Post on 18-Jan-2017
LENI RIEFENSTAHL
1902-2003
WHO IS SHE?Leni was a German dancer,
actress and film director best known for the brilliant
propaganda films she made in support of the Nazi Party.
She rose to become Germany’s most famous and
successful filmmaker at a time when Nazi policy enforced
women playing a secondary role to men.
Her filmmaking brilliance is still celebrated by those in the
film industry, but historians continue to debate the nature
and value of her role in German history.
“Femininity was the cloak that shrouded
her in denial. By painting a portrait of herself as eternally
feminine, Riefenstahl was able to lay claim to a state of purity and innocence. No
man in Riefenstahl’s position would be
believed if he told the world that he used
actors from concentration camps
but knew nothing about Nazism or its
atrocities.”(bell hooks 1997)
“Artistically she is a genius, and politically
she is a nitwit.” (Liam O’Leary, film
historian)
It would be unwise to believe a single
word of Riefenstahl’s
memoirs unless it can be
corroborated by contemporary documentary
evidence . . . A comparison of Riefenstahl’s memoirs with other, more
contemporary, sources shows the memoirs to be self-
serving and untrustworthy
(Andrew Bonnell, 2001)
No other film director was in such a privileged position:
her position in the Third Reich film
industry was unique. She may have been a woman, but such a
disadvantage was more than offset by
her direct line to Hitler and the
awareness on the part of others that she had this direct
line.(Susan Tegel 2006)
Riefenstahl's portrait of them evokes some of
the larger themes of Nazi ideology: the
contrast between the clean and the
impure, the incorruptible and the defiled, the physical and the mental, the joyful and the critical . .
. (Susan Sontag 1976)
Each dolly shot [in documentary film] is a moral affair, each
camera setup reveals a system of values, every shot
shows a vision of the world. So, the films of Leni Riefenstahl developed, in the time of national socialism, the
glorification of the fascist regime. Her
name cannot be separated, in terms of both aesthetics and politics, from
Nazism.(Jean Perret)
"Where is my guilt? I can regret. I can
regret that I made the party film, `Triumph of the Will,' in 1934. But I cannot regret that I lived in that
time. No anti-Semitic word has ever
crossed my lips. I was never anti-Semitic. I did not join the party. So where then is my guilt? You tell me. I
have thrown no atomic bombs. I have
never betrayed anyone. What am I
guilty of?”(Leni Riefenstahl 1993)
THE SYLLABUS
PAST QUESTIONS - PART A (10 MARKS)➤ Outline the main features in the background and rise to prominence of the
twentieth-century personality you have studied➤ Describe the role played by the personality you have studied in national
and/or international history➤ Describe the personal background and historical context of the personality
you have studied➤ Outline the life of the personality you have studied➤ Describe the life of the personality you have studied➤ Provide a detailed description of THREE significant events in the life of the
personality you have studied➤ Describe THREE significant factors which resulted in the prominence of the
personality you have studied➤ Describe the rise to prominence of the personality you have studied➤ Outline the background and rise to prominence of the personality you have
studied➤ Describe the significant events in the life of the personality you have studied
PAST QUESTIONS - PART B (15 MARKS)➤ To what extent does history present us with a balanced interpretation of this personality?➤ “Events shape people more than people shape events”. How accurate is this statement in
relation to the personality you have studied?➤ “History is about winners”. How accurate is this statement in relation to the personality you
have studied?➤ “Individuals are products of their times”. How accurate is this statement in relation to the
personality you have studied?➤ “People are swept along by events. Some individuals use events to advantage.” How
accurate is this statement in relation to the personality you have studied?➤ Assess the contribution of the personality you have studied to their period of national
and/or international history➤ To what extent did the personality you have studied have a positive impact on his or her
times?➤ Evaluate the significance of the personality you have studied to his/her period of national
and/or international history➤ “The significance of an individual is created more by themselves than by the events of their
life.” How accurate is this statement in relation to the personality you have studied and their period of national or international history?
➤ “It is the way an individual faces challenges that shapes them and their achievements.” To what extent is this statement accurate in relation to the personality you have studied and their role in history?
KEY SKILLS➤ Describing life events without
analysis or evaluation➤ Selecting events appropriately
according to question, syllabus or historical significance
➤ Analysing, comparing and contrasting historical perspectives
➤ Evaluating the reliability of historical sources and exploring conflicts between sources
➤ Explaining historical sources with reference to the historian or author
➤ Constructing an original argument that references, compares and evaluates a range of historical perspectives and primary sources