Riefenstahl and the politics of technique

AUG 05 2020

An essay on Riefenstahl as a technician - the tracking rails, telephoto lenses, underwater cameras and editing rhythms she developed, and how those innovations entered mainstream cinema. It argues that her work legitimised film as a political instrument precisely because the craft was so admired that the commission behind it could be set aside. Technical brilliance is treated as the problem, not the defence.