Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (ˈʁiːfənʃtaːl; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
film directorA film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, actress and dancer widely noted for her
aestheticsAesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was
Triumph des WillensTriumph of the Will is a propaganda film made by Leni Riefenstahl. It chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 Nazi supporters. The film contains excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi leaders at the Congress, including portions of...
(
Triumph of the Will), a
propaganda filmThe term propaganda can be defined as the ability to produce and spread fertile messages that, once sown, will germinate in large human cultures.” However, in the 20th century, a “new” propaganda emerged, which revolved around political organizations and their need to communicate messages that...
made at the 1934
NurembergNuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
congress of the Nazi Party. Riefenstahl's prominence in the Third Reich along with her personal friendship with
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
thwarted her film career following Germany's defeat in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, after which she was arrested but released without any charges.
Triumph of the Will gave Riefenstahl instant and lasting international fame, as well as infamy. Although she directed only eight films, just two of which received significant coverage outside of Germany, Riefenstahl was widely known all her life. The propaganda value of her films made during the 1930s repels most modern commentators but many film histories cite the
aestheticsAesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
as outstanding.
The EconomistThe Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
wrote that
Triumph of the Will "sealed her reputation as the greatest female filmmaker of the 20th century".
In the 1970s Riefenstahl published her still
photographyPhotography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
of the
NubaNuba is a collective term used here for the peoples who inhabit the Nuba Mountains, in Sudan, Africa. Although the term is used to describe them as if they composed a single group, the Nuba are multiple distinct peoples and speak different languages...
tribes in Sudan in several books such as
The Last of the NubaThe Last of the Nuba is the English-language title of German film director Leni Riefenstahl's 1973 Die Nuba, an illustrations book published a year later in the United States...
. She was active up until her death and also published marine life stills and released the marine-based film
Impressionen unter WasserImpressionen unter Wasser is a documentary film released in 2002. It was directed by Leni Riefenstahl....
in 2002.
After her death, the
Associated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
described Riefenstahl as an "acclaimed pioneer of film and photographic techniques".
Der Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin noted, "Leni Riefenstahl conquered new ground in the cinema". The
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
said her documentaries "were hailed as groundbreaking film-making, pioneering techniques involving cranes, tracking rails, and many cameras working at the same time".
Early life
Riefenstahl was born in August 1902. She was christened Helene Bertha Amalie. She was born into a prosperous family. Her father owned a successful heating and ventilation company and he wanted her to follow him into the world of business. However, her mother believed that Leni's future was in show business. In 1918, when she was 16, she started dance and ballet classes at the Grimm-Reiter Dance School in Berlin, where she quickly became a star pupil.
Riefenstahl gained a reputation on Berlin's dance circuit and she quickly moved into films. She made a series of films for
Arnold FanckArnold Fanck was a pioneer of the German mountain film....
, and one of them,
The White Hell of Pitz PaluThe White Hell of Pitz Palu is a 1929 silent mountain film directed by Arnold Fanck and Georg Wilhelm Pabst and starring future filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl and World War I flying ace Ernst Udet.-Plot:...
(1929), co-directed by G. W. Pabst, saw her fame spread to countries outside of Germany. Riefenstahl produced and directed her own work called
Das Blaue LichtDas Blaue Licht is a black-and-white 1932 film written and directed by Leni Riefenstahl and Béla Balázs, with uncredited scripting by Carl Mayer. In Riefenstahl's film version, the witch, Junta, played by Riefenstahl, is intended to be a sympathetic character...
(1932), co-written by
Carl MayerCarl Mayer was an Austrian screenplay writer who wrote or co-wrote the screenplays to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Haunted Castle , Der Letzte Mann , Tartuffe , Sunrise and 4 Devils , the last five being films directed by F. W...
and
Béla Balázs----Béla Balázs , born Herbert Bauer, was a Hungarian-Jewish film critic, aesthete, writer and poet....
. This film won the Silver Medal at the
Venice Film FestivalThe Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
. In the film, Riefenstahl played a peasant girl who protected a glowing mountain grotto. The film attracted the attention of Hitler, who believed she epitomized the perfect German female.
Dancer and actress
Riefenstahl took dancing lessons and attended dance academies from an early age and began her career as a self-styled and well-known
interpretive danceInterpretive dance is a family of dance styles that seeks to translates particular feelings and emotions, human conditions, situations, or fantasies into movement and dramatic expression combined...
r, traveling around
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and working with director
Max Reinhardt----Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theater and film director and actor.-Biography:...
in a show funded by Jewish producer Harry Sokal. After injuring her knee while performing in
PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, she saw a nature film about mountains (der Berg des Schicksals, 1924) and became fascinated with the possibilities of this sort of film. She went to the
AlpsThe Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
to meet the film's director,
Arnold FanckArnold Fanck was a pioneer of the German mountain film....
, hoping to secure the lead in his next project. Instead, Riefenstahl met Luis Trenker who had starred in Fanck's films, who wrote to the director about her.
