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The UCLA Film and Television Archive Presents:

The Films of Leni Riefenstahl
Friday, November 12 - Sunday, November 28, 2004
Few directors remain more controversial than German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl—and with good reason. Riefenstahl is not just the only famous director to have gained prominence in Nazi Germany, she is uniquely associated with Hitler and the Nazi Party. A modern dancer turned actress, Riefenstahl rose to prominence in the Weimar era as a performer in Arnold Fanck's popular “mountain films” and achieved international renown as the star of Fanck's THE WHITE HELL OF PITZ PALU (1929). After learning the rudiments of filmmaking from her mentor Fanck, Riefenstahl made her directorial debut in 1932 with THE BLUE LIGHT, a fairy-tale “mountain film” in which she also played the lead role.

Commissioned by Hitler to produce a documentary of the 1934 Nazi party rally in Nuremberg, Riefenstahl delivered TRIUMPH OF THE WILL (1935), an epochal cinematic achievement—and a notorious piece of political propaganda. Riefenstahl followed TRIUMPH OF THE WILL with her two-part OLYMPIA (1938), an epic account of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Much lauded for its technical innovation and formal daring, OLYMPIA was also condemned for its provenance—the film was financed by the Nazis—and its pro-fascist political subtext.

Although never charged as a war criminal, Riefenstahl was tainted by her association with Hitler and faded from public view for several decades after the war. Though she did manage to release the long-delayed TIEFLAND in 1954, her filmmaking career was effectively over. Throughout her long life—she died last year at age 101 after a prolific second career as a photographer—Riefenstahl continued to consider herself an “apolitical” artist, and she stubbornly refused to apologize publicly for her Nazi-sponsored films. One sign of Riefenstahl's notoriety is the fact that English-subtitled 35mm prints of her films are extremely hard to find. We will present the best 16mm prints available, supplemented by 35mm prints whenever possible.

The Archive presents this retrospective not to rehabilitate or to celebrate Riefenstahl, whose beauty and whose colorful personality have earned her a sometimes troubling glamour. Neither is there anything to be gained by ignoring her skill as a filmmaker, her place in film history, or her influence. Rather, we hope that this retrospective—and the related events and exhibit at the Goethe Institut—will contribute to a discussion of the unsettling power of cinema and the relationship between documentary and propaganda, as well as the complex but crucial interplay of aesthetics and ideology.

*All films presented in German with English subtitles, unless otherwise noted.

Riefenstahl Films

Friday, November 12
7:30 pm
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN
(Der heilige Berg)
(1925) Directed by Arnold Fanck
An erstwhile professional dancer determined to reinvent herself as an actress after a debilitating knee injury, Leni Riefenstahl made her screen debut in a role devised especially for her by Dr. Arnold Fanck, progenitor of the uniquely German “mountain film” genre. Shot largely on location high in the Alps, Fanck's films were famous for depicting majestic mountain scenery as well as feats of athletic daring by his predominantly male performers. In THE HOLY MOUNTAIN Riefenstahl played Fanck's first female protagonist, a spunky dancer caught in a love triangle between two rugged Alpine types—a reclusive climber (Luis Trenker) and a young skier (Ernst Petersen). A beguiling and visually breathtaking romantic melodrama, the film established Riefenstahl as a mainstay of Fanck's action-oriented moviemaking troupe.

Scenarists: A. Fanck, Hans Schneeberger. Camera: Sepp Allgeier, Helmar Lerski, H. Schneeberger, Kurt Neubert. Editor: A. Fanck. With: Leni Riefenstahl, Luis Trenker, Ernst Petersen, Hannes Schneider. 35mm, silent with German intertitles, 100 min.

Simultaneous translation of German intertitles will be provided.

*Live musical accompaniment by Michael Mortilla

*Introduced by Jan-Christopher Horak

S.O.S. ICEBERG
(1933) Directed by Tay Garnett
In her last film with Arnold Fanck, Riefenstahl stars as a bold aviatrix searching for her explorer husband across a variously beautiful and deadly frozen icescape. The most ambitious of Fanck's outdoor-adventure epics, S.O.S. ICEBERG was shot on location in Greenland and boasts astonishing aerial photography of the Arctic wilderness. While Fanck is credited as the director of the German version of the film, Universal Pictures hired Tay Garnett to direct a simultaneous English-language version. (Fanck is credited as “Expeditionary leader” in the American credits.) The entire project was designed to capitalize on Riefenstahl's tremendous popularity in the United States following the success of THE WHITE HELL OF PITZ PALÜ.

