Leni Riefenstahl was a filmmaker who proved instrumental in expanding Adolf Hitler's influence beyond Nuremberg, converting several Germans into Nazis.
Biography[]
Working for the Nazis[]
An apparently quite gifted young filmmaker, Leni Reifenstahl was approached by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who had decided to put the spectacles of his Nazi Party's annual rally in Nuremberg, Germany on film to reach audiences beyond the city who couldn't attend to extend his power even further. Knowing enough about films to realize her talent, Hitler authorized Riefenstahl to come to Nuremberg to film the rallies, which she did for a couple of years. This resulted in Riefenstahl producing a film called Triumph of the Will, which cast her benefactor in the role of a "second Messiah" who had come to save the German people with a religious millenarian connotation added to the film, making it look like everything Hitler said about his Third Reich was true.[1]
Legacy[]
For decades afterwards, budding filmmakers looked at Leni Riefenstahl's work, specifically at Triumph of the Will, to see how one can create a mood to see how one manipulate emotions to a particular end. While most were apalled at what emotions were driving toward, Riefenstahl's work was nonetheless in its own way a triumph of the cinematic art.[1]
Behind the scenes[]
- "No more propaganda films!"
- ―Leni Riefenstahl[src]
Suzanne Roquette, the Last Crusade actress who played the Film Director.
Leni Riefenstahl was originally present in the third revision of Jeffrey Boam's original script for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. There, she tried to film Adolf Hitler and the other members of his German High Command but ended up frustrated due to her failed attempts to get Hitler's men to follow her instructions, asking Hiter to step forward and then his men to step back only to do the opposite.[2] Akin to real life, the historical Riefenstahl was known for being Hitler's official biographer. Despite her reputation as a Nazi sympathizer, Indiana Jones creators Steven Spielberg and George Lucas had great admiration for her directing abilities, specifically for her 1935 propaganda film Triumph of the Will and her 1938 propaganda/documentary film Olympia.[3]
In the finished film, rewritten by Tom Stoppard, Riefenstahl's role was fulfilled by an unnamed film director portrayed by the late Suzanne Roquette,[4] but her scenes were deleted from the final cut despite being filmed.[3] However, they were retained in Rob MacGregor's novelization,[5] where she does what Riefenstahl did in Boam's drafts.[2] While whether the film director and Leni Riefenstahl are the same character or not isn't confirmed by Lucasfilm Ltd., the character's existence in the Indiana Jones world was confirmed by the New Gods for Old companion historical lecture.[1]
Appearances[]
- Indy III (Cancelled)
Sources[]
- New Gods for Old (Non-fiction source)