Riefenstahl went on to star in many of Fanck's
mountain filmA mountain film is a film genre that focuses on mountaineering and especially the battle of man against nature. In addition to mere adventure, the protagonists who return from the mountain come back changed, usually gaining wisdom and enlightenment....
s as an athletic and adventurous young woman with a suggestive appeal; she became an accomplished mountaineer during the winters of filming on mountains and learned filmmaking techniques. Riefenstahl went on to have a prolific career as an actress in
silent filmA silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
s. She was popular with the German public and highly regarded by directors. In 1930, she lost the lead role in the
Josef von SternbergJosef von Sternberg — born Jonas Sternberg — was an Austrian-American film director. He is particularly noted for his distinctive mise en scène, use of lighting and soft lens, and seven-film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich.-Youth:Von Sternberg was born Jonas Sternberg to a Jewish...
-directed
The Blue Angel to her neighbor,
Marlene DietrichMarlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
. Her last acting role before becoming a director was the 1933 U.S.-German co-productions of the Arnold Fanck-directed, German-language
SOS Eisberg and the
Tay GarnettTay Garnett was an American film director and writer.Born in Los Angeles, California, Garnett served as a naval aviator in World War I and entered films as a screenwriter in 1920. He was a gagwriter for Mack Sennett and Hal Roach, then joined Pathé and began to direct films in 1928...
-directed,
English-languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
SOS Iceberg. The movies were filmed simultaneously and produced and distributed by
Universal StudiosUniversal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
.
SOS Iceberg was Riefenstahl's only English-language film role as an actress. One of her fans at this time was
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. Riefenstahl accompanied Fanck to the
1928 Olympic GamesThe 1928 Winter Olympics, officially known as the II Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated February 11–19, 1928 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The 1928 Games were the first true Winter Olympics held on its own as they were not in conjunction with a Summer Olympics...
in
St. MoritzSt. Moritz is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden...
, where she became interested in athletic photography and filming.
When presented with the opportunity to direct
Das Blaue LichtDas Blaue Licht is a black-and-white 1932 film written and directed by Leni Riefenstahl and Béla Balázs, with uncredited scripting by Carl Mayer. In Riefenstahl's film version, the witch, Junta, played by Riefenstahl, is intended to be a sympathetic character...
(The Blue Light) (1932), she took it. Breaking from Fanck's style of setting realistic stories in fairytale mountain settings, Riefenstahl—working with leftist screen writers
Béla Balázs----Béla Balázs , born Herbert Bauer, was a Hungarian-Jewish film critic, aesthete, writer and poet....
and
Carl MayerCarl Mayer was an Austrian screenplay writer who wrote or co-wrote the screenplays to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Haunted Castle , Der Letzte Mann , Tartuffe , Sunrise and 4 Devils , the last five being films directed by F. W...
—filmed
Das Blaue Licht as a romantic, wholly mystical tale which she thought of as more fitting to the terrain. She co-wrote, directed and starred in the film and produced it under the banner of her own company, Leni Riefenstahl Productions.
Das Blaue Licht won the Silver Medal at the
Venice BiennaleThe Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
and played to full audiences all over Europe. However, it was not universally well-received, for which Riefenstahl blamed the critics, many of them Jewish. Upon its 1938 re-release, the names of co-writer
Béla Balázs----Béla Balázs , born Herbert Bauer, was a Hungarian-Jewish film critic, aesthete, writer and poet....
and producer Harry Sokal, both Jewish, were removed from the credits; some reports claim this was at Riefenstahl's behest. The director later turned over the name of her Jewish co-screenwriter to Nazi Propagandist
Julius StreicherJulius Streicher was a prominent Nazi prior to World War II. He was the founder and publisher of Der Stürmer newspaper, which became a central element of the Nazi propaganda machine...
. Riefenstahl received invitations to travel to Hollywood to create films, but she refused the offers in order to stay in Germany with a boyfriend.
Propaganda/documentariesThe term propaganda can be defined as the ability to produce and spread fertile messages that, once sown, will germinate in large human cultures.” However, in the 20th century, a “new” propaganda emerged, which revolved around political organizations and their need to communicate messages that...
Riefenstahl heard candidate Adolf Hitler speak at a rally in 1932 and was mesmerized by his talent as a public speaker. Describing the experience in her memoir, 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".
According to the
Daily Express of April 24, 1934, Leni Riefenstahl had read
Mein KampfMein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
during the making of her film
The Blue Light. This newspaper article quotes her as having commented, "The book made a tremendous impression on me. I became a confirmed National Socialist after reading the first page. I felt a man who could write such a book would undoubtedly lead Germany. I felt very happy that such a man had come". She wrote to Hitler requesting a meeting.
After meeting with Hitler she was offered the opportunity to direct
Sieg des Glaubens, an hour-long feature film about the fifth Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg in 1933. Riefenstahl agreed to direct the movie after returning from filming a movie in Greenland.
Impressed with Riefenstahl's work, Hitler asked her to film the upcoming 1934 Party rally in Nuremberg, the sixth such rally. At first, according to Riefenstahl's memoir, she resisted and did not want to create further Nazi films; instead, she wanted to direct a feature film based on Hitler's favorite opera,
Eugen d'AlbertEugen Francis Charles d'Albert was a Scottish-born German pianist and composer.Educated in Britain, d'Albert showed early musical talent and, at the age of seventeen, he won a scholarship to study in Austria...
's
TieflandTiefland is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Eugen d'Albert, to a libretto in German by Rudolph Lothar. Based on the 1896 Catalan play Terra baixa by Àngel Guimerà, Tiefland was d'Albert's seventh opera, and is the one which is now the best known.-Performance history:Tiefland was first...
