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Leni Riefenstahl

, Filmmaker / World War II Figure
Leni Riefenstahl
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  • Born: 22 August 1902
  • Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
  • Died: 8 September 2003 (natural causes)
  • Best Known As: Filmmaker who documented Hitler's Germany

Name at birth: Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl

Trained as an dancer, Leni Riefenstahl was an up-and-coming actress in German movies of the 1920s before becoming a film director. She impressed Adolf Hitler so much he put her in charge of filming the 1934 Nazi rally at Nuremberg, as well as the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The two films, Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938) are landmark documentaries, and Riefenstahl is considered one of the great innovators in moving pictures. But she was also accused of being a great propagandist for the Nazis, and it ruined her film career. After World War II she escaped being charged with war crimes (and she was never a Nazi party member), but she remained a controversial figure. Later in her career Riefenstahl turned to still and underwater photography; her 2002 film Impressions Under Water was compiled from footage she took while scuba diving. She lived to be 101, dying in September 2003.

 
 
Actor:

Leni Riefenstahl

  • Born: Aug 22, 1902 in Berlin, Germany
  • Died: Sep 08, 2003
  • Occupation: Actor, Director, Cinematographer
  • Active: '20s-'30s, '50s, '70s
  • Major Genres: Drama
  • Career Highlights: Olympia, Triumph of the Will, The Blue Light
  • First Major Screen Credit: The Holy Mountain (1926)

Biography

German actress/filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl began her performing career as a dancer in 1920, studying with famed instructor Mary Wigman. In 1926, she was cast by director Dr. Arnold Fanck in the first of her many "mountain films" (a genre peculiar to Germany that had been popularized by Fanck), Peaks of Destiny (1926). The best known and most popular of her athletic starring vehicles was 1929's The White Hell of Pitz Palu. Having learned the whys and wherefores of directing and photography from Fanck, Riefenstahl expressed a desire to direct a film herself. The result was The Blue Light (1931), a true "auteur" effort: starring, directed by, edited by, and co-written by Riefenstahl, it was released through the newly formed Leni Riefenstahl Studio-Film.

The Blue Light impressed many people, including Adolf Hitler, who, upon gaining power in 1933, appointed Riefenstahl "film expert" to the National Socialist Party. Her first effort on behalf of the Nazis was the cheaply produced 1933 documentary Victory of the Faith. The following year, with the full cooperation of Hitler and with 30 cameras and 120 assistants at her disposal, Riefenstahl made a film of the fourth Nuremberg rally, Triumph of the Will (1934). Observed objectively, the film is an artistic triumph; still, it is blatant propaganda on behalf of the Third Reich, and, as such, has engendered controversy ever since its release. The debate still rages as to whether Riefenstahl was merely recording events that had been staged by the Party (as she has claimed), or whether she alone was responsible for the film's persuasive visual dynamics and production design.

Riefenstahl's next project was even more impressive: Olympia (1936), a filmed record of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Though attacked by latter-day critics as being "fascistic" in its celebration of the muscular male physique, Olympia is virtually bereft of proselytizing. To be sure, there are plenty of shots of Hitler and his minions (no one knows to this day if the film was Nazi-sponsored or independently produced), but just as much screen time is allotted to the decidedly non-Aryan athlete Jesse Owens. Many of Riefenstahl's innovations and techniques in Olympia -- the slow-motion shots of the athletes, the telephoto lens used for close-ups of the events, the ground-level shots, the overhead panoramas taken from blimps -- have been utilized by sports documentaries and broadcasts ever since. Olympia would be the last of Riefenstahl's 1930s films; she turned down as many assignments as she received from the Nazis, and attempted unsuccessfully to launch two large-scale historical epics.

Riefenstahl's last feature film, three years in the making, was Tiefland (1943), a magnificently photographed return to the mountain-film genre. She returned to acting in this film as a Spanish dancer, and also utilized gypsy concentration camp inmates as extras (she would later claim she had no idea what fate was in store for these unfortunate souls). When Germany fell to the Allies in 1945, Riefenstahl was arrested and her films confiscated. She spent three years in various allied prison camps, then underwent several more years of persecution on the grounds that she had been a top-ranking Nazi official. In fact, she had never joined the Party (though she was quite vocal in her support of Hitler), and in 1952 she was finally exonerated of all charges. Still, she never made another film in Germany, even though several of the more rabidly pro-Nazi directors -- notably Veit Harlan, who'd helmed the viciously anti-Semitic Jud Suss -- continued making movies without any difficulty.

