Comprehensive information and links about Leni Riefenstahl

Leni Riefenstahl (August 22, 1902 – September 8, 2003) was a German actress, 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.

table d 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 she took it. Her main interest at first was in fictional films. Her last acting role before moving to directing was in the 1933 film, "Riefenstahl influenced how later movies were made with her innovative filming techniques (here shown during the production of Olympia)." Riefenstahl influenced how later movies were made with her innovative filming techniques (here shown during the production of

She heard Adolf Hitler speak at a rally in 1932 and was mesmerized by his powers as a public speaker. A frustrated artist himself, upon meeting Riefenstahl, Hitler shrewdly saw the chance to hire a vision-shaper who could create the image of a strong, proud Wagnerian Germany radiating beauty, power, strength, and defiance, an image he could sell to the world. During a personal meeting he asked Riefenstahl to make a documentary and in 1933 she directed the short film ), a 60 minute feature about the Nazi party rally at Nuremberg in 1933 (released on DVD in 2003). Reports vary as to whether she ever had a close relationship with Hitler but, impressed with her work, he then asked her to film the upcoming 1934 Party rally in Nuremberg. After initially turning down the project because she did not want to make “a prescribed film," Riefenstahl eventually relented to Hitler’s pressure and accepted the offer. She was given unlimited resources, camera crews, budget, complete artistic control and final cut of the film. was a documentary film glorifying Hitler and widely regarded as one of the most effective pieces of propaganda ever produced. It is generally regarded as a masterful, epic, innovative work of documentary filmmaking but because it was commissioned by the Nazi party and used as propaganda, it is nearly impossible for some to separate the subject from the artist behind it. won many international awards as a ground-breaking and brilliant example of the film-makers art. She went on to make a film about the German Wehrmacht, released in 1935 as and available on DVD).

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 , 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 . 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.

"Riefenstahl used a wide array of cameras, such as this one in Triumph of the Will attached to the flagpole behind Hitler's podium."

Riefenstahl attempted to make films after the war but each attempt was met with resistance, protests, sharp criticisms and an inability to secure funding. 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 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 ), 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 Holocaust denial, citing her age and possible dementia. She had allegedly falsely claimed that "each and every one" of the Roma people which had been drawn from a concentration camp to appear in her film 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, 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.

by Rainer Rother, translated by Martin H. Bott (Continuum International Publishing Group reprint edition, 2003, ISBN 0826470238)Das Blaue Licht: The Art of Leni Riefenstahl Unofficial biographical website endorsed by the Riefenstahl Estate.www.riefenstahl.org - a fanpage, claims the "most accurate and detailed Leni Riefenstahl filmography ... available anywhere.""Leni Riefenstahl: propagandist for the Third Reich by Stefan Steinberg, on World Socialist Web Site published by the Trotskyist International Committee of the Fourth International.""Wherever you may run, you cannot escape him": Leni Riefenstahl's Self-Reflection and Romantic Transcendence of Nazism in