. Riefenstahl received private funding for the production of
Tiefland, but the filming in Spain was derailed. Hitler was able to convince her to film
Triumph instead, on the condition that she not be required to make further films for the party. She also told Hitler she wanted the freedom to act again: "I would not be able to go on living if I had to give up acting".
The resulting chronicle of the Nuremberg Rally,
Triumph des Willens (named by Hitler), was generally recognized as a masterful, epic, innovative work of documentary filmmaking.
Triumph of the Will became a rousing success in Germany. It made Riefenstahl the first female film director to achieve international recognition.
In interviews for the 1993 film
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni RiefenstahlThe Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl is a 1993 German documentary film about the life of German film director Leni Riefenstahl, directed by Ray Müller.-Production background:...
, Riefenstahl adamantly denied any deliberate attempt to create pro-Nazi propaganda and said she was disgusted that
Triumph of the Will was used in such a way.
Despite vowing not to make any more films about the Nazi Party, in 1935, Riefenstahl made the 18-minute
Day of Freedom: Armed Forces about the German army. Like
Victory of Faith and
Triumph of the Will this was filmed at the annual Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg. Riefenstahl never denied making this short 18 minute film. However she always claimed this film was a sub-set of "Triumph of the Will" added to mollify the German army which felt it was not represented well in the 1934 filming of "Triumph of the Will". Over a million Germans had participated in the 1934 rally in Nuremberg. Later, yearly rallies held in Nuremberg got even bigger. The 1935 rally is noted for pronouncements about the status of Jews in Germany. These became known as the
Nuremberg LawsThe Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism...
which for Jews in Europe would soon become matters of life and death.
In 1936, Hitler invited Riefenstahl to film the Olympic Games in Berlin, a film which Riefenstahl claimed had been commissioned by the International Olympic Committee. She also went to Greece to take footage of the games' original site at Olympia, where she was aided by Greek photographer Nelly. This material became
OlympiaOlympia is a 1938 Nazi propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. The film was released in two parts: Olympia 1. Teil — Fest der Völker and Olympia 2. Teil — Fest der Schönheit . It was the first documentary feature...
, a successful film which has since been widely noted for its technical and aesthetic achievements. She was one of the first filmmakers to use tracking shots in a documentary, placing a camera on rails to follow the athletes' movement, and she is noted for the slow motion shots included in the film. Riefenstahl's work on
Olympia has been cited as a major influence in modern sports photography. Riefenstahl filmed competitors of all races, including African-American
Jesse OwensJames Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprints and the long jump. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the...
in what would later become famous footage.
Olympia was very successful in Germany after it premiered for Hitler's 49th birthday in 1938, and its international debut led Riefenstahl to embark on an American publicity tour in an attempt to secure commercial release. In 1937, Riefenstahl told a reporter for the
Detroit News: "To me, Hitler is the greatest man who ever lived. He truly is without fault, so simple and at the same time possessed of masculine strength". She arrived in New York City in November 1938, five days before
KristallnachtKristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
, or 'night of broken glass'; when news of the event reached America, Riefenstahl maintained that Hitler was innocent. On November 18, she was received by
Henry FordHenry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...
in Detroit and
Olympia was shown at "The Chicago Engineers Club" two days later.
Avery BrundageAvery Brundage was an American amateur athlete, sports official, art collector, and philanthropist. Brundage competed in the 1912 Olympics and was the US national all-around athlete in 1914, 1916 and 1918...
stated that it was "The greatest Olympic film ever made" and Riefenstahl left for Hollywood, where she was received by the German Consul
Georg GysslingGeorg Gyssling was a German bobsledder who competed in the early 1930s. He finished seventh and last in the four-man event at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York....
, on November 24. She negotiated with
Louis B. MayerLouis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
and on December 8,
Walt DisneyWalter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
brought her on a three hour tour showing her the on-going production of
FantasiaFantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
.
After the
Goebbels DiariesJoseph Goebbels, a leading member of the German National Socialist Party and Propaganda Minister in Adolf Hitler's government from 1933 to 1945, kept a diary from 1923, when he was an unemployed ex-student with no interest in politics, until shortly before his death by suicide in Berlin on 1 May 1945...
surfaced, researchers learned that Riefenstahl had been friendly with
Joseph GoebbelsPaul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
and his wife,
MagdaJohanna Maria Magdalena "Magda" Goebbels was the wife of Nazi Germany's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels...
, attending the
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
with them and coming to the Goebbels' parties. However, Riefenstahl maintained that Goebbels was upset that she had rejected his advances and was jealous of her influence on Hitler, seeing her as an internal threat; therefore, his diaries could not be trusted. By later accounts, Goebbels thought highly of Riefenstahl's filmmaking but was angered with what he saw as her overspending on the Nazi-provided filmmaking budgets.
World War II
During the
Invasion of PolandThe Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
, Riefenstahl was photographed in Poland wearing a military uniform and a pistol on her belt in the company of German soldiers; she had gone to the site of the battle as a war correspondent. On 12 September 1939 she was in the town of
KońskieKońskie is a town in central Poland with 20,328 inhabitants , situated in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship , previously in Kielce Voivodeship . Most of the town labour force was employed in the local foundry in the late 80s and early 90s...
when 30 civilians were executed there, in retaliation for an alleged attack on German soldiers. According to her
memoirA memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
, Riefenstahl tried to intervene but a furious German soldier held her at gunpoint and threatened to shoot her on the spot. She claimed she did not realize the victims were Jews. Closeup photographs of a distraught Riefenstahl survive from that day. Nevertheless, by 5 October 1939, Riefenstahl was back in occupied Poland filming Hitler's victory parade in Warsaw. She left Poland and apparently chose not to make any Nazi-related movies after this, however.