In 1956, Riefenstahl traveled to Africa to begin work on Black Cargo, a documentary on the modern slave trade made on behalf of the London Anti-Slave Society; this project came to an end when she was seriously injured in a car accident in Kenya. She returned to Africa in 1961 to photograph the fascinating rituals of the Mesakin Nuba tribe. Though this odyssey resulted in an attractive coffee-table book of photographs, Riefenstahl never assembled her film footage into a feature. She was honored with numerous international film awards in the 1970s, though the ceremonies were often interrupted by the protests of Holocaust victims. In later interviews, Riefenstahl allowed that the end result of Nazism was horrendous, but she refuses to apologize for her work; she is fond of quoting a pro-Hitler comment allegedly made by Winston Churchill in the mid-'30s, arguing that if Churchill could not foresee the horrors to come, how could she? Those interviewers expecting to meet an embittered, defensive old woman were often amazed at Riefenstahl's youthful vigor, softspokenness, courtesy, and sense of humor.

In her nineties, Riefenstahl became an enthusiastic scuba diver, hoping to assemble the underwater films that she lensed into one last documentary feature. In 1991, she published her autobiography, Leni Riefenstahl: A Memoir, and in 1993, she was the subject of a lively, intriguing British documentary, The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl. In 2002, Riefenstahl did manage to compile a film of her underwater footage entitled Impressionen Unter Wasser (Underwater Impressions), though its running length of 45 minutes seemed short considering the 2,000-plus dives during which she had shot the footage. Leni Riefenstahl died in Berlin on September 8, 2003, her body increasingly pained by injuries she had sustained over the years. She was 101. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

 
Biography: Leni Riefenstahl

The German film director Leni Riefenstahl (born 1902) achieved fame and notoriety for her propaganda film "Triumph of the Will" and her two part rendition of the 1936 Olympic Games, "Olympia", both made for Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.

Leni Riefenstahl was one of the most controversial figures in the world of film. A talented and ambitious dancer, actress, and director, she had already made a name for herself in her native Germany and abroad when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. She admired him, as he did her, and with his friendship and support became the "movie-queen of Nazi Germany," a position she much enjoyed but could not live down after the fall of the Third Reich. In spite of her energetic attempts to continue as a filmmaker and her protestations that she had done nothing but be an unpolitical artist, she never managed to complete another film. Eventually she turned to still photography, producing two books on the African tribe of the Nuba (The Last of the Nuba, 1974, and The People of Kau, 1976) and one of underwater pictures (Coral Gardens, 1978), for which she learned to scuba dive at the age of 73. These photographs continued her life-long fascination with the beauty and strength of the human body, especially the male, and her early interest in natural life away from modern civilization.

Early Career as Dancer and Actress

Helene Berta Amalie Riefenstahl was born in Berlin on August 22, 1902. Her father, Alfred Riefenstahl, owned a plumbing firm and died in World War II, as did her only brother, Heinz. Early on she decided to become a dancer and received thorough training, both in traditional Russian ballet and in modern dance with Mary Wigman. By 1920 Riefenstahl was a successful dancer touring such cities as Munich, Frankfurt, Prague, Zürich, and Dresden.

She became interested in cinema when she saw one of the then popular mountain films of Arnold Fanck. With characteristic decisiveness and energy she set out to meet Fanck and entice him to offer her the role of a dancer in his Der heilige Berg (The Holy Mountain, 1926). It was well-received and Riefenstahl made up her mind to stay with the relatively new medium of motion pictures. Over the next seven years she made five more films with Fanck: Der grosse Sprung (The Great Leap, 1927), Die weisse Hölle vom Piz Palü (The White Hell of Piz Palü, 1929), Stürme über dem Mont Blanc (Storms over Mont Blanc, 1930), Der weisse Rausch (The White Frenzy, 1931), and S. O. S. Eisberg (S. O. S. Iceberg, 1933). She also tried acting in another type of film with a different director, but Das Schicksal derer von Habsburg (The Fate of the Hapsburgs, 1929) turned out to be an unsatisfactory venture. In Fanck's films Riefenstahl was often the only woman in a crew of rugged men who were devoted to getting the beauty and the dangers of the still untouched high mountains (and for S. O. S. Eisberg, of the Arctic) onto their action-filled adventure films. Not only did she learn to climb and ski well, she also absorbed all she could about camera work, directing, and editing.

