I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

"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.

The Wonderful Horrible World Of Leni Riefenstahl (1993) documentary was filmed with actress, dancer, movie director, photographer Leni Riefenstahl's permission, participation, and help (she supplied many examples of her movies, still photos, and other important memorabilia to the producer of the movie, Ron Muller).She was 90 years old when the movie was made in 1993, and was then in amazingly good health both physically and mentally. She dressed herself in attractive, stylish clothes and had attractively colored (ash blonde) and styled hair at a level of handsomeness never seen on most 90 year old persons of either gender. In her youth (the 1920's) she was a stage and movie actress and dancer famous for her attractive, shapely, sensuous legs.We see those same legs displayed bare, still shapely and attractive, in a scene toward the end of this documentary where she sits on a bed with her boyfriend "Horst" (40 years younger than she, and by then her "companion" and protégé of 18 years at least), watching beautiful underwater video camera-work they both did...a scene where Leni actually caresses the huge back of an unresisting Giant Manta Sting Ray with a body at least four feet in diameter, and a deadly "sting" tail which could easily kill any diver or other person unlucky enough to touch the tail.Leni Riefenstahl (1903 - 2004) died at age 101 following an incredible life as a performing and photographic artist which continued literally until the year she died. She never "retired," quit, or ceased her artistic activity or the promotion and publicity of that activity.The Wonderful Horrible World Of Leni Riefenstahl (1993) documentary by Ron Muller was made with Leni's full cooperation and participation (and possibly co-ownership) and made intentionally dramatic and riveting because Riefenstahl knew the importance of publicity and keeping her name in the public eye, and examples of her work provided for mass public attention.Much of what she did over her life was done with her own money and resources. She was an owner as well as a hired artist, and a very prosperous person thanks to her business acumen and abilities.She owned both the famous Trimph Of The Will (1934) documentary depiction of the 1934 Nuremburg Germany Nazi Party three day outdoor rally and gathering, and also owned the Olympia (1936) documentary about the World Olympic Games For 1936 held that year in Munich, Germany.After World War II and the defeat of Germany, she moved to insist on legal and financial control of both those important (landmark) documentary movies, and money she obtained due to her control of the two famous documentaries (and also of feature movies she acted and danced in done before 1934, both sound and silent movies of fame and great art and skill) was used to fund further artistic, photographic and underwater video projects she continued to work on through her ninth decade.Leni Riefenstahl (1903-2004) was a remarkable woman, and this documentary portrait of her is worth screening over and over again.She is a role model for all women, and all preforming and photographic/ cinematic artists of all ages, and in all countries.------------ Written by Tex Allen, SAG Actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Com and choose "Tex Allen" "resume" for contact information, movie credits, and biographical information about Tex Allen. He has reviewed more than 42 movies posted on WWW.IMDb.Com (the world's largest movie information database, owned by Amazon.Com) as of January 2011. These include: 1. Alfie (1966) 29 July 2009 2. Alien (1979) 24 July 2009 3. All the Loving Couples (1969) 17 January 2011 4. All the President's Men (1976) 16 November 2010 5. American Graffiti (1973) 22 November 2010 6. Animal House (1978) 16 August 2009 7. Bullitt (1968) 23 July 2009 8. Captain Kidd (1945) 28 July 2009 9. Child Bride (1938) 24 September 2009 10. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) 22 September 2010 11. Destination Moon (1950) 17 January 2011 12. Detour (1945) 19 November 2010 13. Die Hard 2 (1990) 23 December 2010 14. The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993) 19 November 2010 15. Jack and the Beanstalk (1952) 26 July 2009 16. King Solomon's Mines (1950) 1 December 2010 17. Knute Rockne All American (1940) 2 November 2010 18. Claire's Knee (1970) 15 August 2009 19. Melody Ranch (1940) 10 November 2010 20. Morning Glory (1933) 19 November 2010 21. Mush and Milk (1933) 17 January 2011 22. New Moon (1940) 3 November 2010 23. Pinocchio (1940) 6 November 2010 24. R2PC: Road to Park City (2000) 19 November 2010 25. Salt (2010) 24 August 2010 26. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) 21 January 2011 27. Sunset Blvd. (1950) 1 December 2010 28. The Forgotten Village (1941) 21 January 2011 29. The Great Dictator (1940) 1 November 2010 30. The King's Speech (2010) 19 January 2011 31. The Last Emperor (1987) 20 January 2011 32. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) 9 January 2011 33. The Man in the White Suit (1951) 5 August 2009 34. The Philadelphia Story (1940) 5 November 2010 35. The Social Network (2010) 19 January 2011 36. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) 1 August 2009 37. The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) 14 August 2009 38. The Witchmaker (1969) 21 July 2009 39. Thousands Cheer (1943) 3 December 2010 40. Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) 24 November 2010 41. Wake Up and Live (1937) 27 July 2009 42. Witness for the Prosecution (1957) 1 August 2009 ....Tex Allen's email address is TexAllen@Rocketmail.Com.See Tes Allen Movie Credits, Biography, and 2012 photos at WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen. See other Tex Allen written movie reviews....almost 100 titles.... at: "http://imdb.com/user/ur15279309/comments" .

