Profile of Leni Riefenstahl on Famous Like Me

Berta Helene Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (August 22, 1902 - September 8, 2003) was a German actor, director and filmmaker widely noted for her aesthetics and advances in film technique. Her most famous works are documentary propaganda films for the German Nazi Party. Rejected by the film industry after World War II, she later became a photographer.

Biography

Dancer and actor

Born in Berlin, Germany Riefenstahl started her career as a self-styled and well-known interpretive dancer. In a 2002 interview she said dancing was what made her truly happy. After injuring a knee she attended a film about mountains and became fascinated with both them and the possibilities of the medium. She went to the Alps for about a year and when she returned, confidentially approached Arnold Fanck, the director of the film she'd seen earlier, asking for a role in his next film. Riefenstahl went on to star in a number of Fanck's bergfilme, presenting herself as an athletic and adventuresome young woman with suggestive appeal. Riefenstahl's career as an actor in silent films was prolific, and she became highly regarded by directors and publicly popular with German film-goers. When presented with the opportunity to direct The Blue Light she took it. Her main interest at first was in fictional films.

Documentary filmmaker

She heard Adolf Hitler speak at a rally in 1932 and, mesmerized by his powers as a public speaker, offered her services as a filmmaker. In 1933 she directed a short film about a Nazi party meeting. Hitler then asked her to film the Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg in 1934. She refused, suggesting Hitler ask Walter Ruttmann to film it instead. Riefenstahl later consented and made Triumph of the Will, a documentary film glorifying Hitler and widely regarded as one of the most effective pieces of propaganda ever produced, although Riefenstahl claimed she intended it only as a documentary. She went on to make a film about the German Wehrmacht, released in 1935 as Tag der Freiheit (Day of Freedom and available on DVD). Reports vary as to whether she ever had a close relationship with Hitler.

In 1936 Riefenstahl qualified as an athlete to represent Germany in cross-country skiing for the Olympics but decided to film the event instead. This material became Olympia, a film widely noted for its technical and aesthetic achievements. She was the first to put a camera on rails, in this case to shoot the stadium crowd. Riefenstahl's achievements in the making of Olympia have proved to be a major influence in modern sportscasting.

After World War II she spent four years in a French detention camp. There were accusations she had used concentration camp inmates on her film sets but those claims were not proved in court. Being unable to prove any culpable support of the Nazis, the court called her a sympathizer. In later interviews Riefenstahl maintained she was fascinated by the Nazis but politically naïve and ignorant about their atrocities, a position many of her critics dismiss out of hand.

Post war career and legacy

Riefenstahl attempted to make films after the war but each attempt was met with resistance, protests, sharp criticisms and an inability to secure funding. If she did make any films they would have been short and personally funded (however, none seem to exist). She became a photographer and was later the first to photograph rock star Mick Jagger and his wife Bianca Jagger as a couple holding hands after they were married, as they were both admirers of her. Jagger told Riefenstahl he had seen her movie Triumph of the Will at least 15 times.

Later she became interested in the Nuba tribe in Sudan. Her books with photographs of the tribe were published in 1974 and 1976. She survived a helicopter crash in the Sudan in 2000.

In her late 70s Riefenstahl lied about her age to get certified for scuba diving and started a career in underwater photography. She released a new film titled Impressionen unter Wasser (Underwater Impressions), an idealized documentary on life in the oceans, on her hundredth birthday - August 22, 2002.

In October 2002, when Riefenstahl was 100, German authorities decided to drop a case against her for falsely claiming that "each and every one" of the Roma people which had been drawn from a concentration camp to appear in her film Tiefland had survived the war. A Gypsy group had filed the case, claiming she used them for the film and sent them back when she no longer needed them. In addition to Riefenstahl having signed a withdrawal of her claim, the prosecutor cited Riefenstahl's considerable age as a reason for dropping further action.

Leni Riefenstahl died in her sleep on September 8, 2003, at her home in Pöcking in Germany a few weeks after her 101st birthday. She had been suffering from cancer. In her obituaries Riefenstahl was said to be the last famous figure of Germany's Nazi era to die.

Riefenstahl is renowned in film history for developing new aesthetics in film, especially in relation to nude bodies. While the propaganda value of her early films repels critics, their aesthetics are cited by many filmmakers as outstanding.

Works

Actor

• Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit - Ein Film über moderne Körperkultur (Ways to Strength and Beauty, 1926)
• Der Heilige Berg (The Holy Mountain, 1926)
• Der Große Sprung (The Great Leap, 1927)
• Das Schicksal derer von Habsburg (The Destiny of the Habsburgs, 1928)
• Der Weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü (The White Hell of Pitz Palu, 1929)
• Stürme über dem Mont Blanc (Storm Over Mont Blanc, 1930)
• Der Weiße Rausch (The White Flame, 1931)
• Das Blaue Licht (The Blue Light, 1932)
• SOS Eisberg (SOS Iceberg, 1933)
• Tiefland (Lowlands, 1954)

Director

• Das Blaue Licht (The Blue Light, 1932)
• Der Sieg des Glaubens (Victory of Faith, 1933)
• Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will 1934)
• Tag der Freiheit - Unsere Wehrmacht (Day of Freedom, 1935)
• Olympia (Part 1 known as Festival of the Nations, Part 2 as Festival of Beauty, 1938)
• Tiefland (Lowlands, 1954)
• Impressionen unter Wasser (Underwater Impressions, 2002)

Photographer

• The Last of the Nuba (Harper, 1974; St. Martin's Press, 1995, ISBN 0312136420)
• The People of Kau (Harper, 1976; St. Martin's Press reprint edition, 1997, ISBN 0312169639)
• Vanishing Africa (Harmony 1st American edition, 1988, ISBN 051754914X)
• Africa (Taschen, 2002, ISBN 3822816167)
• Riefenstahl Olympia (Taschen, 2002, ISBN 382281945X)

Author

• Leni Riefenstahl by Leni Riefenstahl, autobiography (Picador Reprint edition, 1995, ISBN 0312119267)
• Coral Gardens by Leni Riefenstahl (Harpercollins 1st U.S. edition, 1978, ISBN 0060135913)

Tributes

In 1998, the VAWS (Verlag und Agentur Werner Symanek) record label released a tribute double CD titled Riefenstahl , featuring such artists as Strength Through Joy, Death In June, and Von Thronstahl.

Bibliographies

• Leni Riefenstahl Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)

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