LENI RIEFENSTAHL: Controversy & Genius

Grudgingly, her father agreed to finance a solo dance recital for his daughter with the instinct she would abandon her dancing aspirations if the recital failed. It did not, and the director Max Reinhardt was so impressed with the talented young beauty that he recruited her for his Deutsches Theater. Riefenstahl's life as a dancer would be interrupted by a knee injury when she was twenty-three, a time during which the bucks of Arnold Franck attracted her interest. Franck quip his mountain-themed films on location, something rarely done in German picture show of the era. Riefenstahl would star in a series of mountain dramas and comedies for Franck to begin with starting her own production company. As the only effeminate on Franck's crew, Riefenstahl developed her camera and directorial technique during this period. Her first film for her own company, The Blue Light, won the Silver Medal at the Venice Biennale. No less than Germany's Fuhrer admired the film, an admiration that culminated in his communicate for Riefenstahl to film the Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg in 1933. As Riefenstahl noted, Hitler was "pleased with her work and recognized the potential she had for creating an even out more inspiring film for the Nazis" (Fleming 3).

The documentary produced of the rally was call Victory of Faith, the first of three documentaries Riefenstahl would film glorifying the power and highness of the Nazi Party. Hitler's appreciat

Fleming, J. B. Leni Riefenstahl: A fete of beauty. Terminus. http://rtd.com/%Ejfleming/terminus_files/riefenstahl.html, 1997, 1-3.

Wakeman, J. (ed.). World Film Directors. (Vol. 1). New York, H. W. Wilson, 1987.

Riefenstahl hopes that Jodie Foster bequeath clear her name. Movie & TV News. http://aol.imdb.com/SB?20000201#4, Feb. 1, 2000.

Corliss, R. Riefenstahl's bear stand. Time. Oct. 18, 1993, 91-92.

Thompson, D. A Biographical Dictionary of Film. (3rd edit.). New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.

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