Although this remarkable documentary is usually known in the English-speaking world as "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl," the German title (in translation) is "The Power of Images: Leni Riefenstahl." The difference is not merely one of semantics - Ray Muller's biopic of the woman best remembered as "Hitler's favorite filmmaker" goes beyond its subject to raise profound questions about the deepest effects of art and the visual image on history and human consciousness. Leni Riefenstahl's 1930s films - the NASDAP films "Victory of the Faith," "Triumph of the Will," the little-known (and long-thought-lost) "Day of Freedom: Armed Forces," and "Olympia" simultaneously broke new ground in the development of cinematic form, made her the first internationally-celebrated female director, and created an image of National Socialist Germany so powerful and compelling that to this very day, images from Riefenstahl's work are routinely stolen and used to symbolize the Nazi period in literally hundreds of television programs (just watch anything on the History Channel!), usually without any credit to her. Indeed, as Mueller points out, it was Riefenstahl whose work transformed a ragtag, motley band of German politicians and soldiers into awesome figures of terrible strength and force - as Muller notes, "She made the Nazis look like Nazis." Already one of the most famous women in Europe long before she started working for Hitler, Leni Riefenstahl was a legend in her own time and is still the best-known female director in history, despite the fact that she made only one major film after 1938. This documentary artfully mixes period footage, extended clips from Riefenstahl's films, and interviews with the director and her associates, including cameramen who worked with her and her longtime companion (who was 40-plus years younger than his famous lover!). Proceeding in chronological order, Muller's film covers every aspect of this amazing woman's life, from her early days as a dancer in the mode of Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis, to her ground-breaking and technically stunning "Mountain Films" where she was usually cast as a lovely daredevil, to her later work as a photographer in the Sudan and in the deepest ocean.It is impossible to watch this film and be unimpressed with Frau Riefenstahl's talent, drive, and sheer force of personality - one can hardly believe one's eyes when one watches this tiny, wizened ancient bellowing orders at the director and literally shaking him senseless (a man a quarter her age and half her size!) when he has the temerity to disagree with her suggestions on how she should be photographed. It is also impossible not to be disgusted by Frau Riefenstahl's complete self-involvement and her total refusal to consider that the content of her work might have a political component beyond her original intent.Riefenstahl is a rare example of a female aesthete - a woman whose whole life was governed by a vision of ideal beauty. Beauty, however, is not a democratic phenomenon, and this is where Riefenstahl's life and career begin to raise some very dark and troubling issues for those of us who like to tell ourselves that art is always a force for good. To the end of his days, Hitler saw himself first and foremost as an artist - an individual who uses their powers of perception to shape a new reality. For both Riefenstahl and Hitler, the art of ancient Greece and Rome represented the pinnacle of human physical capacity and offered a vision of perfect beauty beyond time and space, a vision which Hitler was determined to transform into reality, using the "Aryan" German people as his raw material. A single shot in "Olympia" makes this notion quite clear - the famous lap-dissolve between the white marble of Myron's celebrated "Diskobolos" and the living, moving body of an Olympic athlete hurling his discus into space. Connoisseurs of art will know that the pose of Myron's statue is in fact anatomically impossible to assume (try it yourself), but Riefenstahl's evil genius and simplistic mind equated physical reality with the principles of classical art, itself almost always ideal rather than real. Our own society over the past few decades seems to have succumbed to a kind of thinking which - like Riefenstahl, Hitler and the Ancient Greeks - equates physical beauty with moral virtue and ultimate truth. No wonder Riefenstahl's visual style and photographic skills are copied again and again by sports shows and commercials - all of which are usually selling a product to a viewer by appealing to our vanity and desire to be "perfect" - and thus loved and adored. This is why Leni Riefenstahl's work is so dangerous - consider the suffering generated in our own society by the obsession so many of us seem to have with being "beautiful" and "perfect." In a world where plastic surgery is now a multi-billion dollar business and millions of people seem to have no other ambition than maximizing their physical attractiveness, shouldn't we be asking ourselves some very serious questions about our own aesthetic ideals and their consequences, given the fact that the cult of beauty and perfection in our age seems to result so often in death and pain? Ray Muller's film is one of the few works of art in our time to raise these questions seriously. Whatever you may think of Riefenstahl and her art, the fact remains that her life and career are more relevant than ever. "The Power of Images" indeed.

If you've ever been curious about filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, or more significantly, have wondered how a civilized nation like Germany could have stumbled into a black hole of evil and tyranny, you must see this superbly made documentary. It is scrupulously fair, presenting both exonerating and damning evidence without flinching. While it's very clear that Riefenstahl was not evil in the sense that Hitler, Goebbels, Goering, and Hess were, she certainly had blind spots, and a tendency to let wishful thinking sway her judgment. Like most Germans at the time, she often looked the other way when she could (though not always, as on at least two occasions she probably put herself at risk by openly criticizing the Nazi regime).She is shown as being far more interested in art than in Nazism. I had barely realized what an extraordinary talent she was, not just as a movie maker but as a dancer, mountaineer, actress, and photographer. It is so sad that she became a significant cog in the Nazi regime, and was severely punished as a result (as indeed all of Germany was). It would have been worse if they had not."Triumph of the Will" stands as a monument, a sobering reminder of the madness of crowds and the potential tragedy that lurks when they come under the sway of a master manipulator. Riefenstahl's personal tragedy finds some vindication in her willingness to make this film and thus to help us learn the lessons from her life.9 points.