-Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
“If you play at being an apolitical artist in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If you make films about the oppressor holding him as a hero, then spend the rest of your life complaining about people calling you a Nazi, cry me a river, sunshine.”
-Nicola.
This week on Women of War we finally step over the Maginot Line and examine possibly the most famous Nazi woman, propagandist (though she said she wasn’t), auteur and artist Leni Riefenstahl. Leni Riefenstahl felt herself destined for stardom, first as a(n average) dancer, then a (bad) actress and eventually as a director. She’d stop at nothing to get her way, just as Hitler would stop at nothing to control Germany and destroy the democratic world. And Leni saw nothing wrong with that. She would be the greatest director in the world and not even the collapse of the Third Reich would slow her down.
This episode contains references to atrocities committed by the Nazi regime in WWII, rape, racism, anti-Semitism, attempted suicide, self harm, mental anguish, gendered pejorative language, and drug use. It also contains bad language.
Check out Lindsay Ellis’ video on the Hunchback of Notre Dame, providing extra context on the Cannes and Venice film festivals in the 1930s. Also check out her video “Mel Brooks, the Producers and the ethics of satire about Nazis” here, if you would like to hear some discussion about the theatrics of fascism present in some of Riefenstahl’s work.
If you need a chuckle, click here to see “General Adolph takes a walk,” proof that people have always been people no matter when in history they were from. That's the Lambeth Walk you can hear playing about a third of the way into the episode, which we do not have permission to use. It's for an educational purpose, okay?
If you need a snooze, check out Riefenstahl’s Olympia on YouTube. You can also find Triumph of the Will without much looking online, but instead we’re going to link to Roger Ebert’s review that Nicola quoted. If you’ve seen the medal scene in Star Wars: A New Hope, and Be Prepared from the Lion King, you’ve basically got the gist of Triumph of the Will. Think massed formations. Think marching. Think a lot of trumpets.
For more information on the podcast, go to womenofwarpod.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @womenofwarpod for updates, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes shenanigans. Sign up to our newsletter at womenofwarpod.com/subscribe to get notified of the newest episodes plus all the cool things we couldn’t fit into the episode.
Intro and Outro Music: Frosty Forest by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com
S3E8: The Brawling, Boisterous, Scottish Wench — Agnes Randolph and the Siege of Dunbar
S3E7: 12 Nuns, 68.3 metres and 93 penises-The women of the Bayeux Tapestry and the Battle of Hastings
S3E6: Get Up, Stand Up, and Deliver — Truganini, the NOT last Indigenous Tasmanian
S3E5: She’d Probably Hate Her Great-Great Nephew–Dame Mary Gilmore, the Pinko on the Blue Note.
S3E4: The Amiable Madwoman - Doña Manuela Sáenz + the Fight for Spanish American Independence
S3E3: The Woman in the High Castle–Veleda, Seeress of the Bructeri
S3E2: Daughters of Artemis? - The Naval Queens Artemisia I & II of Caria
S3 E1: The Mother in Exile–Alexandra Sokolovskaya, the Creator of the Soviet Union
Bonus: Irish Pirate Queen Chieftain Rebel - Grainne O’Malley and Her Fight for Freedom [Re-Recorded]
Season Three Trailer
S2E9: The War-Wrecked Generation & Anna Coleman Ladd: Copper Masks and Newspaper Dating after The First World War
S2E8 Part 2: No Thought of Glory - Clara Barton and the end of the American Civil War
S2E8: Death, Danger, and Nursing - Clara Barton in the American Civil War, Part 1
S2E6: A Family Affair: Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian Revolution, and the Iran-Iraq War.
S2E5: A Banana Skirt and a Gold Piano - How Josephine Baker Seduced Secrets from the Nazis
S2E4: The Last Empress of Russia - Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer
S2E3: A Most Famous Feminine Sea Captain - Gráinne O’Malley, Irish Pirate, Rebel, Chieftain
S2E2 Pt 2: Planes, Trans and Automobiles - Roberta Cowell (The Dillon/Gillies Remix)
S2E2 Pt 1: Planes, Trans and Automobiles - Roberta Cowell
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