The Blue Light

Eventually Riefenstahl conceived of a different kind of mountain film, more romantic and mystical, in which a woman, played by herself, would be the central character and which she herself would direct. Das blaue Licht (The Blue Light, 1932) was based on a mountain legend and was shot in remote parts of the Tessin and the Dolomites. It demanded - and received - a great deal of dedication from those involved, many of whom were former associates of Fanck's who continued to work with her on other films. She also obtained the help of the well-known avant-garde author and film theoretician Bela Balazs, a Marxist and Jew, who collaborated on the script and as assistant director.

The Blue Light tells the story of Yunta, a beautiful innocent mountain girl who falls to her death after greedy villagers find and take all the crystals in a grotto high up on a mountain where before only she had been able to climb. The crystals are the source of a mysterious blue light which sustained Yunta and fatally attracted the young men of the village. The theme, lighting, and camera angles of the film show the legacy of German Expressionism. Riefenstahl aimed at fusing the haunting beauty of the mountains with her legendary tale and, as she would continue to do, experimented technically with special film stock, special lenses, soft focus, and smoke bombs to achieve the desired mystical effect. The Blue Light won acclaim abroad, where it received the silver medal at the 1932 Biennale in Venice, and at home, where it also attracted the attention of Hitler.

Films for the Third Reich

When Adolf Hitler came to power he asked Riefenstahl to film that year's Nazi party rally in Nuremberg. Sieg des Glaubens (Victory of Faith, 1933) has been lost; presumably it was destroyed because it showed party members who were soon afterwards liquidated by Hitler. With his power consolidated he wanted Riefenstahl to do the 1934 rally as well, a task she claims to have accepted only after a second "invitation" and the promise of total artistic freedom.

Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will, 1935) is considered by many to be THE propaganda film of all times, even if its director later maintained that all she had made was a documentary. Carefully edited from over 60 hours of film by herself, with concern for rhythm and variety rather than chronological accuracy, it emphasizes the solidarity of the Nazi party, the unity of the German people, and the greatness of their leader who, through composition, cutting, and special camera angles, is given mythical dimensions. Filming Abert Speer's architechtural spectacle where the Nazi icons, swastika, and eagle are displayed prominently and, together with flags, lights, flames, and music, made a powerful appeal to the irrational, emotional side of the viewer, particularly the German of the time. Not surprisingly, the film was awarded the German Film Prize for 1935. But it was also given the International Grand Prix at the 1937 Paris World Exhibition, albeit over the protest of French workers.

Riefenstahl's next film, the short Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht (Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces, 1935) was in a way a sequel, shot to placate the German Armed Forces, who were not at all pleased about having received little attention in Triumph of the Will.

Another major assignment from Hitler followed: to shoot the 1936 Olympic Games held in Germany. Olympia, Part 1: Fest der Völker (Festival of Nations) and Part 2: Fest der Schönheit (Festival of Beauty) premiered in 1938, again to great German and also international acclaim. Elaborate and meticulous preparation, technical inventiveness, and 18 months of laborious editing helped Riefenstahl elevate sports photography - until then a matter for newsreels only - to a level of art seldom achieved. From the naked dancers in the opening sequence and the emphasis upon the African American athlete Jesse Owens to the striking diving and steeplechase scenes, the film celebrated the beauty of the human form in motion in feats of strength and endurance.

Immediately after completing The Blue Light Riefenstahl had made plans to film Tiefland (Lowlands), a project that was to be interrupted by illness, Hitler's assignments, and the war. When it was finished in 1954 all fire had gone out of this tale of innocence and corruption, high mountains and lowlands, based on the opera by the Czech Eugene d'Albert. Many of Riefenstahl's other projects, most notably her plan to do a film on Penthisilea, the Amazon queen, were never completed at all. This was due partly to the fact that she was a woman in a man's profession but mostly to the war and the choices she made under the Nazis and for them. Ultimately, all her work, in spite of the great talent and dedication it so clearly demonstrates, is tainted by the readiness and skill with which she put her art at the service of the Third Reich, no matter whether it was from conviction, political naivete, ambition, or, most likely, a combination of all three.

Although her film career had come to a halt, Riefenstahl's attention focused on still photography. She visited Africa many times in hopes of making a film, but eventually these trips resulted in two books of photography (The last of the Nuba, 1974, and (The People of Kau, 1976. Once again her work was praised for its beauty and castigated for its fascist art. When she was 70, Reinstahl learned to scuba dive and concentrated her photography on underwater coral life, resulting in a new book Coral Garden, 1976.

