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Post by Louis EpsteinPost by James NeibaurThe controversial filmmaker has died at the age of 101.
JN
September 9, 2003
Leni Riefenstahl, Controversial Filmmaker, Dies at 101
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:37 a.m. ET
BERLIN (AP) -- Leni Riefenstahl, whose hypnotic depiction of Hitler's
Nuremberg rally, ``Triumph of the Will,'' was renowned and despised as the
best propaganda film ever made, has died, a German magazine reported
Tuesday, quoting a long-time friend. She was 101.
I'd also rank Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" side-by-side with "Triumph
of the Will" as the best propaganda film ever made.
"Triumph of the Will" didn't motivate a people to go to war, but "Why
We Fight" did, and it certainly wasn't balanced or fair in its historical
presentation.
Commenting on this quote further down,
Post by Louis EpsteinNonetheless, as his filmmaker Riefenstahl was the only woman to help shape
the rise of the Third Reich.
A film documentarian doesn't shape what happens later, they record it
for history, and there obviously was no World War 2 in 1934 when "Triumph of
the Will" was made. Contrast that with "Why We Fight" made during the war,
or "Victory At Sea" (1954), or the hundreds of WW2 movies Hollywood made
glorifying USG entry into that European war.
The USG entered WW2 in Europe to help out FDR's socialist buddy,
Stalin--the worst mass murderer in all of human history. Both Stalin and
Hitler were no good and the USG had no business allying itself with either
mass murderer.
FDR only schemed and plotted to get into the war 'by the back door'
by inciting Japan to attack with his trade embargo policies blocking the
sale of oil and other products to that island nation.
Read: "Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor" by
Robert B. Stinnett (The Free Press, New York, NY, 2000), 386pp.
Five-page, 8-action Memo at Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) addressed
to 2 of FDR's most trusted advisors, pp. 6-23. by the head of the Far East
desk, Lt. Cmdr. Arthur McCollum, Oct. 7, 1940; on how to get Japan to attack
'first' by U.S. goading them via embargoes on oil, steel, on everything and
not telling Adm. Husband E. Kimmel and Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short about the
threat at Pearl Harbor with FDR also ordering the battleships to remain open
and lined up like the sitting ducks they were that fateful Sunday!
Memo found by Mr. Stinnett in Box 6 of a special US Navy collection in RG
38 in the Military Reference Branch of Archives II, Jan. 24, 1995. (pp.
261-267).
Post by Louis EpsteinRiefenstahl, whose health had been weakened by injuries sustained in
accidents, died in her sleep at home Monday night, her companion, Horst
Kettner told the on-line service for the German personality magazine
Bunte.
Post by Louis Epstein``Her heart simply stopped,'' Kettner said.
A tireless innovator of film and photographic techniques, Riefenstahl's
career centered on a quest for adventure and for portraying physical
beauty.
Post by Louis EpsteinEven as she turned 100 last year she was strapping on scuba gear to
photograph sharks in turquoise waters, although she had begun to complain
that injuries sustained in accidents over the years, including a
helicopter
Post by Louis Epsteincrash in Sudan in 2000, had taken their toll and caused her constant pain.
Despite critical acclaim for her later photographs of the African Nuba
people and of undersea flora and fauna, she spent more than half her life
trying to live down the films she made for Hitler and for having admired
the
Post by Louis Epsteintyrant who devastated Europe and all but eliminated its Jews.
Even as late as 2002, Riefenstahl was investigated for Holocaust denial
after she said she did not know that Gypsies taken from concentration
camps
Post by Louis Epsteinto be used as extras in one of her wartime films later died in the camps.
Authorities eventually dropped the case, saying her comments did not rise
to
Post by Louis Epsteina prosecutable level.
Speaking to The Associated Press just before her 100th birthday on Aug.
22,
Post by Louis Epstein2002, Riefenstahl dramatically said she has ``apologized for ever being
born'' but that she should not be criticized for her masterful films.
``I don't know what I should apologize for,'' she said. ``I cannot
apologize, for example, for having made the film ``Triumph of the
Will'' --
Post by Louis Epsteinit won the top prize. All my films won prizes.''
Biographer Juergen Trimborn, who wrote ``Riefenstahl: A German Career,''
said Riefenstahl could not apologize because the Nazi films were the
centerpieces of her career.
