SOURCE: von Dassanowsky, Robert. “‘Wherever You May Run, You Cannot Escape Him’: Leni Riefenstahl's Self-Reflection and Romantic Transcendence of Nazism in Tiefland.” Camera Obscura, no. 35 (May 1995): 106-29.

In the following essay, von Dassanowsky offers a critical reading of Riefenstahl's Tiefland within the context of feminist film theory, arguing that Tiefland expresses a pre-feminist consciousness and a rejection of Nazism.

The discussion over the always-provocative topic of Leni Riefenstahl, tainted genius, has become topical to cinematic and cultural study yet again with the publication of Riefenstahl's autobiography in German in 1987 and the subsequent release of the English translation. Additionally, a new documentary on the auteur by Ray Müller, Die Macht der Bilder Leni Riefenstahls known as The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl¹ in the English-speaking world, premiered in the US at the New York Film Festival in 1993. The other recent effort to reassess Riefenstahl for popular consumption...