On 14 June 1940, the day
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
was declared an
open cityIn war, in the event of the imminent capture of a city, the government/military structure of the nation that controls the city will sometimes declare it an open city, thus announcing that they have abandoned all defensive efforts....
by the French and occupied by German troops, Riefenstahl wrote to 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. How can we ever thank you?" She later explained: "Everyone thought the war was over, and in that
spirit I sent the cable to Hitler". Riefenstahl was friends with Hitler for 12 years, and reports vary as to whether she ever had an intimate relationship with him. According to
Ernst HanfstaenglErnst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl , was a Harvard-educated German businessman who was an intimate of Adolf Hitler before falling out of favor and defecting. He later worked for Franklin D...
, who was a close friend of Hitler throughout the later 1920s and early 1930s, Riefenstahl tried to begin a relationship with Hitler early on but was turned down by him. For whatever reason, her relationship with Hitler had declined by 1944, when her brother Heinz died on the Russian Front of the war.
After the Nuremberg rallies trilogy and
Olympia, Riefenstahl began work on the movie she had tried and failed to direct once before,
TieflandTiefland is a 1954 film that Leni Riefenstahl scripted, directed, acted in, and edited. It was produced by Leni Riefenstahl and Josef Plesner. It is based on the opera Tiefland and the original play Terra baixa by Àngel Guimerà...
. On Hitler's direct order the German government paid her 7 million reichsmarks in compensation. From 23 September until 13 November 1940 she filmed in
KrünKrün is a municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria, Germany....
near
MittenwaldMittenwald is a German municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria.-Geography:Mittenwald is located approx. 16 kilometers to the south-east of Garmisch-Partenkirchen...
. The extras playing Spanish women and farmers were drawn from gypsies (
SintiSinti or Sinta or Sinte is the name of a Romani or Gypsy population in Europe. Traditionally nomadic, today only a small percentage of the group remains unsettled...
) detained in a camp at
Salzburg-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
-Maxglan who were forced to work with her. Filming at the
Babelsberg StudiosThe Studio Babelsberg, located in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. Founded in 1912, it covers an area of about . Hundreds of films, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel were filmed there...
near
BerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
began 18 months later in April 1942 and lasted into summer. This time
SintiSinti or Sinta or Sinte is the name of a Romani or Gypsy population in Europe. Traditionally nomadic, today only a small percentage of the group remains unsettled...
and Roma from the
MarzahnMarzahn is a locality within the borough of Marzahn-Hellersdorf in Berlin. Berlin's 2001 administrative reform led to the former boroughs of Marzahn and Hellersdorf fusing into a single new borough...
detention camp near
BerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
were compelled to work as extras. A surviving document from camp
MarzahnMarzahn is a locality within the borough of Marzahn-Hellersdorf in Berlin. Berlin's 2001 administrative reform led to the former boroughs of Marzahn and Hellersdorf fusing into a single new borough...
shows a list of 65 inmates who were ordered to serve in the production. 50 stills from the filming in
KrünKrün is a municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria, Germany....
near
MittenwaldMittenwald is a German municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria.-Geography:Mittenwald is located approx. 16 kilometers to the south-east of Garmisch-Partenkirchen...
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. To the end of her life, despite overwhelming evidence that concentration camp occupants had been forced to work on the movie unpaid, Riefenstahl continued to maintain all the film extras survived and that she had met them after the war. Riefenstahl sued a filmmaker, Nina Gladitz, who said Riefenstahl personally chose the extras at their holding camp; Gladitz had found one of the Gypsy survivors and matched his memory with stills of the movie for a documentary Gladitz was filming. The German court found for Gladitz, agreeing that Riefenstahl had known the extras were from a concentration camp, and they agreed with Riefenstahl on only one count (finding that Riefenstahl had not informed the Gypsies that they would be sent to the Auschwitz camp after filming was completed).
After similar statements made by Riefenstahl were objected to by Roma groups in Germany, on her 100th birthday the
FrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
prosecutor's office opened an investigation into whether Riefenstahl had
denied the HolocaustHolocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
. This issue came up again in 2002, when Riefenstahl was one hundred years old and she was taken to court by a Roma group for denying the Nazis had exterminated gypsies. Riefenstahl apologized, saying, "I regret that Sinti & Roma had to suffer during the period of National Socialism. It is known today that many of them were murdered in concentration camps".
The last time Riefenstahl saw Hitler was when she married Peter Jacob on 21 March 1944, shortly after she had introduced Jacob to Hitler in Kitzbühel, Austria. Riefenstahl and Jacob divorced in 1946.
In October 1944 the production of
Tiefland moved to
Barrandov StudiosBarrandov Studios is a famous set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe.Several of the movies filmed there won Academy Awards...
in
PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
for interior filming. Lavish sets made these shots some of the most costly in the film but they were finished within days. The film was not edited and released until almost 10 years later.
