Biography on leni riefenstahl

At the age of seventy, she became a scuba diver and underwater photographer. She continued this well into her nineties, releasing 'Underwater Impressions', a selection of footage, at the age of This complex and impressive figure married once, but had no children. She passed away in her sleep at home in Bavaria, aged Leni Riefenstahl. New Media.

Talking Point. In Depth. We only saw the good things, we didn't know the bad things were to come. Leni Riefenstahl on Hitler. Leni Riefenstahl on first meeting Adolf Hitler. I never dropped any bombs. She has a super ego, which has been trod upon for half a century. I believe that she was purposefully blind not to look in the direction that would get her into trouble.

Anyone who influences the public has this.

Biography on leni riefenstahl: Leni Riefenstahl was a German

She is possessed with her art. She says, 'I'm only doing my thing. She may be obsessed and possessed, and a genius. But that does not exempt her from responsibility. Eric Hansen, writing in Varietysummed up the essence of her appearance by noting, "Names like the ninety-two-year-old Leni Riefenstahl and young director Detlev Buck are allowed only a few self-glorifying or sarcastic comments.

Much of Hanussen is set in Germany between the world wars. One of the minor characters is a celebrated, egocentric woman artist, a member of the political inner circle, who surrounds herself with physical beauty while remaining callously unconcerned with all but her own vanity. Clearly, this character is based on Riefenstahl. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

Heck-Rabi, Louise " Riefenstahl, Leni. Heck-Rabi, Louise "Riefenstahl, Leni. January 9, Retrieved January 09, from Encyclopedia. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.

The German film director Leni Riefenstahl born achieved fame and notoriety for her propaganda film Triumph of the Will and her two part rendition of the 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 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,and The People of Kau, and one of underwater pictures Coral Gardens,for which she learned to scuba dive at the age of 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 on she decided to become a dancer and received thorough training, both in traditional Russian ballet and in modern dance with Mary Wigman. She became interested in cinema when she saw one of the then biography on leni riefenstahl 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, It was well-received and Riefenstahl made up her mind to stay with the relatively new medium of motion pictures.

Eisberg S. Iceberg, She also tried acting in another type of film with a different director, but Das Schicksal derer von Habsburg The Fate of the Hapsburgs, 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.

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. 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, 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.

Biography on leni riefenstahl: Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl

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 Biennale in Venice, and at home, where it also attracted the attention of Hitler.

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, 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 rally as well, a task she biographies on leni riefenstahl to have accepted only after a second "invitation" and the promise of total artistic freedom.

Triumph des Willens Triumph of the Will, 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 Riefenstahl's next film, the short Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces, 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 Olympic Games held in Germany. 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 Lowlandsa project that was to be interrupted by illness, Hitler's assignments, and the war. She is best known as a Nazi film director but as the large illustrated biography Leni Riefenstahl: five lives S She began to make a career of it but suffered injuries which led to her turning to acting instead.

In this respect there are parallels to be drawn with the very slightly older Marlene Dietrich who became an actress after her career as a violinist was cut short by tendonitis. Leni Riefenstahl became fascinated by the mountain films of Arnold Fanckand in an unlikely twist, given her earlier injuries, she convinced him to give her a part in his next film, Der heilige Berg.

Biography on leni riefenstahl: Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl

She went on to act in several of his films including S. S Eisberg CCB. Mountain films were physically very demanding for the actors and while these films made her a star she endured much hardship during the making of them. From the s onwards Riefenstahl reinvented herself as a photographer, and a new project became capturing the lives of Sudanese tribespeople who lived in remote areas.

She was not the first person to do this — indeed she had been inspired by seeing the earlier work of George Rodger — but the culmination of her work was two volumes of photographs published in the s. The translations are a good indication of just how popular and well received these books were. After wilderness years when she was regarded as untouchable because of her association with the Nazis it seems that enough time had elapsed for her to be rehabilitated.

More recently her Africa photographs have been beautifully reproduced in a huge volume S