I was somehow captured, as by a magnetic force.
Riefenstahl disposed of the press clipping itself, but Veiel tracked it down from the original source.
I got the interview fromDaily Express, and that was interesting, he notes.
Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl with Adolf HitlerBeta Cinema
Riefenstahl promoted other distortions regarding her work.
She often claimedTriumph of the Willwas simply about work and peace.
In Veiels film, she is seen denying thatTriumphincluded anything expressing resentment against race, against Jews.
Leni Riefenstahl crouches beneath a camera.Beta Cinema
Says Veiel, Its part of the film.
But she says, no, its not there.
And she regularly told journalists that after Germanys defeat, the Allies locked her up for a lengthy term.
I had to stay for three years in prisons and internment camps, Veiel quotes her as claiming.
Nobody makes a fact check, Veiel says of journalists at the time.
In fact, she was four weeks, not even in a prison, it was like a hotel.
She went into the casino, and she got tea.
Riefenstahls falsifications in service of shaping her image speak to the present moment, Veiel says.
We see it with our populist leaders.
They just lie, he says.
It becomes the truth.
And thats a very, very dangerous and attractive way of turning lies into truth.
And shes a prototype.
When I started the film three years ago, I asked [myself], what is the topicality?
And it was Leni Riefenstahl.
It was Putin shown from a low angle like the hero is portrayed and the marching bodies.
Riefenstahl didnt simply make pretty pictures.
And it is connected, he says.
It is connected by the contempt.
And thats part of her ideology.
I heard Trump in a speech talking about the migrants destroying, spoiling the American blood.
In the findings of the archive, we just felt so much topicality.
But because she was Hitlers favorite, she could do what she wanted.
She was the only filmmaker that did not have to kowtow to Joseph Goebbels.
But even then, you know, that was all before the war, all right?
George Lucas praised her modernity and acknowledged the indebtedness ofStar WarstoTriumph of the Will.
And people who want tobelievethe legend thats the other side of the point.
And thats even more disturbing.
