Watch The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl For Free

Very well executed

best movie i've ever seen.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The real benefit of this documentary is bringing some great works of Leni Riefenstahl back into circulation and thought. For years, as well as with with the makers of this documentary to some extent, the purpose of any interview with Riefenstahl was to trap her into her personal affairs with top-ranking Nazi officials, being Hitler's mistress and so on when in fact she wasn't even a card-carrying member of the Party. She spent much of her life in courts disputing her connections and she won all of the many cases against her. The assertion that she had been in contact with Goebbels after their dispute is both nit-picking and rather low. She remained German to the very end and not, as too many people assume, Nazi. There is a distinction - please! What counts above all else is her extraordinary talent for making great documentaries. They were well presented here with no extraneous opinions and for that, this is a very good film.Curtis Stotlar

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.

****CONTAINS SPOILERS****Finally somebody has ventured out to examine Leni Riefenstahl'scareer, films, life and images without pointing a finger at her andcalling her a facist or a Nazi. I'd read about Riefenstahl before andknew her work but never once did I realize the scope of her work,the odds she has faced. Never did I really understand her, or atleast feel like I did. I certainly feel that I understand her more now. At age 90 (or so), we follow Leni, still a charismatic and vivaciouswoman, to the barren, snow-covered mountains she climbed inthose lyrical Bergfilms that she began her film career with. It'sincredible to see her walk though the very same UFA sound stagewhere she first met von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich, or towatch her as she stands on the exact spot in a subway where shesaw an advertisement that changed the course of her life. It's alsoamazing to see the footage that was shot for the documentary ofthe Nuba tribespeople, footage that was never made into a movie. And where did they find all that behind-the-scenes footage fromThe White Hell of Pitz-Palu and Olympia?!? Just seeing that isworth viewing this movie.Throughout the documentary, Riefenstahl keeps telling us thatTriumph of the Will was just a job, and from what she says, Ibelieve her. I'm sorry, but I just do. There's no question she madeprobably the best propaganda film ever (Bowling for Columbinenot with standing; of course they're two VERY differant movies). It'sjust that she wanted to do do something new on film, somethingthat had never been done before. I'm not trying to justify anythingthe Nazis did. That's just the way I see it.My favorite scenes in this movie are the ones in which Riefenstahlis caught behind the scenes, arguing with her long-sufferingdirector, proving that she's still very much an individual, still verymuch a director herself. When she says something to the effect of"The camera must always be on me!" you can tell that beingrecognized as an artist and an important person is clearly gettingto her head. Frankly, I don't blame her. If I'd done as much as shehad to push the bounderies of cinema and then be scornedbecause of one film, I'd want all the sudden attention I could get.

This is an excellent biography of one of the most influential filmmakers in history. It not only gives a comprehensive overview of her body of work but reveals many of innovative techniques she pioneered. Her accomplishments are all the more impressive when one considers the role of women in her heyday.However, the most interesting aspect of this film for me is how this intelligent woman (still lucid in her 90's) deals with queries about her political involvement during the National Socialist period in Germany.