A. N. Wilson

Leni Riefenstahl is missing: The Dictator’s Muse, by Nigel Farndale, reviewed

Despite its title, Farndale’s novel is more about Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympics than about Hitler’s favourite film propagandist

Leni Riefenstahl at the Nuremberg Rally in 1934 shooting Triumph of the Will. Credit: Getty Images 
issue 03 July 2021
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  • The Dictator’s Muse

    Nigel Farndale

    Doubleday, pp. 321, £16

Leni Riefenstahl was a film-maker of genius whose name is everlastingly associated with her film about the German chancellor, Triumph of the Will, which won the gold medal at the 1937 Paris World Exhibition. It is an unforgettable piece of cinema, with the lonely hero descending, like one of the immortals, from the clouds.

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