Leni Riefenstahl: A Life

Dancer, actress, mountaineer, and director Leni Riefenstahl's uncompromising will and audacious talent for self-promotion appeared unmatched--until 1932, when she introduced herself to her future protector and patron: Adolf Hitler. Known internationally for two of the films she made for him, Triumph of the Will and Olympia, Riefenstahl's demanding and obsessive style introduced unusual angles, new approaches to tracking shots, and highly symbolic montages. Despite her lifelong claim to be an apolitical artist, Riefenstahl's monumental and nationalistic vision of Germany's traditions and landscape served to idealize the cause of one of the world's most violent and racist regimes.

Riefenstahl ardently cast herself as a passionate young director who caved to the pressure to serve an all-powerful F hrer, so focused on reinventing the cinema that she didn't recognize the goals of the Third Reich until too late. J rgen Trimborn's revelatory biography celebrates this charismatic and adventurous woman who lived to 101, while also taking on the myths surrounding her. With refreshing distance and detailed research, Trimborn presents the story of a stubborn and intimidating filmmaker who refused to be held accountable for her role in the Holocaust but continued to inspire countless photographers and filmmakers with her artistry.

Author: Jürgen Trimborn
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 01/22/2008
Pages: 351
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.13lbs
Size: 8.62h x 5.80w x 0.98d
ISBN: 9780865479760

Review Citation(s):
New York Review of Books 06/14/2007 pg. 49
Entertainment Weekly 01/18/2008 pg. 87
New York Times Book Review 02/24/2008 pg. 28

About the Author

Jürgen Trimborn, born in 1971, is a professor of film, theater, and art history at the University of Cologne and serves as a consultant on films of the Third Reich for the German and American film industry. He lives and writes in Cologne and east Belgium.

This title is not returnable