In 1993, when she was 91 years old, German director Ray Mueller made a film biography (The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl. The release of the film coincided with the English translation of her autobiography Leni Riefenstahl: A Biography In both the film and the book, Riefenstahl claims her innocence and mistreatment, never realizing the effect that her films had on promoting the Nazi cause. Ray Muller was quoted in (Time Magazine as declaring "she is still a 30's diva, after all and not accustomed to being crossed. By the second day, I was asking prickly questions and she was having choleric fits." In his review of the film, New York Times film critic Vincent Canby concluded "Ms. Riefenstahl doesn't come across as an especially likable character which is to her credit and Mr. Muller's. She is beyond likability. She is too complex, too particular and too arrogant to be seen as either sympathetic or unsympathetic. There's the suspicion that she had always had arrogance and that it, backed up by her singular talent, is what helped to shape her wonderful and horrible life."

Further Reading

Kampf in Schnee und Eis (Battle in Snow and Ice, 1933), Hinter den Kulissen des Reichsparteitagsfilms (In the Wings of the Party Rally Film, 1935), and Schönheit im Olympischen Kampf (Beauty in Olympic Competition, 1937) are contemporary accounts, the first ghostwritten, by Riefenstahl on her work. They are available only in German. The Last of the Nuba (1974), The People of Kau (1976), and Coral Gardens (1978), her later books of still photography, exist in English editions as well. After the end of the war Riefenstahl wrote a number of statements and letters to editors defending herself. She also worked on an autobiography. She gave a lengthy interview for Leni Riefenstahl Part I and II (one half-hour each), produced by Camera Three for 1973 broadcast by the CBS Television Network. Three full-length books on her are: Renata Berg Pan, Leni Riefenstahl (1980); David B. Hinton, The Films of Leni Riefenstahl (1978), the most apologetic; and Glenn B. Infield's more gossipy Leni Riefenstahl, The Fallen Film Goddess (1976), all in English. The most important article by an American film critic is Susan Sontag's "Fascinating Fascism" in the New York Review of Books (February 6, 1975).

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Leni Riefenstahl

Leni Riefenstahl, 1938.
(click to enlarge)
Leni Riefenstahl, 1938. (credit: Courtesy of Deutsches Institut fur Filmkunde, Wiesbaden, Ger.)
(born Aug. 22, 1902, Berlin, Ger. — died Sept. 8, 2003, Pöcking) German film director and photographer. In the 1920s she was a dancer and actress in German nature films. After forming a production company, she made and starred in the mystical The Blue Light (1932). For Adolf Hitler she directed the propaganda film Triumph of the Will (1935), a documentary glorifying the 1934 Nürnberg rally. She was praised for the technical brilliance of Olympia (1938), her documentary on the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Detained by Allied forces after World War II, she was eventually cleared of complicity in Nazi war crimes, but her film career never recovered, and she worked principally as a photographer thereafter.

For more information on Leni Riefenstahl, visit Britannica.com.

 
Photography Encyclopedia: Leni Riefenstahl

Riefenstahl, Leni (1902-2003), German dancer, actress, film-maker, and photographer. She became famous in a series of spectacular mountain films by Arnold Fanck, and directed another, The Blue Light, in 1931. Admired by the film enthusiast Hitler, she made several propaganda documentaries for the Nazi regime, of which the most celebrated and influential were Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938). After the Berlin Olympics she also published a book of still photographs (republished as Olympia in 2002), and after the Second World War, when she found herself, because of her former Nazi associations, more or less excluded from film-making, she embarked on a second career as a photographer. Particularly notable was her study of the Nuba people of the Sudan, Last of the Nuba (1974). A woman of enormous energy and determination, she took up underwater photography at the age of 71, published two books of underwater pictures, and was still diving at 98. An English translation of her autobiography (1987) appeared in 1992. The following year she was the subject of a revealing television documentary by Ray Müller.

— Robin Lenman

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Riefenstahl, Leni
(Berta Helene Amalie Riefenstahl) (lā'nē rē'fənshtäl', bĕr'tə hālā'nə ämäl'yə), 1902–2003, German filmmaker, b. Berlin. First a dancer, then an actress, she began directing her own films in 1932. Her Triumph of the Will (1935) documented a huge Nazi rally at Nuremberg using such innovative techniques as moving cameras, telephoto lenses, and unusual camera angles to produce startling black-and-white footage with wide panoramas and striking closeups, thus dramatizing and glamorizing the ritualistic political event. The film brought her widespread attention as well as Hitler's favor and friendship, and she was commissioned to film the 1936 Berlin Olympics (Olympia, 1938). The latter film has been hailed for its lyrical technique. Riefenstahl has sometimes been praised as a visionary and a technically pioneering filmmaker. She also, however, has been condemned as a Nazi propagandist, and her 1930s work has been regarded as inseparable from the propaganda purposes for which they were made. Riefenstahl's connections with the Nazis led to her being blacklisted after 1945. Her later film and photographic work includes underwater pictures and studies of Africa.

