Talk:Leni Riefenstahl

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Contents

1 African project 2 Her first film 3 World War II propaganda films? 4 Documentary

African project

Didn't she also make movies (or photographs) of tribes in Africa? I seem to remember that she returned repeatedly to one tribe in particular. --AxelBoldt

Yes heard today on radio she filmed the Nubas in Africa.

Film and photos, yes. She published a book about them; the funding for the film was cut. --KQ

Her first film

It seems that many biographical entiries refer "Der Heilige Berg" as her first movie performance.

Britannica seems to suggest that it is "Peak of Destiny," which I think is incorrect. I've sometimes read that Peak of Destiny is the piece that captured Leni's attention to movies, and she talked to Arnold Franck eventually. And the piece is released in 1925.

Now, Imdb says, along with this article, Tragödie im Hause Habsburg (1924) is the first. That is even before she saw "Peak.." I'm curious to know more about this particular piece and the role she played in it, if she did. Anyone has a pointer? Thanks. Tomos 04:31, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

World War II propaganda films?

During World War II she filmed several propaganda films and documents for the German propaganda machine - this is news to me. could you name and describe some of those films? her imdb entry (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0726166/) lists none. (It does list her Wehrmacht documentary Day of Freedom, but that is from 1935.) And this biography at about.com (http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_riefenstahl.htm), for example, contradicts that statement: (After "Olympia") Leni Riefenstahl started and stopped more films during the war, but didn't complete any nor did she accept any more assignments for documentaries.

"someone apparently forgot about her role in WWII..." - indeed. there is still a huge gap in the text. I believe she was working on Tiefland from 1942 on, but more should be said. regards, High on a tree 01:48, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Erik Barnouw's book Documentary, a canonical work in the field, doesn't mention Riefenstahl doing anything whatsoever during the war; the only mention is that Capra in the states spent a lot of time studying her work on Triumph of the Will, from the previous decade. I don't know if she simply wasn't filming anything or if it's been lost. I doubt that she filmed something that was later destroyed; there are rather meticulous records kept of so many other aspects of World War II, especially from Germany and including records of various aspects of the Holocaust. None of my other books on documentary cover Riefenstahl's life during this period, and I don't care enough about her to have bought a biography. I don't know what Riefenstahl did during the war; if I did, I would have written about it. Koyaanis Qatsi

Indeed, IMDb entry on Tiefland (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046431/) states that the movie was filmed during WWII (since 1940, AFAIR). Also, site (http://www.ipn.gov.pl/) of the Institute of National Remembrance published the pic I uploaded with a caption mentioning her work on some documentaries during the Polish Defence War of 1939. It doesn't say whether the film was finished, though.

I guess the problem is that most of her biographies are based on her own memoirs which apparently ommit the times of war (I haven't read them, I only browsed through the pages, but it seemed to me as if she was writing only some details from her personal life during WWII). Perhaps a good book on the topic would be Leni Riefenstahl by Rainer Rother. {ISBN 0826461018)

Also, a quick search of the Amazon archives shows this book (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1578860091/qid=1095238065/sr=1-16/ref=sr_1_2_16/026-3829169-9042843). The blob says that Provided with access to Riefenstahl's personal archives and film collection, the text examines her most famous wartime works as well as her less recognized projects.. [[User:Halibutt|Halibutt]] 09:02, Sep 15, 2004 (UTC)

However, the writer of the blurb could have been repeating what seems to be a common misconception. I am removing the disputed sentence until someone can cite evidence of a specific war-time propaganda film directed by her. Ellsworth 20:12, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Her New York Times obituary (http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/riefenstahl-obit.html) also confirms that she made no films after Olympia other than Tiefland. Ellsworth 22:58, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)

IIRC she was sent to Poland immediately after the invasion to make propaganda but was sufficiently stricken by what she saw that she refused to cooperate. This is covered in Wonderful, Horrible Life... I don't believe the propaganda work in question was supposed to be documentary or feature-length, but I'm stretching my recollection in making the latter claim. Buffyg 11:14, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

From the German article:

She and numerous employees of her firm went to the front in Poland on September 8 as war correspondents. Leni Riefenstahl experienced a massacre of Polish civilians by German soldiers in Ko?skie and abandoned her activities as a film correspondent. Allegedly she wrote a gravamen debrief.

Buffyg 03:07, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Documentary

I've seen a TV documentary about Leni Riefenstahl that focused on her work on the Nubas of Sudan, and didn't picture her as notorious as this article does. She even claimed that she wanted Hitler to choose another director instead of her, but to her dismay Hitler insisted on having her. Etz Haim 04:22, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)