As Germany's military collapsed in the spring of 1945 Riefenstahl left Berlin and was
hitchhikingHitchhiking is a means of transportation that is gained by asking people, usually strangers, for a ride in their automobile or other road vehicle to travel a distance that may either be short or long...
with a group of men, trying to reach her mother, when she was taken into custody by American troops. She walked out of a holding camp, beginning a series of escapes and arrests across the chaotic landscape. At last making it back home on a bicycle, she found that American troops had seized her house, then was surprised by how kindly they treated her.
Detention and trials
Writer
Budd SchulbergBudd Schulberg was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his 1941 novel, What Makes Sammy Run?, his 1947 novel The Harder They Fall, his 1954 Academy-award-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront, and his 1957 screenplay for A Face in the...
, assigned by the US Navy to the OSS for intelligence work while attached to John Ford's documentary unit, was ordered to arrest Riefenstahl at her chalet in Kitzbühel, Austria, ostensibly to have her identify the faces of Nazi war criminals in German film footage captured by the Allied troops. Riefenstahl claimed she was not aware of the nature of the internment camps. According to Schulberg, "She gave me the usual song and dance. She said, 'Of course, you know, I'm really so misunderstood. I'm not political.'" However, when Riefenstahl later claimed she had been forced to follow Goebbels' orders under threat of being sent to a concentration camp, Schulberg asked her why she should have been afraid if she did not know concentration camps existed. When shown photographs of the camps, Riefenstahl reportedly reacted with horror and tears.
Riefenstahl continued to maintain she was "fascinated" by the National Socialists but politically naïve and ignorant about any war crimes. From 1945 through 1948 she was held in sundry American and French-run detention camps and prisons along with house arrest but although Riefenstahl was tried four times by various postwar authorities, she was never convicted through "
denazificationDenazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
" trials either for her alleged role as a propagandist or for the use of concentration camp inmates in her films. However, she was found to be a "fellow traveler" who was sympathetic to the Nazis.
Riefenstahl later said that her biggest regret was meeting Hitler: "It was the biggest catastrophe of my life. Until the day I die people will keep saying, 'Leni is a Nazi', and I'll keep saying, 'But what did she do?'" She won more than 50 libel cases against people accusing her of knowledge having to do with Nazi crimes.
Thwarted film projects
Most of the negatives for Riefenstahl's finished films and other production materials relating to her unfinished projects were lost towards the end of the war. The French government confiscated all of her editing equipment, along with the production reels of
TieflandTiefland is a 1954 film that Leni Riefenstahl scripted, directed, acted in, and edited. It was produced by Leni Riefenstahl and Josef Plesner. It is based on the opera Tiefland and the original play Terra baixa by Àngel Guimerà...
. After years of legal wrangling these were returned to her, but the French government had reportedly damaged some of the film stock whilst trying to develop and edit it and a few key scenes were missing (although Riefenstahl was surprised to find the original negatives for
Olympia in the same shipment). She edited and dubbed what elements were left and
Tiefland premiered on 11 February 1954 in
StuttgartStuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, however, it was denied entry into the
Cannes Film FestivalThe Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. Although Riefenstahl lived for almost another half century,
Tiefland was her last feature film.
Riefenstahl tried many times (15 by her count) to make films during the 1950s and 1960s but was met with resistance, public protests and sharp criticism. Many of her filmmaking peers in Hollywood had fled Nazi Germany and were unsympathetic to her. Although both film professionals and investors were willing to support her work, most of the projects she attempted were stopped owing to ever-renewed and highly negative publicity about her past work for the Third Reich. In 1956, inspired by
Ernest HemingwayErnest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
's 1935 novel
Green Hills of AfricaGreen Hills of Africa is a 1935 work of nonfiction written by Ernest Hemingway . Hemingway's second work of nonfiction, Green Hills of Africa is an account of a month on safari he and his wife, Pauline Marie Pfeiffer, took in East Africa during December 1933...
, she began an ambitious film project in
AfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
drawn from another novel called
Schwarze Fracht (
Black Freight). Whilst scouting shooting locations, she almost died from injuries received in a truck accident. After waking up from a
comaIn medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
in a
NairobiNairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
hospital, she finished writing the script there, but was soon thoroughly thwarted by uncooperative locals, the
Suez Canal crisisThe Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
and bad weather (only test shots were ever made).
In 1954,
Jean CocteauJean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
insisted on
Tiefland being shown at the
Cannes Film FestivalThe Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
, which he was running that year. Cocteau greatly admired the film. In 1960, Riefenstahl unsuccessfully attempted to prevent filmmaker
Erwin LeiserErwin Leiser was a German-born director, writer, and actor.Born and raised in Berlin, he fled to Sweden when 15 to escape the Nazis...
from juxtaposing scenes from
Triumph of the Will with footage from concentration camps in his film
Mein Kampf. Riefenstahl had high hopes for a collaboration with Cocteau called
Friedrich und Voltaire, wherein Cocteau was to play two roles. They thought the film might symbolize the "love-hate relationship" between Germany and France. Cocteau's illness and 1963 death put an end to this project. A musical remake of
The Blue Light with
L. Ron HubbardLafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
and Philip Hudsmith also fell through.