Bibliography

See her memoir (1993); biographies by G. B. Infield (1976), T. Leeflang (1991), S. Bach (2007), and J. Trimborn (2007); study by C. C. Graham (1986); A. Taschen, Leni Riefenstahl: Five Lives: A Biography in Pictures (2000); R. Müller, dir., The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (film, 1993).

 
Wikipedia: Leni Riefenstahl
Leni Riefenstahl
Birth name Helene Berta Amalie Riefenstahl
Born August 22 1902(1902--)
Berlin, Germany Flag of German Empire
Died September 8 2003 (aged 101)
Pöcking, Germany Flag of Germany
Years active 1925 - 2002
Spouse(s) Peter Jacob (1944-1947), Horst Kettner (2003)

Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (August 22 1902 – September 8 2003) was a German film director, dancer and actress widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens, a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party. Riefenstahl's prominence in the Third Reich along with her personal friendships with Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels thwarted her film career following Germany's defeat in World War II, after which she was arrested but never convicted of war crimes.[1]

Riefenstahl is widely noted in film histories for developing new techniques in film. The propaganda value of her documentary films made during the 1930s repels most commentators but many cite the aesthetics as outstanding. Riefenstahl later published her still photography of the Nuba tribes in Africa and made films of marine life.

Biography

Dancer and actress

Riefenstahl was born in the working class suburb of Wedding in Berlin. She began her career as a self-styled and well-known interpretive dancer. After injuring her knee while performing in Prague she saw a nature film about mountains and became fascinated with the possibilities of film. She went to the Alps to meet Arnold Fanck, the film's director, hoping to secure the lead in his next project. Instead, Riefenstahl found an actor who had starred in Fanck's films who wrote the director about her. Riefenstahl went on to star in many of Fanck's Mountain films as an athletic and adventurous young woman with a suggestive appeal. Riefenstahl's had a prolific career as an actor in silent films. She was popular with the German public and highly regarded by directors. Her last acting role before becoming a director was in the 1933 film SOS Eisberg (U.S. title SOS Iceberg).

As a filmaker Riefenstahl's sense of perfectionism enabled her to produce exceptionally polished movies, culminating in her final works for the Nazi government. At first her main interest was in fictional films and when presented with the opportunity to direct Das Blaue Licht in 1932 she took it. Breaking from her mentor's style of setting realistic stories in fairytale mountain settings, Riefenstahl filmed Das Blaue Licht as a romantic, wholly mystical tale which she thought of as more fitting to the terrain.[1]

Propaganda documentaries

Riefenstahl heard Adolf Hitler speak at a rally in 1932 and was mesmerized by his talent as a public speaker. Describing the experience in her Memoiren Riefenstahl wrote, "I had an almost apocalyptic vision that I was never able to forget. It seemed as if the earth's surface were spreading out in front of me, like a hemisphere that suddenly splits apart in the middle, spewing out an enormous jet of water, so powerful that it touched the sky and shook the earth."[2] According to the Daily Express of 24 April 1934 Leni Riefenstahl had read Mein Kampf during the making of Das Blaue Licht. In the newspaper article she comments: "The book made a tremendous impression on me. I became confirmed National Socialist after reading the first page. I felt a man who could write such a book would undoubtly lead Germany. I felt very happy that such a man had come."[3] Hitler already admired Das Blaue Licht and during a personal meeting he asked Riefenstahl to direct the 1933 film Der Sieg des Glaubens (Victory of Faith), an hour-long feature about the Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg in 1933 (released on DVD in 2003). Riefenstahl wasn't happy with the outcome of this film.

Impressed with her work, Hitler asked her to film the upcoming 1934 Party rally in Nuremberg. The result, Triumph of the Will, was a documentary generally recognized as a masterful, epic, innovative work of documentary filmmaking, however it was a propaganda film for the Nazi Party. Triumph of the Will was a rousing success in Germany, but widely banned in America. The film won many international awards as a ground-breaking example of filmmaking and is widely regarded as one of the most effective pieces of propaganda ever produced. In interviews for the 1993 film The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl Riefenstahl adamantly denied any deliberate attempt to create pro-Nazi propaganda and said she was disgusted Triumph of the Will was used in such a way.[4]

In 1935 Riefenstahl madeTag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht (German for Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces), a lesser-known film about the German Wehrmacht. Like Der Sieg des Glaubens and Triumph of the Will this was made at the annual Nazi party rally in Nuremberg. Over a million Germans had participated in the 1934 Nuremberg Rally and later yearly rallies held there got even bigger. The 1935 rally is noted for pronouncements about the status of Jews in Germany. These became known as the Nuremberg Laws which for Jews in Europe would soon become matters of life and death.

