Leni Riefenstahl dies at age 101

Leni Riefenstahl died last night in her sleep. She was 101 years old. She became famous as a movie director. Her documentary of the Olympics 1936 in Berlin is widely regarded as one of the best movies of all time (though the Nazis demanded that scenes with black athletes were removed from the movie.)

She invented new filming techniques, like the camera that travels on a rail alongside the athlete during races.

She was a very controversial person though, because she made a propaganda movie for the Nazis. The movie itself was highly acclaimed for its aesthetical quality, but it mostly ended her movie making career after World War II.

http://www.leni-riefenstahl.de/eng/bio.html

 

Wow, what an incredible woman petzi! Thanks.

 

The film about her they showed on Sundance is incredible
Quite a life she had...

Best-
Norm

 

"The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl." I watched the DVD just last night.

 

I am most impressed by the fact that she seriously got into diving after the age of 70. Imagine a 90 year old woman making a movie under water. I hope I will be that healthy when I'm that old

 

Actually, they wanted those scenes removed, but Leni refused to do so. The footage of Jesse Owens is priceless.

 

She truly was a genius filmmaker, apart from the context she found herself a part of..

 

What she didn't realize, in her relative youth, was that she could not be an independent filmmaker in the eyes of the world while hanging around with the Nazi party and everything it stood for. She was independent--the Owens footage was proof enough of that--yet TRIUMPH OF THE WILL would easily lend you to thinking she wasn't just a documentarian, but someone also enthralled with the spectacle of it all(which, of course, she was). But she did it her way, lived a very long life, but in no way do I believe she was evil, which is more than be said of many of her cinematic subjects. Quite a fascinating woman, and the documentary is a well rounded overview of who she was, what she did, and why she did it. And not a little haunting as well, for she was very obviously haunted with guilt-by-association.


ED

 

The problem was, she could never raise any money for her film projects after the war. I guess she would have made some great films...

 

Wonder what she would have done in mainstream film......incredible camera work.