Helene bertha amalie leni riefenstahl biography

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born August 22, 1902, in Berlin, Germany; died September 8, 2003, in Pöking, Germany.

Filmmaker, photographer, actress, and author. Notoriously known for her work on the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will and her documentary of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Riefenstahl has often been considered a Nazi sympathizer, though her brilliance as a film director and, later, photographer, have also been acknowledged by many critics.

Helene bertha amalie leni riefenstahl biography

As a young woman, she initially pursued a career as a dancer, but an injury suffered in 1924 led her to become an actress. She had roles in several of the Arnold Fanck "mountain films," as the genre was called, and soon she founded her own production company, L.

R. Film Productions, in 1931. One of her early successes was the popular 1932 production The Blue Light, which she both directed and acted in. That same year, she heard Nazi leader Adolf Hi