Riefenstahl Memoirs

Author: (German) Leni Riefenstahl, translated by Ding Weixiang et al.
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: Leni Riefenstahl, a dancer, actress, director, producer, photographer, and writer, was one of the most famous and controversial figures in 20th-century Germany. She was the only woman included in Time magazine's list of the 100 most important artists of the 20th century. Born in Berlin in 1902, she filmed "Triumph of Faith" for the Nazi party's Nuremberg Congress in 1933 and, the following year, "Olympia," a documentary for the Nazi party congress that was both celebrated and condemned by the world. In 1936, at the request of the International Olympic Committee, she filmed a documentary for the Berlin Olympics. This documentary, later named "Olympia," became almost the bible of all sports documentaries. In 1945, she was branded a Nazi sympathizer and arrested, serving four years in prison, after which she bid farewell to the film she loved. Film critic Richard Kollitsch said bluntly, "It was because 'Triumph of Faith' was so good, plus her style, plus she was a woman, a beautiful person." In 1955, Hemingway's novel "Green Hills of Africa" captivated her with Africa. She traveled there multiple times to deeply study the customs of the Nuba people and published a photographic collection. In 1974, at the age of 72, she lied about her age, claiming to be 20, and enrolled in a deep-sea diving course, becoming obsessed with underwater photography and becoming the oldest deep-sea diver in history. In 1984, at the age of 80, she began writing this memoir to "clarify misunderstandings and eliminate prejudices," a process that took five years. Leni Riefenstahl passed away in 2003 at the age of 101.