Sanz Fuentes' Book Explores Riefenstahl's Nazi Body and Power Aesthetics

A new book by Canarian filmmaker and writer Nayra Sanz Fuentes, called The Nazi Body. The Contained Body. The Aesthetics of Power in Leni Riefenstahl's Cinema, explores how totalitarian ideas are built using images and how these ideas still affect us today. In an interview with DIARIO DE AVISOS, Sanz Fuentes explained that her book looks at how power shapes bodies to make a certain order seem right. It also examines how a specific look or 'aesthetic' is created to show off a political ideal. She believes this analysis is vital for understanding not just how Nazism grew, but also why similar powerful ideologies keep appearing.

Sanz Fuentes' research looks closely at two famous films by Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003): Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938). Both were made in Germany when Adolf Hitler's regime was at its strongest. Sanz Fuentes highlights how Riefenstahl used visuals almost entirely to show Nazi beliefs, carefully using editing and artistic shots to get the regime's message across. For the Nazis, the human body wasn't just about looks; it was deeply connected to their political and social views.

In her book, Sanz Fuentes introduces the idea of the "contained body." This refers to how bodies were shown to represent values like beauty, youth, strength, and energy, but always in a way that fit a particular social and political outlook. This "contained body" meant giving up personal desires and thoughts for the sake of obedience and discipline. Sanz Fuentes extends this idea to the "contained State," where the group completely takes over the individual lives of its citizens. To show this, she mentions slogans from schools at the time, such as "You are nothing, your people are everything," and Hermann Göring's statement: "I have no conscience, my conscience is Adolf Hitler."

The book also challenges Riefenstahl's excuses after World War II, when she claimed she didn't know what was happening or that her art was separate from politics. Sanz Fuentes rejects these claims, suggesting that Riefenstahl's ambition led to her downfall. She notes that Riefenstahl's attempts to justify herself were similar to the lies and manipulation used by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, who believed in repeating a lie until it was accepted as truth. Sanz Fuentes describes Riefenstahl's films, even though they were presented as documentaries, as "idealistic realism" – a way of creating a reality that purposefully left out anything that didn't fit the Nazi vision.

Looking at today's world, Sanz Fuentes warns that eighty years later, the methods for twisting and manipulating information have become much more advanced, creating what she calls a "society of disaffection." During Nazism, people were given a reality they were ready to believe. Today, however, we often don't know what's true or false, which leads to a feeling of detachment and can result in dangerous situations. When it comes to globalization and technology, Sanz Fuentes stresses that the real challenge is how we use these tools: do they serve people, or do they become controlling systems that threaten our ability to think critically?

Finally, Sanz Fuentes' book recognizes Leni Riefenstahl's clear impact on filmmaking techniques and technology. Riefenstahl was a pioneer, developing things like underwater cameras, new camera angles, uniquely lit low shots, and unusual camera placements – for example, using hundreds of cameras in hot-air balloons for Olympia. Beyond her technical skills, her style of making bodies look beautiful and her "idealistic realism" still influence today's visual culture, particularly in advertising, where impossible standards of physical perfection are often shown.