Producer: Carl Laemmle. Screenwriters: Tom Reed, Edwin H. Knopf. Based on a story by Arnold Fanck. Cinematographers: Hans Schneeberger, Richard Angst. Editor: Andrew Marion. With: Rod LaRoque, Leni Riefenstahl, Sepp Rist, Gibson Gowland. 16mm, in English, 70 min. Print courtesy of Donnell Media Center of The New York Public Library.

Saturday, November 13 - *FREE Admission!
4:00 pm
Leni Riefenstahl 2004
This panel discussion brings together experts from the US and Germany to discuss Riefenstahl's life, work and influence six decades after World War II. Panelists include filmmaker Robert Dassanowsky (University of Colorado), Jan-Christopher Horak (Curator, Hollywood Entertainment Museum) and filmmaker Ray Mueller (THE WONDERFUL, HORRIBLE LIFE OF LENI RIEFENSTAHL), moderated by Janet Bergstrom (UCLA).

Saturday, November 13
7:30 pm
THE BLUE LIGHT
(Das blaue Licht)
(1932) Directed by Leni Riefenstahl
For her feature-directing debut, Riefenstahl introduced a strain of dreamy, ethereal German Romanticism into Fanck's “mountain film” formula. Riefenstahl herself stars in this fable-like tale of an ostracized but innocent village girl, the guardian of secret blue crystals that illuminate a perilous mountain path, who falls in love with a young Viennese artist. Shot on location in the Italian Dolomites, the film thoroughly stylizes the natural settings, rendering Fanck's famed alfresco realism fantastical and mysterious. Although it was co-scripted by the Hungarian film theorist Béla Bálazs—with an assist from SUNRISE scenarist Carl Mayer—THE BLUE LIGHT is clearly Riefenstahl's distinctive vision, and the film effectively cemented her transition from performer to full-fledged filmmaker.

Producer: Walter Traut. Screenwriters: L. Riefenstahl, Béla Bálazs, Hans Schneeberger. Cinematographer: H. Schneeberger. Editor: L. Riefenstahl. With: L. Riefenstahl, Mathias Wieman, Max Holzboer, Beni Führer. 16mm, 77 min.

THE WHITE HELL OF PITZ PALU
(Die weisse Hölle vom Piz Palü)
(1929) Directed by Arnold Fanck, G.W. Pabst
One of the most celebrated mountain films of all time, THE WHITE HELL OF PITZ PALÜ was also an international box-office success—indeed it was the first German film to play the giant Roxy Theatre in New York City. Riefenstahl stars as a newlywed who gets trapped on a mountain ledge with her husband on their ill-fated honeymoon. While Arnold Fanck staged the outdoor action with his characteristic pictorial flair, the Expressionist director G.W. Pabst was brought in to oversee dramatic scenes shot in the studio. Working for Pabst, Riefenstahl distinguished herself as an accomplished actress among Fanck's gang of mountaineers, and the critics were quick to single her out for praise: “For the heroine, Leni Riefenstahl, renewed and unexpectedly fresh, unexpectedly charming. A flowing free rhythm, breath-catching beauty, genuine alarm. Not blatant or manufactured, but sensed with authenticity” (Close Up).

Producer: Henry R. Sokal. Scenarists: A. Fanck, Ladislaus Vajda. Cinematographers: Sepp Allgeier, Richard Angst, Hans Schneeberger. Editors: A. Fanck, Hermann Haller. With: Leni Riefenstahl, Gustav Diessl, Ernst Petersen, Ernst Udet. 35mm, silent with German intertitles, 92 min.

*Live musical accompaniment by Michael Mortilla

*NOTE: Simultaneous translation will be provided for the German intertitles.

Saturday, November 20
7:30 pm
TRIUMPH OF THE WILL
(Triumph des Willens)
(1935) Directed by Leni Riefenstahl
A fan of Riefenstahl's work as both actor and director, Adolph Hitler insisted that she create a documentary of the 1934 Nazi party rally in Nuremberg. Riefenstahl coordinated a team of 18 cameramen to cover the elaborate proceedings from every possible vantage, then edited the accumulated footage into a monument to Hitler and to the devotion of the party faithful. Riefenstahl shaped the raw material incessantly, and in structure, rhythm, and visual style the film is an undeniable artistic achievement. TRIUMPH OF THE WILL is also, of course, a glorification of Nazism—of the party's leaders, of Albert Speer's emblematic architecture, of the German folk and the cult of the Übermensch. A longtime object of contention and controversy, the film has been hailed as a cinematic masterpiece and damned as the epitome of fascist aesthetics. It remains both the most accomplished and the most chilling propaganda film ever made.

