Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl

by Steven Bach

Book Overview

She was Hitler's self serving and mendacious PR handmaiden, depicted honestly in this scrupulous account. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375404007
• ISBN13: 9780375404009
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 386 Pages
• Weight: 1.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.6" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Feminist, evil genius or both? You decide.

Steven Bach's work on the filmmaker Leni Reifensthal was a book that captivated my interest from start to finish. The theme of the book was that Reifensthal used her charm and wits to pull the wool over the eyes of almost everybody she met from her father Alfred to Joseph Goebells himself to latter day filmamakers who were flattered by her charisma until her death at the age of 101. There is no denying that Reifenstahl, after stints as a dancer and an actress, went on to be a great director whose influence has been felt in areas from Geroge Lucas' Star Wars films to the sexually-charged billboards one finds along the highways. Yet her embracing of evil made her a cultural outcast until here dying day. I have to comment that even evil can be portrayed as great beauty. Even Satan himself tempted Eve with the thought of her becoming a god herself and thus was seduced. In short, Leni was an evil genius. This volume was well-researched and heavily footnoted. With all that went into the book, errors were bound to occur. The fact on page 173 that Avery Brundage, the aloof president of the United States Olympic Committee, was buried in Germany is in error as he is entombed in Chicago. Nevertheless, I recommend this book for all who are interested in German history as well as filmmaking.

Thorough, nuanced biography and history

Leni Riefenstahl is not an easy subject for a biographer. Yes, there is a mountain of material, and everyone has an opinion on her. But those are just some of the problems a biographer faces while trying to write about such a strange, ambitious, ruthless, and perhaps soulless person. Bach does an excellent job with this biography, and he also does a nice job of writing about Germany in the World War II era. His research is strong, and though it's apparent how he feels about her, he is fair and presents a wide range of opinions concerning her art and her personality. It will make you want to see her films, read her autobiography, and explore more about her. Fascinating book that really impressed me.

Fascinating biography of the complex and controversial Leni Riefenstahl

This biography of Leni Riefenstahl by Steven Bach is compelling reading. It tells the tale of someone with great talent--but also someone who could never come honestly to grips with her role in Nazi Germany. Someone who, in the end, was a mediocre actress and dancer and a very talented filmmaker and photographer. But even with her successes, many felt that with Riefenstahl, she put as much focus on herself as on her works. And, with some of her works, critics noted that they were technically wonderful, but not with much soul or heart. Her early years featured a strong, almost overbearing father; she early learned how to try to "get around him." Her mother Bertha (whom some suspected of being Jewish) was supportive of her, whereas her father wanted nothing to do with Leni's visions for her future as a dancer. Injury derailed her from dance, and she began acting, with her most prominent genre being the so-called Alpine films. While she saw herself as a terrific actress, outside of some exceptions, she appears to have been rather ordinary. But, as throughout her life, her self-image was far more positive; she never had the ability to be self-critical. One virtue that emerged early in her films was physical courage (page 43), "the only personal quality she possessed that colleagues and even enemies could later praise without reservation." Through a series of events, she ended up in a position to direct a film featuring Adolf Hitler at the 1933 Nazi party congress, "Victory of Faith." It was not as well done as her later, much better known films, but it provided her experience in developing techniques, coming to understand camera work, and so on. Here, she was clearly working on concert with Joseph Goebbels and the Nazi political machine, although she steadfastly resisted the implication that she was a willing and even enthusiastic partner in her films with the party. Hitler decided that he wanted her to do a follow for the 1934 party congress. The result was one of her classics (and a troubling classic, given its explicit vehicle for Nazi propaganda), "Triumph of the Will." Anyone interested in the art of Riefenstahl must watch this movie; there is an awesome (and awful) grandeur to it. Following this, another of her major works, the film that focused on the 1936 Olympics. Technically, another strong work. Some of the same troubling questions, though, remain, including her ties to the Nazis. Her work as, at least functionally, a propagandist of the Third Reich essentially ended her film making career, although she made a handful of efforts. Thwarted, she moved to documentaries (in Africa) and photography. At a point later in life, she became one of the oldest scuba divers around and took what are apparently fine photographs underneath the sea. In her 80s and 90s, there was renewed interest in her earlier classic works, including showings at some film festivals. Even at that, though, when interviewed she would deny involvement w

Interesting Folks Make for Interesting Biographies

This is one of two current biographies out on Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003), who remains somewhat radioactive give her close association with Hitler and other top Nazi leaders during the 1930's and 1940's. The author is a former motion picture executive turned professor, who previously has written an excellent biography of Leni's contemporary and rival, Marlene Dietrich. Leni is generally seen as being not a particularly pleasant person, who manifested an extreme degree of ego and far less concern about truth in the historical record. This book, while it does not seek to mitigate those allegations, and does in fact add some damaging new information, really the author is much more interested in charting the contours of Leni's life, the times she lived in, and those with whom she interacted than passing moral judgments. One of the strengths of the author is his ability to concisely set the stage at various points in Leni's life. His brief discussion of effervescent Berlin during the 1920's particularly is rich in insight and helps enormously in explaining the environment out of which Leni emerged. Similarly skillful is his discussion of the top Nazi party leadership (particularly Goebbels as propaganda guru) and political developments in Germany in the 1930's--just enough so that the reader is prepared to understand Leni's activities during this period. Bach is at his best, though, in focusing upon Leni as the film maker, whether it is her 1930's films such as "Triumph of the Will" and her Olympic films, or her later films (including the controversial "Tiefland")and African documentaries. He also casts an experienced eye on her many photographic book projects, especially those relating to Africa and coral reefs. The book covers the entirety of Leni's life where the reader learns she was active and working on new projects right up to her death at 101. So, this is a judicious biography of an extremely controversial figure. Bach lays out the facts which have emerged from an extremely thorough job of research, including a slew of taped interviews done in the 1970's with Leni and two dozen of her friends, collaborators and critics by a UCLA Ph.D. candidate . There are extensive notes and a helpful bibliography. The book is handsomely produced for Knopf by Berryville Graphics in Virginia. At 300 or so pages of text, I never once felt that Bach let his narrative drag. Whatever you can say about Leni, and plenty of folks have said a lot, she led a fascinating life which Bach has well captured in this fine biography.

Hilter's Film-maker

The outline of Leni Riefenstahl's life is well-known : German actress and director, Nazi film-maker in the 1930's, her deniality of the evil of the Third Reich, her long post-Nazi life with several careers. Mr. Bach paints a careerist whose first love was always herself. She was competent enough to shoot documentaries of the Third Reich ("Triumph of the Will" and "Olympia"), and photographs of tribal life in the Sudan and life underwater. She never looked back upon her past. This book is out in competetion with Jurgen Trimborn's "Leni Liefenstahl: A Life" -- similiar in scope, Mr. Bach deals more with the active love-life of Leni.