In Der heilige Berg, Riefenstahl is a star within a certain context. The first image, following the main title, shows the “holy mountain”, a massif looming beyond a lake in hazy light. The beginning of the film confronts “the woman” with “the mountain”, introducing an almost mystical figure and a mythical landscape. The close-up shows Riefensthal’s perfectly made-up face with a relaxed expression. Her eyes are closed, while her prominent lips and eyebrows appear as geometrical, symmetrical lines. This is a cool, stylized icon of beauty, and seems to have more to do with transfiguration than with seduction. It is a beauty of an entirely non-sensual ideal, and the whole film goes on to oscillate between its insistence on authenticity and the con- struction of a narration dominated by polar opposites.

Leni Riefenstahl introduced a new element into Arnold Fanck’s Bergfilme – and into his life. That element was the self-confident woman, otherwise virtually invisible in his world. Unlike Hertha

von Walther, who played the female lead in Fanck’s previous film Berg des Schicksals, Riefenstahl did not allow herself to be robbed of her independence. Her characters assert themselves among the men – just as the actress herself did – and here she casts her spell over two of them. The dancer Diotima in Der heilige Berg was the first of such heroines.

Rainer Rother, Leni Riefenstahl. Der Verführung des Talents (Henschel, 2000)