``One can't speak about Leni Riefenstahl without looking at her entire
career in the Third Reich,'' Trimborn said. ``Her most important films
were
Post by Louis Epsteinmade during the Third Reich -- 'Triumph of the Will,' 'Olympia,' -- that's
what's she's known for.''
Riefenstahl said she had always been guided by the search for beauty,
whether it was found in her hypnotizing images of the 1934 Nuremberg
rallies
Post by Louis Epsteinwith thousands of goose-stepping soldiers and enraptured civilians fawning
for their Fuehrer, in her dazzling portrayal of the 1936 Olympic athletes
in
Post by Louis EpsteinBerlin, or in her still photographs of the sculpted Nuba men.
``I always see more of the good and the beautiful than the ugly and
sick,''
Post by Louis EpsteinRiefenstahl said. ``Through my optimism I naturally prefer and capture the
beauty in life.''
Born Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl in Berlin on Aug. 22, 1902, she was
the first child of Alfred Riefenstahl, the owner of a heating and
ventilation firm, and his wife, Bertha Scherlach.
Riefenstahl's artistic career began as a creative dancer until a knee
injury
Post by Louis Epsteinknee caused made her decide to shift her focus to movies.
After she saw one of Arnold Fanck's silent films set in the mountains,
Riefenstahl presented herself to him as his new star, and he accepted, as
much for her blue-eyed, high-cheekboned beauty as her daredevil spirit.
She rock climbed barefoot for the camera and was buried in an avalanche
for
Post by Louis Epsteinthe death scene in the 1926 film ``Mountain of Destiny.'' Soon, she was
making her own films, fairy tales such as ``The Blue Light'' celebrating
Germany's Alpine mystique in which she was star, screenwriter and
director.
Post by Louis EpsteinShe heard Hitler speak for the first time at a 1932 rally and wrote to
him -- again, offering her talents to a powerful, inspirational man. In
her
Post by Louis Epsteinmemoirs, Riefenstahl rapturously describes her first impression of
Hitler's
Post by Louis Epsteincharisma.
``It seemed as if the earth's surface were spreading out in front of me,
like a hemisphere that suddenly splits apart in the middle, spewing out an
enormous jet of water, so powerful that it touched the sky and shook the
earth. I felt quite paralyzed.''
Although she said she knew nothing of Hitler's ``Final Solution'' and
learned of concentration camps only after the war, Riefenstahl also said
she
Post by Louis Epsteinopenly confronted the Fuehrer about his anti-Semitism, one of many
apparent
Post by Louis Epsteincontradictions in her claims of total ignorance of the Nazi mission.
Likewise, she defended ``Triumph of the Will'' as a documentary that
contained ``not one single anti-Semitic word,'' while avoiding any talk
about filming Nazi official Julius Streicher haranguing the crowd about
``racial purity'' laws.
Many suspected Riefenstahl of being Hitler's lover, which she also denied.
Nonetheless, as his filmmaker Riefenstahl was the only woman to help shape
the rise of the Third Reich.
She made four films for Hitler, the best known of which were ``Triumph of
the Will'' and ``Olympia,'' a meditation on muscle and movement at the
1936
Post by Louis EpsteinBerlin Olympic games.
She married once, in 1944 to army Major Peter Jacob, but the couple split
three years later. She had no children, and her only sibling, Heinz, was
killed on the eastern front during World War II.
Riefenstahl spent three years under allied arrest after the war, some of
the
Post by Louis Epsteintime in a mental hospital. War tribunals ultimately cleared her of any
wrongdoing but suspicion of being a Nazi collaborator stuck. She was
boycotted as a film director and sank into poverty, living with her mother
in a one-room apartment.
She reclaimed her career in the 1960s when she lived with and photographed
the Nuba.
``I've never laughed so much as I did when living with the Nuba. I became
reconciled with myself,'' she said.
She next turned to underwater photography, diving in the Maldives, the
Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and off Papua New Guinea.
Around this time she met Kettner, or ``Horsti,'' as she called him, a
fellow
Post by Louis Epsteinphotographer half her age who became her live-in assistant and companion.
At age 100, she released a new film based on her dives, ``Impressions
Under
Post by Louis EpsteinWater.''
She said she hoped she would be remembered by people as ``an industrious
woman who has worked very hard her whole life and has received much
acknowledgment.''