La mirada del mal

For The New York Daily Mirror, she was "as pretty as a swastika," and for Goebbels, "the artist who understands us best." In May 1945, after the defeat of Nazi Germany, Leni Riefenstahl burned documents, letters, and photographic material in her garden in anticipation of the imminent arrival of the Americans. Distraught over her relationship with Hitler and his inner circle, Leni reminisced about her artistic and personal past, a past that made her the most celebrated woman of the Third Reich, the most famous director in the world, and the only person capable of addressing the Führer informally after directing Triumph of the Will, the film about the Sixth Congress of the National Socialist Party. With undeniable talent, her rise seemed unstoppable, but Kristallnacht and World War II called her career as a filmmaker into question. Her name thus became associated with the visual power of Nazism and the ambiguous boundary between art and propaganda. Courted by Mussolini and Stalin; Admired by Steven Spielberg, Ford Coppola, and Quentin Tarantino; hated by Marlene Dietrich; and praised by Charles Chaplin, Walt Disney, Andy Warhol, and Mick Jagger, Leni Riefenstahl is one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century. Was she a Nazi collaborator or just another victim of the dictator?