In 1936 Riefenstahl qualified as an athlete to represent Germany in cross-country skiing for the Olympics but decided to film the event instead. She also went to Greece to take footage of the games' original site at Olympia, where she was aided by Greek photographer Nelly's. This material became Olympia, a film widely noted for its technical and aesthetic achievements. She was one of the first film makers to use tracking shots in a documentary, placing a camera on rails to follow the athletes' movement. Riefenstahl's work on Olympia has been cited as a major influence in modern sports photography.

World War II

During the Invasion of Poland Leni Riefenstahl was photographed in Poland wearing a military uniform and a pistol on her belt in the company of German soldiers.[5] On 12 September 1939 she was in the town of Końskie when 30 civilians were executed there, in retaliation for an alleged attack on German soldiers. According to her memoir Riefenstahl tried to intervene but a furious German soldier held her at gun point and threatened to shoot her on the spot. Closeup photographs of a distraught Leni survive from that day. By 5 October 1939 Riefenstahl was back in occupied Poland filming Hitler's victory parade in Warsaw.

On June 14, 1940, the day Paris was declared an open city by the French and occupied by German troops, Riefenstahl wrote Hitler in a telegram, "With indescribable joy, deeply moved and filled with burning gratitude, we share with you, my Führer, your and Germany’s greatest victory, the entry of German troops into Paris. You exceed anything human imagination has the power to conceive, achieving deeds without parallel in the history of mankind."[6] Riefenstahl was friends with Hitler for twelve years and reports vary as to whether she ever had an intimate relationship with him.[7]

After the Nuremberg rallies trilogy and Olympia Riefenstahl began work on a feature film based on Hitlers favorite opera, Eugen d'Albert's Tiefland. The German government paid her 7 million reichsmarks in compensation (on Hitler's direct order).[8] From September 23th until November 13th 1940 she filmed in Krün near Mittenwald. For the extras playing Spanish women and farmers, gypsies (Sinti) detained in a camp at Salzburg-Maxglan were forced to work with her. Filming at the Babelsberg Studios near Berlin began almost one and a half year later in April 1942 and lasted well into summer. This time Sinti and Roma from the Marzahn detention camp near Berlin were compelled to work as extras.[9] A surviving document from camp Marzahn shows a list of 65 inmates who were ordered to serve in the production.[10] 50 stills from the filming in Krün near Mittenwald were later found and from these, surviving prisoners were able to identify 29 camp inmates who worked for Riefenstahl and were then deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the first weeks of March 1943 following Himmler's December 1942 decree.[11][12] In October 1944 the production moved to Barrandov Studios in Prague for interior filming. Lavish sets made these shots some of the most costly in the film but they were finished within days. Editing for Tiefland wasn't completed until after the war and the film did not premier until 11 February 1954.

Leni Riefenstahl married Peter Jacob on March 21, 1944 shortly after she introduced him to Hitler in Kitzbühel, Austria but they divorced in 1947.

Post-war detention

After World War II Riefenstahl spent four years in a French detention camp. She was investigated by postwar authorities several times but never convicted, neither for her alleged role as a propagandist nor for the use of concentration camp inmates in her films. Riefenstahl claimed she wasn't aware of the nature of the internment camps and later maintained that she was "fascinated" by the National Socialists but politically naïve and ignorant about any war crimes.[13]

Later life

Riefenstahl attempted to make films after the war but was met with resistance, public protests and sharp criticism. As a result she could not secure funding, but did begin work on a few projects which never came near completion.

In the 1960s she began a lifelong companionship with Horst Kettner who was forty years her junior.

Riefenstahl became a photographer and developed an interest in the Nuba tribe in Sudan where she sporadically lived among them. Her books with photographs of the tribe were published in 1974 and 1976. Pictures taken at a 1971 social event showing a camera-wielding Riefenstahl with rock star Mick Jagger (including one of her snapping a photo of him and his wife Bianca) remain somewhat controversial. Years later she was similarly photographed with Las Vegas entertainers Siegfried and Roy. At age 72 Riefenstahl lied about her age (saying she was 52) to get certified for scuba diving and pursue underwater photography. She survived a helicopter crash in the Sudan in 2000. On August 22, 2002 (her 100th birthday) Riefenstahl released a film called Impressionen unter Wasser (Underwater Impressions), an idealized documentary of life in the oceans.

