Leni Riefenstahl
Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (German pronunciation: [ˈʁiːfənʃtaːl]; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will), a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party. Riefenstahl's prominence in the Third Reich along with her personal friendship with Adolf Hitler thwarted her film career following Germany's defeat in World War II, 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 aesthetics as outstanding. The Economist 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 photography of the Nuba tribes in Sudan in several books such as The Last of the Nuba. She was active up until her death and also published marine life stills and released the marine-based film Impressionen unter Wasser in 2002. After her death, the Associated Press 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 BBC said her documentaries "were hailed as groundbreaking film-making, pioneering techniques involving cranes, tracking rails, and many cameras working at the same time".
17 Books Written
An autobiography of controversial German dancer, actress and eventually Hitler's top national film executive, Leni Riefenstahl.
""If Leni Riefenstahl had done nothing but visit Africa and bring back her photographs, her place in history would be secure."" -Kevin Brownlow, from the introduction When she was in her early sixties, Leni Riefenstahl began traveling frequently to the African continent, where she has worked on various film and photography projects over the last half century. Her favorite destination was in Sudan, where she lived with and photographed the Nuba tribespeople, learning their language and becoming their friend. The Nuba were a loving and peaceful people who welcomed Riefenstahl as one of their own. Her images of the Nuba, as well as of the Dinka, Shilluk, Masai, and other tribes, are gathered in this monumental book. Riefenstahl remembers her experiences in Africa as the happiest moments in her life. Her beautiful, skilled photographs represent a landmark in the extraordinary career of the 20th century's most unforgettable artistic pioneer. * Interview by Kevin Brownlow * Extensive bibliography and biography section
First published in 1973 and long since out of print, a classic photo essay about life among Africa's Nuba tribe, by one of the century's foremost film directors, is presented in an impressive full-color gift edition.
Photographs of the Nuba people of Kau portray the traditions--including knife fights, dances of love, and body painting--of a primitive tribe whose existence is threatened by the advance of industrial civilization
On August 1, 1936, in Berlin, to the sound of Hitler's opening words and hundreds of doves set aflight, the Summer Olympic Games began. Here were sixteen days of heroism, aesthetic and athletic perfection, and a triumph of determination and will - not least by the legendary artist Leni Riefenstahl.The filmmaker and photographer was commissioned to document these spectacular games for posterity. Her film Olympia is one of the results of this experiment. The other is this volume, Olympia, a startling collection of images of athletes, of sport, and of intense drive resulting from these games.Riefenstahl utilized innovative and ground-breaking camera angles, techniques, and styles in order to create her vision of the Olympics. Her stark realism is revealed in these shots of strength and determination. The artist presents divers, swimmers, sprinters, jumpers, vaulters, and others as specimen, the ultimate practitioners of their art forms, and by these efforts, the portraits of these men and women reach a zenith of Riefenstahl's own art.Leni Riefenstahl's visual genius is fully evident in this remarkable collection of black and white photographs. Through her lens, we view the epitome of the beauty of athleticism, the excitement of competition, and the pressure of the political atmosphere. Olympia is a remarkable record of human idealism, Olympic excellence, and photographic skill.
Geïllustreerd / Illustrated / Illustré / Illustriert / 9783548331140 / Biographies and Autobiographies / Duits / German / Allemand / Deutsch / paperback / 13 x 19 cm / 429 .pp /
The book Leni Riefenstahl denied ever writing! Hinter den Kulissen des Reichsparteitag-Films (Behind the Scenes of the National Party Convention Film), a book of text plus numerous photographs, was published in March, 1935, to coincide with the Berlin premiere of Leni Riefenstahl s Triumph of the Will. Riefenstahl, after 1945, distanced herself from the book, claiming she had never seen it until after publication. Here is an exact reproduction of the original, word-for-word, image-for-image, perfectly replicating the original layout of a book which most persons have never seen. Now for the first time in English, with a scholarly foreword by Professor David Culbert, who did the translation. Hundreds of photographs, including iconic images from the most famous propaganda film ever made. USA, 2010, 7.75 x 10 inches, softcover, 111 pages, 136 B&W photos.
Wonders Under Water
by Leni Riefenstahl
Kampf in Schnee und Eis
by Leni Riefenstahl
Riefenstahl's memoir of her early acting career, specifically her memorable roles in Arnold Fanck's mountaineering spectacles including Der Heilige Berg (1926), Der Grosser Sprung (1927), Stürme über dem Montblanc (1930), etc.
Story of Her Ascent (in Wahre Geschichten) By G. Hildebrand
by Leni Riefenstahl
BAUHAUS WEIMAR: 1919-25
by Leni Riefenstahl
PHOTOGRAPH: INSCRIBED.
by Leni Riefenstahl
PUBLISHER'S PROSPECTUS FOR LENI RIEFENSTAHL'S "AFRICA"
by Leni Riefenstahl
Die Nuba.
by Leni Riefenstahl
Leni Riefenstahl was one of the most outstanding film directors and documentary photographers of the 20th century. This classic work, whose documentary and artistic merits and contribution to cultural history make it a worthy companion to her equally famous study The Last of the Nuba (which deals with the Mesakin Nuba) was first published in 1976.Although the Nuba of Kau - anthropologists call them the "South East Nuba" - live little more than 100 miles from the gentle and peace-loving Mesakin, they speak a different language and observe different customs and conventions. A wild and passionate people, they are also different from the Mesakin in character and temperament. Their knife-fights, dances of love, and elaborately painted faces and bodies, which appear to be "living Picassos", are unmatched by any surviving primitive race on earth. Leni Riefenstahl does not claim to have captured their entire way of life in this book. She has concentrated on photographing what distinguishes the South East Nuba from other tribes of her acquaintance.Leni Riefenstahl's unforgettable photographic impressions of the life of the People of Kau bear an all too final witness to a primitive tribe which even at the time of her journey was menaced by the advance of industrial civilization and has by now slowly subsided into the mists of time.