Dietrich & Riefenstahl: Hollywood, Berlin, and a Century in Two Lives

The ways that two German screen luminaries embodied the growing status and ambitions of 20th-century women are chronicled in this absorbing dual biography by historian Weiland. Born a year apart, movie star Marlene Dietrich and director Leni Riefenstahl both got their start in Weimar Germany’s film industry—Riefenstahl tried out for the iconic show-girl part in The Blue, which eventually went to Dietrich—and became exemplars of the on-the-make new woman of the Jazz Age. Moving to Hollywood, the glamorous Dietrich specialized in playing jaded man-eaters with secret hearts of gold—a heart she displayed in real life by selling American war bonds and touring with the USO. Riefenstahl, upholder of wholesome Aryan virtue in Triumph of the Will and other Nazi propaganda movies, proved far more corrupt, furthering her own career by employing her skills to celebrate Hitler’s regime. (She blithely used concentration camp inmates as extras.) Weiland highlights the entertaining soap opera in their stories, especially the parade of Dietrich’s affairs with men and women—often abetted by her complaisant husband—which involved endless psychodrama and scenes. But she pairs the humor with incisive cultural analysis of the women’s impact as proto-feminists who used sex appeal, savvy, and considerable talent to pioneer new roles for women. Photos. (Oct.)