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La Biennale di Venezia

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Cinema

Riefenstahl

Out of Competition
Director:
Andres Veiel
Production:
Vincent Productions
Running Time:
115’
Language:
German, English
Country:
Germany
Screenplay:
Andres Veiel
Cinematographer:
Toby Cornish
Editor:
Stephan Krumbiegel, Olaf Voigtländer, Alfredo Castro
Music:
Freya Arde
Sound:
Matthias Lempert
As themselves:Leni Riefenstahl

synopsis

Leni Riefenstahl is considered one of the most controversial figures of the twentieth century. Her films Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will) and Olympia epitomise perfectly staged body worship and the celebration of the superior and victorious. At the same time, these images project contempt for the imperfect and weak. Riefenstahl’s aesthetics are more prevalent today than ever—but does the same hold true for their underlying message? The film explores this question using documents from Riefenstahl’s estate, including private films, photos, letters, and recordings. It uncovers fragments of her biography and places them within a broader historical context. How could Riefenstahl rise to become the Reich’s leading filmmaker while persistently denying any close ties to Hitler and Goebbels? In personal documents, she laments her “murdered ideals.” Riefenstahl reflects many post-war Germans who, through letters and recorded telephone calls from her estate, yearn for an authoritative figure to restore order to the “shit-hole state”. They believe that this restoration could bring about a renaissance of her work—a possibility that might come to fruition in a generation or two. What if they are right?

director's statement

Now as then Riefenstahl’s visual worlds are about triumph. Triumph over doubt, ambivalence, supposed weakness and imperfection. Thus, looking at the world today, a film about Riefenstahl became an urgent necessity for me. Riefenstahl’s extensive legacy, reinterpreted in the light of her private estate, offered the opportunity for a new take on the timeless attraction of imperial greatness and its need for the glorification of muscular, perfect and victorious bodies, an urge that is on the rise again today.

Production/Distribution

PRODUCTION: Vincent Productions GmbH
Kastanienallee 40
10119, Berlin, Germany
Tel. 49 30 2787760
office@vincent-productions.com

WORLD SALES: Beta Cinema GmbH
Grünwalder Weg 28D
82041, Oberhaching / Munich, Germany
Tel. 49 89673469828
beta@betacinema.com

ITALIAN DISTRIBUTION: Rai Cinema S.p.a
Piazza Adriana 12
00193, Rome, Italy
Tel. 39 06 33179601
raicinema@postacertificata.rai.it

INTERNATIONAL PRESS OFFICE: Claudia Tomassini + Associates
press@claudiatomassini.com

ITALIAN PRESS OFFICE: Lucrezia Viti
BOOM PR
Piazza Prati degli Strozzi, 35
00195, Roma, Italy
Tel. +39 348 2565827
info@boompr.it


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Biennale Cinema
Biennale Cinema