerning her involvement (such as entries in Goebbels diary) she either denies it, or when she cannot deny something (such as her congratulatory telegraph to Hitler when German forces marched into Paris in 1940) she offers a different "interpretation" of why she sent the telegram. Obviously she was lying then, but I do believe she was truthful to some degree about her ambivalence towards the National Socialist movement. Suffice to say that there are some pointed questions directed at her (in her dotage) during this documentary, and she does try to answer most of them.For the movie maker enthusiast there are some real good segments on how she (and her workers) did the filming of Nazi marches and Olympic sporting events as well as in some of her theatrical released films. The biography makers seem to give her at least grudging admiration for her work and accomplishments. I am of the same opinion myself.Perhaps the final judgment of her (if not of her work) lies with the "De Nazification" Panel that reviewed her during the post war era. They came to the conclusion (which I, for one, support) that though she was not a Nazi; she was definitely a Nazi sympathizer. And, it would be hard to refute that finding. All things considered that was not necessarily that terrible of a finding (at least for most people living in Germany then), but the horrified look on her face (in a photograph taken when the finding was announced) showed that she realized, at that very moment, that her career as a movie maker was finished. Had she been working for the equally repulsive dictator Joseph Stalin a finding that she was a Communist sympathizer would not have hurt her as much as the Russians were on the winning side. But, the side she did work for lost the war, and she lost her career as a result of that.

If you really want to know about her work, this is definitely the best piece of information to get started. About 3 hours long, it covers her extraordinary life from early beginnings as a dancer to growing fame as actress, film director and photographer - and along the way, of course, meeting Hitler and becoming "his" infamous cinematographer. After the Second World War she was vilified as Hitler's mistress and icon of obstinacy for more than 50 years. While some of the myths surrounding her are only recently being - audibly - refuted, can we now step forward and take Leni Riefenstahl for who she was - especially Germans?This film was the first to try. It is careful to create a continuing dialog with its subject, something all other portraits I've seen so far are lacking. While its approach focuses on film-making techniques, the political side of things is never out of the broader picture. The filmmaker doesn't avoid confrontation, but in all fairness - you see the response immediately on screen, sometimes in off-camera moments that are quite funny to watch. You get to know the less pleasant sides of Riefenstahl's personality as well - clearly she's often uncomfortable with prying questions, but her occasional outbursts are a display of honesty and make the film more interesting to watch. Especially "Olympia" 1936 and "Triumph of the Will" are extensively featured, but also the first images of her 2002 documentary "Underwater Impressions".This film deserves 10 stars out of 10. It is unique in its fairness and will likely never be surpassed in depth because of Leni Riefenstahl's death in 2003, at the age of 101. The controversy around her will surely last. Quite believably she never was a Nazi or a Jew-hater, but that didn't prevent her from promoting the champion of Antisemitism (who only showed the best of his faces in her films). There has been a lot of reevaluation going on around her, sparked not in the least by this documentary - too much, some critics fear. Riefenstahl belonged to those who didn't sign a blank confession and go on with their lives, or weren't allowed to. All these years she didn't apologize enough - that is the reason for her reprobation, but maybe it is honest to say that letting "Hitler's" filmmaker get back to business in the sight of the world would have been too embarrassing for Germany, which is still being judged by the Second World War. Her guilt is that of the wartime generation, with added sentence for her willingness to play along rather than emigrate - which she might have done at any time.So while she is not entirely a martyr of German guilty conscience, she deserves to be cleared from the heaps of dirt flung upon her by paparazzi, and she deserves to speak for herself.

I had the opportunity of reading the Riefenstahl's Memories and it seems to me wonderful. She is a incredible and strong woman. A difficult and complicate past have made her one of the most interesting persons in XXth. Fascinating