Photography and final film
In the 1960s, Riefenstahl became interested in Africa from Hemingway's book and from the photographs of
George RodgerGeorge Rodger was a British photojournalist noted for his work in Africa and for taking the first photographs of the death camps at Bergen-Belsen at the end of the Second World War....
. Rodger, who had taken the first photographs of the
Bergen-BelsenBergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
concentration camp, refused to help Riefenstahl meet Africans, citing their respective backgrounds. Riefenstahl took up
photography, documenting a diverse array of subjects. She traveled many times to Africa to photograph the
NubaNuba is a collective term used here for the peoples who inhabit the Nuba Mountains, in Sudan, Africa. Although the term is used to describe them as if they composed a single group, the Nuba are multiple distinct peoples and speak different languages...
tribes in
SudanSudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, with whom she sporadically lived, learning about their culture so she could photograph them more easily. They readily accepted her since they knew nothing of her past. She began a lifelong companionship with her cameraman Horst Kettner, who was 40 years her junior and assisted her with the photographs; they were together from the time she was 60 and he was 20. She was granted Sudanese citizenship for her services to the country, becoming the first foreigner to receive a Sudanese passport.
Her books with photographs of the tribes were published in 1974 and 1976 as
The Last of the NubaThe Last of the Nuba is the English-language title of German film director Leni Riefenstahl's 1973 Die Nuba, an illustrations book published a year later in the United States...
and
The People of KauThe People of Kau is the title of the 1976 English-language translation of German film director Leni Riefenstahl's Die Nuba von Kau , an illustrations book published in the same year in Germany...
and were both international
bestsellerA bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...
s. While heralded by many as outstanding colour photographs, they were harshly criticized by
Susan SontagSusan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
, who claimed in a review that they were further evidence of Riefenstahl's "fascist aesthetics". The Art Director's Club of Germany awarded Leni a gold medal for the best photographic achievement of 1975. She also sold the pictures to German magazines. She photographed the
1972 Olympic GamesThe 1972 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from August 26 to September 11, 1972....
in Munich and rock star
Mick JaggerSir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
and his wife
BiancaBianca Jagger is a Nicaraguan-born social and human rights advocate and a former actress and model...
for the
Sunday Times. Years later she photographed
Las VegasThe Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...
entertainers Siegfried and Roy. She befriended
Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
and was a Guest of Honour at the
1976 Olympic GamesThe 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1976. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games on May 12, 1970, at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam, over the bids of Moscow and...
in
MontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
.
In her later years, Riefenstahl became known for her longevity and physical stamina, although she often suffered considerable pain from old injuries. At age 72, Riefenstahl began pursuing
underwater photographyUnderwater photography is the process of taking photographs while under water. It is usually done while scuba diving, but can be done while snorkeling or swimming.-Overview:...
after lying about her age to gain certification for
scuba divingScuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
(she cut 20 years off her age). In 1978, she published a book of her below-water photographs,
Korallengärten (Coral Gardens) followed by the 1990 book;
Wunder unter Wasser (Wonder under Water). On August 22, 2002, her 100th birthday, Riefenstahl released a film called
Impressionen unter WasserImpressionen unter Wasser is a documentary film released in 2002. It was directed by Leni Riefenstahl....
(
Underwater Impressions), an idealized documentary of life in the oceans and her first film in over 25 years. At age 100, she was still photographing marine life and gained the distinction of being the world's oldest scuba diver. Riefenstahl was a member of
GreenpeaceGreenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
for 8 years.
She survived a
helicopterA helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
crash in Sudan in 2000 while trying to learn the fates of her Nuba friends during the Sudanese civil war and was airlifted to a Munich hospital.
Second marriage and death
Riefenstahl celebrated her 101st birthday on August 22, 2003 and married Horst Kettner
Leni Riefenstahl died in her sleep on the late evening of September 8, 2003 at her home in
PöckingPöcking is a municipality in the district of Starnberg in Bavaria in Germany. Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria, consort of Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria-Hungary, grew up here in the Possenhofen Castle as daughter of Duke Max in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria. Otto von Habsburg, Crown...
, Germany. She had been suffering from
cancerCancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
. She was buried in
Munich's Waldfriedhof cemeteryThe Munich Waldfriedhof is one of 29 cemeteries of Munich in Bavaria, Germany. It is one of the larger and more famous burial sites of the city due to its park like design and tombs of notable personalities. The Waldfriedhof is widely considered the first woodland cemetery.-Description:The Munich...
.
There was varied response in the obituary pages of leading publications, although most recognised her technical breakthroughs in film making:
The Daily Telegraph wrote that she
The IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
wrote that
Views of critics
In his book
The Story of Film, film scholar Mark Cousins claims, "Next to
Orson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
and
Alfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, Leni Riefenstahl was the most technically talented Western film maker of her era".
Reviewer Gary Morris called Riefenstahl "an artist of unparalleled gifts, a woman in an industry dominated by men, one of the great formalists of the cinema on a par with
EisensteinSergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage"...
or
WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
".
Pauline KaelPauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
called
Triumph and
Olympia "the two greatest films ever directed by a woman".
Film biographies
In 1993, she was the subject of the acclaimed German documentary film
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni RiefenstahlThe Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl is a 1993 German documentary film about the life of German film director Leni Riefenstahl, directed by Ray Müller.-Production background:...