Producer: Walter Traut. Writer/Editor: L. Riefenstahl. Cinematographer: Sepp Allgeier. 16mm, 110 min.

TIEFLAND
(1954) Directed by Leni Riefenstahl
TIEFLAND was conceived as a dramatic feature in 1934 and finally shot during World War II. Unfortunately for Riefenstahl, at war's end the film was seized by French authorities before she was finished editing, and she was unable to retrieve most of the confiscated footage until 1953. TIEFLAND centers around a sultry Spanish villager (played by Riefenstahl) torn between a dastardly marquis and a goodhearted shepherd. The film recapitulates the painterly style and thematic oppositions—innocent mountain life versus corrupt lowland society—of THE BLUE LIGHT, while framing its melodramatic love story within the larger context of peasant struggle against feudal exploitation. The film became controversial shortly after its release when it was revealed that several of the supporting actors and extras in the film were recruited from among the internees at a Nazi labor camp for “gypsies.”

Producer/Editor: L. Riefenstahl. Screenwriters: L. Riefenstahl, Harald Reinl. Based on the opera by Eugen d'Albert. Cinematographer: Albert Benitz. With: L. Riefenstahl, Franz Eichberger, Bernhard Minetti, Aribert Wascher. 16mm, 98 min. Print courtesy of Donnell Media Center of The New York Public Library.

Preceded by:

DAY OF FREEDOM
(Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht)
(1935) Directed by Leni Riefenstahl
DAY OF FREEDOM was Riefenstahl's ode to the German Wehrmacht, whose generals apparently felt slighted by the paucity of screen time allotted to the army in TRIUMPH OF THE WILL. Subtitled “Our Army,” the film is ostensibly a record of the 1935 Nazi party rally but focuses largely on soldiers, military maneuvers, war weaponry and the visual emblems of the fearsome Wehrmacht. DAY OF FREEDOM was considered lost at the end of WWII, but an incomplete print of the film was discovered in the 1970s—the extant footage reveals Riefenstahl mainly reprising the approach she used in TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, though certain more expressionistic sequences clearly presage the more audacious style she would adopt for OLYMPIA.

Camera: Willy Zielke, Guzzi Lantschner, Walkter Frenz, Hans Ertl, Kurt Neubert, Albert Kling. Editor: L. Riefenstahl. 16mm, 20 min.

*Introduced by Jan-Christopher Horak

Sunday, November 28
7:00 pm
OLYMPIA
(1938) Directed by Leni Riefenstahl
Riefenstahl's experience with TRIUMPH OF THE WILL prepared her for the daunting task of documenting an even larger event: the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Supervising a massive production crew, Riefenstahl dictated almost all technical choices—camera position and movement, lens type, film stock and speed—then edited over a million feet of film into a nearly four-hour final form, divided into two parts. The Berlin Olympics were staged to present Germany in 1936 as a peace-loving, tolerant nation welcoming athletes from around the world, and OLYMPIA faithfully delivers this message. The film's sheer beauty and innovative use of montage (particularly in the unforgettable diving sequence) have made it widely influential. At the same time, OLYMPIA's celebration of the human form marks it as a prime example of the importance of physical beauty to Nazi aesthetics.
OLYMPIA PART 1: FESTIVAL OF THE PEOPLE
(Olympia: Fest der Völker)
   and
OLYMPIA PART 2: FESTIVAL OF BEAUTY
(Olympia: Fest der Schönheit)

Producer: Walter Traut. Editors: L. Riefenstahl, Max Michel, Johannes Lüdke, Arnfried Heyne, Guzzi Lantschner. 35mm, 111 min. (Part 1) and 95 min. (Part 2).

All programs are at the James Bridges Theater in Melnitz Hall, located on the northeast corner of the UCLA Westwood campus, near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Hilgard Avenue.

Advance tickets for all films screening at UCLA are available for $8 at www.cinema.ucla.edu.

Tickets are also available at the theater one hour before showtime: $7 general admission; $5 students, seniors and UCLA Alumni Association members with ID. Admission to the panel discussion on November 13 at 4 pm is FREE.

Parking is available adjacent to the James Bridges Theater in Lot 3 for $7; there is free parking on Loring Ave. after 6:00 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends.

INFO: www.cinema.ucla.edu / Tel. 310.206.FILM.

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