S2E7: Fame at any price: The horrifying indifference of Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl

Women of War

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

-Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“If you play at being an apolitical artist in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If you make films about the oppressor holding him as a hero, then spend the rest of your life complaining about people calling you a Nazi, cry me a river, sunshine.”

-Nicola.

This week on Women of War we finally step over the Maginot Line and examine possibly the most famous Nazi woman, propagandist (though she said she wasn’t), auteur and artist Leni Riefenstahl. Leni Riefenstahl felt herself destined for stardom, first as a(n average) dancer, then a (bad) actress and eventually as a director. She’d stop at nothing to get her way, just as Hitler would stop at nothing to control Germany and destroy the democratic world. And Leni saw nothing wrong with that. She would be the greatest director in the world and not even the collapse of the Third Reich would slow her down.

This episode contains references to atrocities committed by the Nazi regime in WWII, rape, racism, anti-Semitism, attempted suicide, self harm, mental anguish, gendered pejorative language, and drug use. It also contains bad language.

Check out Lindsay Ellis’ video on the Hunchback of Notre Dame, providing extra context on the Cannes and Venice film festivals in the 1930s. Also check out her video “Mel Brooks, the Producers and the ethics of satire about Nazis” here, if you would like to hear some discussion about the theatrics of fascism present in some of Riefenstahl’s work.

If you need a chuckle, click here to see “General Adolph takes a walk,” proof that people have always been people no matter when in history they were from. That's the Lambeth Walk you can hear playing about a third of the way into the episode, which we do not have permission to use. It's for an educational purpose, okay?

If you need a snooze, check out Riefenstahl’s Olympia on YouTube. You can also find Triumph of the Will without much looking online, but instead we’re going to link to Roger Ebert’s review that Nicola quoted. If you’ve seen the medal scene in Star Wars: A New Hope, and Be Prepared from the Lion King, you’ve basically got the gist of Triumph of the Will. Think massed formations. Think marching. Think a lot of trumpets.

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Intro and Outro Music: Frosty Forest by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com