, directed by Ray Müller. Riefenstahl appeared in the film and answered several questions and detailed the production of her films. She was also the subject of Müller's 2000 documentary film
Leni Riefenstahl: Her Dream of AfricaLeni Riefenstahl: Her Dream of Africa is a 2000 documentary-film by Ray Müller. The film follows Leni Riefenstahl's return to Sudan to visit the Nuba tribe whom she published photographs of in best-sellers such as The Last of the Nuba and The People of Kau. It is the second collaboration between...
, documenting her return to
SudanSudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
to visit the
NubaNuba is a collective term used here for the peoples who inhabit the Nuba Mountains, in Sudan, Africa. Although the term is used to describe them as if they composed a single group, the Nuba are multiple distinct peoples and speak different languages...
.
The Guardian reported in April 2007 that British screenwriter Rupert Walters was writing a movie based on Riefenstahl's life which would star actress
Jodie FosterAlicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
. The project had been in the works for more than seven years under the working title
The Leni Riefenstahl Project. The project is co-produced by Primary Pictures and Foster's own Egg Pictures. Foster said in 1999, "There is no other woman in the 20th century who has been so admired and vilified simultaneously". The project had not been able to capture Riefenstahl's consent while she was alive, since Riefenstahl requested the ability to veto any scenes she did not agree with; Riefenstahl also preferred
Sharon StoneSharon Vonne Stone is an American actress, film producer, and former fashion model. She achieved international recognition for her role in the erotic thriller Basic Instinct...
as the star of the movie rather than Foster. Both Foster and
MadonnaMadonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
had sought the rights to Riefenstahl's autobiography since the early 1990s. Director
Paul Verhoeven corresponded with Riefenstahl about a separate film biography. In 2011, the director
Steven SoderberghSteven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and an Academy Award-winning film director. He is best known for directing commercial Hollywood films like Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and the remake of Ocean's Eleven, but he has also directed smaller less...
revealed that he had spent 6 months working on a biopic of Riefenstahl. He ultimately abandoned the project over concerns of its commercial prospects and instead pursued the pandemic thriller,
ContagionContagion is a 2011 American medical thriller disaster film directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film has an ensemble cast that includes Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, and Bryan Cranston. Contagion follows the rapid progress of a lethal...
.
In popular culture
Riefenstahl's filming merits are discussed between characters in the Quentin Tarantino film
Inglourious Basterds. Tarantino explained the significant presence of Third Reich filmmaking in his film: "Riefenstahl and Goebbels despised each other. He was in charge of every single person in the German film industry with the sole exception of her".
Leni, an award winning play by Sarah Greenman, is based on the life and work of Leni Riefenstahl. It saw productions in Oakland, California in 2004, Portland, Oregon in 2007, Seattle, Washington in 2008, and was showcased at the New York Fringe Festival in 2007.
A play based on Riefenstahl,
Playing Leni (originally titled
Dysfictional Circumstances) by David Robson and John Stanton, won the Hotel Obligado Audience Choice Award for New Work at the 2010 Spark Showcase in Philadelphia. It subsequently received a staged reading at the Philly Fringe Festival and was produced in May 2011 by Madhouse Theater.
Riefenstahl was referenced by a character in the 8th season of the movie-lampooning television show,
Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
, as the characters in the show watch the 1950s horror film
The Leech Woman-Plot:A mysterious old woman approaches Dr. Paul Talbot and promises to reveal to him the secret of eternal youth. Following her to Africa, he and his wife June Talbot witness the secret ceremony that utilizes orchid pollen and a victim's pineal gland secretions...
. As the main female lead character of the film is transformed to a younger version of herself with a potion, robot Tom Servo, upon seeing the newly rejuvenated character, says: "They turned her into Leni Riefenstahl!"
Selected filmography
| Year |
Film |
Credited as |
| Director A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
|
Producer A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
|
Writer Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
|
ActorAn actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
|
Role |
| 1925 |
Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit (Ways to Strength and Beauty) |
|
|
|
|
Dancer |
| 1926 |
Der heilige Berg – (The Holy Mountain) |
|
|
|
|
Diotima |
| 1927 |
Der große Sprung – (The Great Leap) |
|
|
|
|
Gita |
| 1928 |
Das Schicksal derer von Habsburg |
|
|
|
|
Maria Vetsera |
| 1929 |
Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü – (The White Hell of Pitz Palu) |
|
|
|
|
Maria Maioni |
| 1930 |
Stürme über dem Mont Blanc – (Storm over Mont Blanc) |
|
|
|
|
Hella Armstrong |
| 1931 |
Der weiße Rausch – Neue Wunder des Schneeschuhs |
|
|
|
|
Leni |
| 1932 |
Das Blaue LichtDas Blaue Licht is a black-and-white 1932 film written and directed by Leni Riefenstahl and Béla Balázs, with uncredited scripting by Carl Mayer. In Riefenstahl's film version, the witch, Junta, played by Riefenstahl, is intended to be a sympathetic character...
– (The Blue Light) |
|
|
|
|
Junta |
| 1933 |
S.O.S. Eisberg SOS Eisberg is a German-U.S. coproduction, released by Universal Studios in both Germany and the U.S. The film is a dramatic mountain film directed by Arnold Fanck, and filmed in Engadin, Switzerland and in Greenland. The film premiered August 30, 1933 in Berlin. It was filmed simultaneously in...
|
|
|
|
|
Ellen Lawrence |
| Der Sieg des Glaubens Der Sieg des Glaubens is the first documentary film directed by Leni Riefenstahl, who was hired despite opposition from Nazi officials that resented employing a woman — and a non-Party member too...