In 2003 at the age of 101 Riefenstahl married Kettner.[14]

Death

Leni Riefenstahl died in her sleep in the late evening of September 8 2003 at her home in Pöcking, Germany a few weeks after her 101st birthday. She had been suffering from cancer. She was buried in the Ostfriedhof (Eastern Cemetery) in Munich.

In his book The Story of Film film scholar Mark Cousins claims, "Next to Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, Leni Riefenstahl was the most technically talented Western film maker of her era."

Works

Actor

Director

Photographer

  • The Last of the Nuba (Harper, 1974; St. Martin's Press, 1995, ISBN 0-312-13642-0)
  • The People of Kau (Harper, 1976; St. Martin's Press reprint edition, 1997, ISBN 0-312-16963-9)
  • Vanishing Africa (Harmony 1st American edition, 1988, ISBN 0-517-54914-X)
  • Africa (Taschen, 2002, ISBN 3-8228-1616-7)
  • Riefenstahl Olympia (Taschen, 2002, ISBN 3-8228-1945-X)

Author

  • Kampf in Schnee und Eis (Leipzig, 1933)
  • Hinter den Kulissen des Reichsparteitags-Films [15] (München, 1935)
  • Schönheit im olympischen Kampf (Berlin, 1937)
  • Die Nuba (München, 1973)
  • Die Nuba von Kau (München, 1976)
  • Korallengärten (München, 1978)
  • Mein Afrika (München, 1982)
  • Memoiren (München, 1987)
  • Wunder unter Wasser (München, 1990)

In translation:

  • Leni Riefenstahl by Leni Riefenstahl, autobiography (Picador Reprint edition, 1995, ISBN 0-312-11926-7)
  • Coral Gardens by Leni Riefenstahl (Harpercollins 1st U.S. edition, 1978, ISBN 0-06-013591-3)

References

  1. ^ a b Leni Riefenstahl. (1993). The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl [motion picture]. Germany, Africa: Ray Müller.
  2. ^ Leni Riefenstahl, Memoiren, München, 1987
  3. ^ Fraser, J., 'An ambassador for Nazi Germany', Films II/5 (London, April, 1982) 12. He quotes from the Daily Express 24 April 1934.
  4. ^ Interview with Leni Riefenstahl by Ray Müller: The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (DVD), 1993
  5. ^ Riefenstahl in military uniform, image from: Steven Bach (2007). Leni - The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl. [1];Ścinki Taśmy, Polityka, 2003-10-05
  6. ^ Die Neue Rechte, by Kay Sokolowsky, Konkret 3, 1999: "Mit unbeschreiblicher Freude, tief bewegt und erfüllt mit heissem Dank, erleben wir mit Ihnen mein Führer, Ihren und Deutschlands grössten Sieg, den Einzug Deutscher Truppen in Paris. Mehr als jede Vorstellungskraft menschlicher Fantasie vollbringen Sie Taten, die ohnegleichen in der Geschichte der Menschheit sind, wie sollen wir Ihnen nur danken? Glückwünsche auszusprechen, das ist viel zu wenig, um Ihnen die Gefühle auszusprechen, die mich bewegen."
  7. ^ See Infield, Glenn B. Eva and Adolf New York:1974--Grosset and Dunlap (Interviews with former SS officers who had been close to Hitler and Eva Braun)
  8. ^ Jürgen Trimborn : Riefenstahl, Berlin 2002, page. 325
  9. ^ Kein Vergessen, 70. Jahrestag der Errichtung des Zwangslagers für Sinti und Roma in Berlin - Marzahn. [2] The photo on page 13 shows Riefenstahl during the making of the film. See also: Leni Riefenstahl's 'Gypsy Question', by Susan Tegel, in: journal Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Volume 23, Issue 1 March 2003 , pages 3 - 10
  10. ^ Sozialausgleichsabgabe für die Zigeu­ner bei dem Film Tiefland ab 27.4.42
  11. ^ In a decree dated December 16, 1942, Himmler ordered the deportation of Gypsies and part-Gypsies to Auschwitz--Birkenau. See: Sinti and Roma, ed. Hlocaust Museum [3]
  12. ^ Fourteen of them, with concentration camp numbers, were: Robert Adler (Z-5792); Karl Dewüs (Z-4145), Heini Ernst (Z-5696), Wilhelm Ritter (Z-4883), Albrecht Rose (Z-752), Charlotte Rosenberg (Z-5406), Werner Rosenberg (Z-4860), Otto Schmelzer (Z-5448); Karl Steinbach (Z-4875), Ludwig Weisenbach (Z-4857), Hermann Weiß (Z-644), Johann Weiß (Z-643), Willy Zander (Z-5933); Hans Zens (Z-178). Berliner Zeitung, 17.02.2001, Riefenstahls Liste. Zum gedenken an die ermordeten Komparsen, by Reimar Gilsenbach and Otto Rosenberg [4]
  13. ^ Happy Birthday, Leni Riefenstahl
  14. ^ TZ Online, Leni Riefenstahl: Letztes Geheimnis geleftet! retrieved 04 October 2007
  15. ^ Hinter den Kulissen des Reichsparteitags-Films [5] complete online text and photos

