Leni Riefenstahl was one of the most famous yet contradictory figures in documentary filmmaking. From one hand her works are of big importance in the documentary filmmaking, on the other hand she was suspected in the support of Nazi government, and her connection with Adolf Hitler still remains questionable. She directed the two very significant and innovative propaganda films: "Triumph of the Will" and “Olympia”.
Despite the good technical skills, Riefenstahl was strongly criticized by Susan Sontag in her article “Fastinating Fascism” where she talks not only about the movies Riefenstahl directed, but also about the photographs she took of the Nuba people in Sudan. Riefenstahl represented them rather aesthetical and ideal, which from the first sight might not seem problematic. Nevertheless, that is exactly the problem in her photography, which simply illustrates the fascist aesthetics through the objectification of Nuba nation.
First of all, Riefenstahl describes them as beautiful and hard-working, which is rather exoticizing and according to Sontag “a primitivist ideal: a portrait of a people subsisting untouched by “civilization,” in a pure harmony with their environment” (Sontag, 1975). Later, Riefenstahl highly emphasizes the wrestling among the Nuba, which represents the idea of a stronger person winning over the weaker, which is in the core of Fascist ideology. Overall, in my opinion, her photographs are technically well-done, and it is obvious that she had a good visual perception and talent. Yet, this beautification itself lies within the core of the fascist aesthetics, which approves only perfect appearances rejecting any kind of imperfections. This is a rather contradictory characteristics, since it allowed Riefenstahl to represent herself more as an artist seeking to find beauty. Sontag addressed one of the interviews, where she mentioned how important for her the beauty and the harmony were. Interestingly enough, she noted:
“Whatever is purely realistic, slice-of-life, what is average, quotidian, doesn’t interest me…. I am fascinated by what is beautiful, strong, healthy, what is living.” (Sontag; 1975)
I find this part rather interesting, since, first of all, it made me wonder: why in her understanding did beauty and realism contradict each other? Why was there such a dichotomy in her representation? Why could not “slice-of-life” be beautiful? This indeed shows her attraction towards Utopian aesthetics: purely ideal and non-realistic. Secondly, it is rather problematic for me that she mentioned “strong” and “healthy” by again reproducing the Fascist ideology ascribing such characteristics to a community or a group and thus privileging them according to those characteristics.
Finally, Sontag highlights the fact that the gender of Riefenstahl played an immense role in the reduction of criticism towards her, because she was among the famous women who made difference within their spheres. It also made me think about the ways we perceive artists- to what extent is it related to the artworks solely, to the politics behind those or to the person himself or herself? If only the visual characteristics of the artworks mattered, then maybe Sontag would not have criticized Riefenstahl. And that was the point, in my opinion, which Riefenstahl based her defensive arguments on. But can we that easily separate artworks from the politics related to them? In this case, the very creation of the artwork, the idea of its visual beauty is already inseparable from the politics. Related to the personality, definitely her gender was of big importance. Most probably, if she would not have been a very important woman figure in filmmaking, the critics would have been stricter to her. Therefore, these questions are all interrelated one to another and matter according to each other.
The Links: Photographs of the Nuba: http://www.leni-riefenstahl.de/eng/nuba.html
Susan Sontag's article: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1975/02/06/fascinating-fascism/
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