– (Victory of Faith) |
|
|
|
|
|
| 1935 |
Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht – (Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces) |
|
|
|
|
|
| Triumph des Willens – (Triumph of the Will) |
|
|
|
|
|
| 1937 |
Wilde Wasser |
|
|
|
|
|
| 1938 |
Olympia 1. Teil – Fest der Völker Olympia is a 1938 Nazi propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. The film was released in two parts: Olympia 1. Teil — Fest der Völker and Olympia 2. Teil — Fest der Schönheit . It was the first documentary feature...
– (Festival of Nations) |
|
|
|
|
Nude model (uncredited) |
| Olympia 2. Teil – Fest der Schönheit Olympia is a 1938 Nazi propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. The film was released in two parts: Olympia 1. Teil — Fest der Völker and Olympia 2. Teil — Fest der Schönheit . It was the first documentary feature...
– (Festival of Beauty) |
|
|
|
|
|
| 1954 |
Tiefland Tiefland is a 1954 film that Leni Riefenstahl scripted, directed, acted in, and edited. It was produced by Leni Riefenstahl and Josef Plesner. It is based on the opera Tiefland and the original play Terra baixa by Àngel Guimerà...
– (Lowlands) |
|
|
|
|
Martha |
| 2002 |
Impressionen unter Wasser Impressionen unter Wasser is a documentary film released in 2002. It was directed by Leni Riefenstahl....
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Year |
Film |
Director A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
|
Producer A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
|
Writer Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
|
ActorAn actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
|
Role |
Photographer
- The Last of the Nuba
The Last of the Nuba is the English-language title of German film director Leni Riefenstahl's 1973 Die Nuba, an illustrations book published a year later in the United States...
(Harper, 1974; St. Martin's PressSt. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...
, 1995, ISBN 0-312-13642-0)
- The People of Kau
The People of Kau is the title of the 1976 English-language translation of German film director Leni Riefenstahl's Die Nuba von Kau , an illustrations book published in the same year in Germany...
(Harper, 1976; St. Martin's Press reprint edition, 1997, ISBN 0-312-16963-9)
- Vanishing Africa
Vanishing Africa is the title of the 1982 English-language translation of German film director Leni Riefenstahl's 'Mein Afrika', an illustrations book published in the same year in Germany...
(Harmony 1st American edition, 1982, ISBN 0-517-54914-X)
- Africa (Taschen, 2002, ISBN 3-8228-1616-7)
- Riefenstahl Olympia (Taschen
Taschen is an art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. It began as Taschen Comics publishing Benedikt's extensive comic collection...
, 2002, ISBN 3-8228-1945-X)
Author
- Kampf in Schnee und Eis (Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, 1933)
- Hinter den Kulissen des Reichsparteitags-Films (München, 1935)
- Schönheit im olympischen Kampf (Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, 1937)
- Die Nuba Eng: The Last of the Nuba (München, 1973)
- Die Nuba von Kau Eng: The People of Kau (München, 1976)
- Korallengärten Eng: Coral Gardens (München, 1978)
- Mein Afrika Eng: Vanishing Africa (München, 1982)
- Leni Riefenstahl's Memoiren
Also Known as 'The Sieve of Time: The Memoirs of Leni Riefenstahl' and 'Leni Riefenstahl: A Memoir' Leni Riefenstahl's Memoiren is the 1987 autobiography of German film director, Leni Riefenstahl...
Eng: The Sieve of Time: The Memoirs of Leni Riefenstahl (München, 1987)
- Wunder unter Wasser Eng: Wonder under Water (München, 1990)
In translation:
- Leni Riefenstahl: A Memoir by Leni Riefenstahl, autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
(PicadorPicador is an imprint of Pan Macmillan in the United Kingdom and Australia and of Macmillan Publishing in the United States. Both companies are owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group....
Reprint edition, 1995, ISBN 0-312-11926-7)
- The People of Kau
The People of Kau is the title of the 1976 English-language translation of German film director Leni Riefenstahl's Die Nuba von Kau , an illustrations book published in the same year in Germany...
by Leni Riefenstahl, English edition 1976, republished by St. Martin's PressSt. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...
in 1997, ISBN 0312169639
- The Last of the Nuba
The Last of the Nuba is the English-language title of German film director Leni Riefenstahl's 1973 Die Nuba, an illustrations book published a year later in the United States...
by Leni Riefenstahl, English edition 1976, republished by St. Martin's PressSt. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...
in 1995, ISBN 0312136420
- Coral Gardens
Coral Gardens is the title of the 1978 English-language translation of German film director Leni Riefenstahl's Korallengärten, an illustrations book published in the same year in Germany. The book was published by Harper Collins in the United States...
by Leni Riefenstahl (HarpercollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
1st U.S. edition, 1978, ISBN 0-06-013591-3)
Further reading
- 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
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl is a 1993 German documentary film about the life of German film director Leni Riefenstahl, directed by Ray Müller.-Production background:...
, 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, ISBN 0-3754-0400-7
External links