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Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (August 22 1902 – September 8 2003) was a German dancer, actress, and film director widely noted for her aesthetics and advances in film technique. Her most famous works are documentary propaganda films for the German Nazi Party. 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 many, their aesthetics are cited by many filmmakers as outstanding. Rejected by the film industry after World War II, she later pursued still photography and continued to make films of marine life as well as a failed attempt to make a documentary of an African tribe. Dancer and actress Born in Berlin, Riefenstahl began her career as a self-styled and well-known interpretive dancer. (In a 2002 interview, she said dancing made her truly happy.) After injuring a knee, she attended a viewing of a nature film about mountains, and became fascinated with 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 project. Riefenstahl went on to star in a number of Fanck's bergfilme, presenting herself as an athletic and adventurous 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 Das Blaue Licht in 1932, 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 SOS Eisberg (U.S. title SOS Iceberg); this film was released on DVD in the U.S. in November 2005. Documentary filmmaker
World War II
After World War II 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 proven in court. Being unable to prove any culpable support of the Nazis, the court called her a sympathizer. In later interviews Riefenstahl maintained that she was "fascinated" by the Nazis but politically naïve and ignorant about the war crimes they committed. In order to understand in a broader context the conclusions of the court, it's important to know that after the war, every German had to be “denazified”. For that purpose, every person's case was examined and his or her connections with the Nazi regime were linked to a degree of connection, from 1 (for the war criminals like Hermann Göring) to 5 (completely innocent of any connection). Leni Riefenstahl belonged in group 4, not completely innocent but the lowest degree of relationship with the regime. Some other directors like Veit Harlan (who made the film Jud Süß (The Jew Süss) in 1940) were considered as to belong in category 5. The History Channel, on its sister channel, History International, released a documentary entitled, Hitler's Women: Leni Riefensthal*. In it, the accusation is made that Riefenstahl was acutely aware that her films were propaganda. They point to evidence such as the fact that Hitler had a sit-down discussion between Riefenstahl and Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels at her personal German villa, as seen in this picture, to resolve differences the two were having which were causing strife in Hitler's early regime. Even more damning are the film clips of Riefenstahl dining with Goebbels and Himmler, and other top men of both the Brownshirt and SS branches of NSDAP, intercut with interviews with German historians and WWII scholars questioning how any one could appear at state dinners with top Nazi officials (eating at the high table with them, no less) and be completely unaware of what politics they were supporting. Furthering the connection, they cite the fact that Riefenstahl sent a celebratory telegram to Hitler after his invasion of France, "Your deeds exceed the power of human imagination. They are without equal in the history of mankind. How can we ever thank you?" . Lastly, they detail interviews with actual Gypsy survivors of the Holocaust, who refute Riefensthal's claims that the concentration camp victims she used for filming were not killed The documentary comes to the conclusion that Riefenstahl suffered from a deep denial of her actual culpability, to the point that she even began to believe her own lies regarding her innocence. Postwar career, legacy and personal life Riefenstahl attempted to make films after the war but each attempt was met with resistance, protests, sharp criticisms and an inability to secure funding. In 1944, she married Peter Jacob, whom she later divorced, and in the 1960s took a man, Horst Kettner, who was forty years her junior. He remained her faithful companion to the end of her life. She became a photographer and was later the first to photograph rock star Mick Jagger and his wife Bianca as a couple holding hands after they were married, as they were both admirers. Jagger told Riefenstahl he had seen Triumph of the Will at least 15 times. Later, embracing a cult of "primitivism", 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 Impressionen unter Wasser (Underwater Impressions), an idealized documentary on life in the oceans, on her 100th birthday - August 22, 2002. In October 2002, German authorities decided to drop a case against her for Holocaust denial, citing her age and possible dementia. She had allegedly falsely claimed that "every one" of the Roma people who had been recruited from a concentration camp to appear in her film Tiefland, 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. Death 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. Works
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