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| Leni Riefenstahl with cameraman, August, 1936. Photo permission from Commons:Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive) |
The controversial Leni Riefenstahl was a successful German actress whose filmmaking career got its breakthrough and continuing support from the powerful Nazi politicos in the mid-1930's. In the February 17, 1936 issue of Time Magazine, Riefenstahl was profiled as the exclusive official cinematographer for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin "as part of a propaganda epic which will be shown later to German cinemaddicts throughout the Fatherland."(1)
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| Leni Riefenstahl skiing uphill. Cover of Time, Vol XXVII No7, February 17, 1936. Photo in public domain |
In the film resulting from the 1936 Summer Olympics, Olympia, it is obvious that Riefenstahl loves the human form. She finds numerous ways to film trim athletic bodies from every angle and distance imaginable. This theme was reiterated in her mid-1970's books about Nuba people from Kordofan Province, Sudan. [The Last of the Nuba and The People of Kau, library call numbers DT 133 .N78 R5313 1974 and 1976]
She remained very active until she died a few weeks after her 101st birthday. She survived a helicopter crash at the age of 98 in 2000, was still SCUBA diving for her underwater photography passion at age 94, and photographing famous people like Mick Jagger and Siegfried & Roy over many years.
But her notoriety as a friend of the Nazi leaders leaves a stumbling block in the way of her acceptance as an innovative filmmaker. See if you can watch Triumph of the Will to appreciate her directing techniques without having to fast forward through parts of it--or running into the restroom to vomit. Make up your own mind: Fogelson Library has Triumph of the Will and Olympia on DVD. Also featured in the Women's History Month display near the library entrance are three biographies (book format). You can read more about her online:
- http://www.leni-riefenstahl.de/eng/bio.html [Take a look at the photos here. She really did lead an amazing life.]
- http://www.thesportjournal.org/article/leni-riefenstahls-olympia-brilliant-cinematography-or-nazi-propaganda
- http://www.counterpunch.org/faris0911.html
- and a new article from The New Yorker, with the terrific picture I wanted to include here but couldn't because of copyright issues: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/03/19/070319crbo_books_thurman
(1) Time, Vol XXVII Number 7, February 17, 1936. Cover article, p. 37. See the display near the entrance of Fogelson Library to read the whole article from this issue of Time Magazine!