Bibliography

  • Leni Riefenstahl Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)
  • Over 1400 references in English, German and French
  • Loiperdinger, Martin/David Culbert: "Leni Riefenstahl, the SA and the Nazi Party Rally Films, Nuremberg 1933-1934: 'Sieg des Glaubens' and 'Triumph des Willens' ", in: Historical Journal of Film and Television, 8/1/1988, S.3-38.
  • Loiperdinger, Martin: "Sieg des Glaubens. Ein gelungenes Experiment nationalsozialistischer Filmpropaganda", in: Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 31/1993, S.35-48.
  • Fabe, Marilyn: Triumph of the Will. The Arrival of Hitler. Notes and Analysis. Mount Vernon/N.Y. 1975.
  • Heinzelmann, Herbert: "Die Heilige Messe des Reichsparteitags. Zur Zeichensprache von Leni Riefenstahls 'Triumph des Willens' ", in: Bernd Organ/Wolfgang W. Weiß: Faszination und Gewalt. Zur politischen Ästhetik des Nationalsozialismus, Nürnberg 1992, o.S.
  • Loiperdinger, Martin/David Culbert: "Leni Riefenstahl, the SA and the Nazi Party Rally Films, Nuremberg 1933-1934: 'Sieg des Glaubens' and 'Triumph des Willens' ", in: Historical Journal of Film and Television, 8/1/1988, S.3-38.
  • Schwartzman, R.J.: Racial Theory and Propaganda in 'Triumph of the Will' ", in: Florida State University on Literatur and Film, 18/1993, S.136-153.
  • Leni Riefenstahl - A Memoir, St. Martin's Press, 1993, ISBN 0-312-09843-X
  • A Portrait of Leni Riefenstahl by Audrey Salkeld, 1996, ISBN 0-7126-7338-5
  • The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, documentary film directed by Ray Müller (1994)
  • Leni Riefenstahl: The fallen film goddess by Glenn B. Infield (Crowell, 1976, ISBN 0-690-01167-9)
  • Leni Riefenstahl: The Seduction of Genius by Rainer Rother, translated by Martin H. Bott (Continuum International Publishing Group reprint edition, 2003, ISBN 0-8264-7023-8)
  • The Films of Leni Riefenstahl by David B. Hinton, Scarecrow Press 3rd edition, 2000, ISBN 1-57886-009-1)
  • Leni Riefenstahl: Five Lives by Angelika Taschen, 2000, ISBN 3-8228-6216-9)
  • Leni Riefenstahl: A Life by Jurgen Trimborn, Translation by Edna McCown, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007, ISBN 0-3741-8493-3
  • Bach, Steven (2007). Leni - The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl. Knopf. , ISBN 0-3754-0400-7

See also

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Films directed by Leni Riefenstahl
Das Blaue Licht (1932) • Der Sieg des Glaubens (1933) • Triumph of the Will (1934) • Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht (1935) • Olympia (1938) • Tiefland (1954) • Underwater Impressions (2002)
Cinema of Germany
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Film chronology • German Empire 1895-1918 • Weimar Germany 1919-1933 • Nazi Germany 1933-1945 • East Germany (1945-1990) • (West) Germany 1945-present
Actors • Directors • Films A-Z • Cinematographers • Festivals • Producers • Composers • Screenwriters


Persondata
NAME Riefenstahl, Leni
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Riefenstahl, Helene Berta Amalie
SHORT DESCRIPTION German film director, dancer and actress
DATE OF BIRTH August 22 1902(1902--)
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin, Germany
DATE OF DEATH September 8 2003
PLACE OF DEATH Berlin, Germany

hsb:Leni Riefenstahl


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