One remarkable woman, five remarkable careers: Leni Riefenstahl is the exception to the rule. From dancer to actress to film-maker to photographer to diver, she has excelled in each field and is one of the most important and controversial artists of the 20th century. Her contributions to the art and technique of film-making were vast, most notably in her epochal film ""Olympia"" (1938). Critically acclaimed during the 1930's for her work under the Hitler administration and harshly criticized after the war, Riefenstahl surged on, completing the famous ""Tiefland"" in 1954. In the 1960s and 70s she traveled to Africa and extensively photographed East Africa and the Nuba tribes in Sudan, publishing three books. Ready for yet another change, she took up deep-sea diving at the age of 71, beginning a new chapter as an underwater photographer.
Though she has attracted much attention throughout her life and has been the subject of many books, articles, and films, Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives is the first book to showcase her entire career in pictures. Produced in collaboration with Riefenstahl herself, the book includes her most famous images as well as many previously unpublished pictures from her private archives. The main body of the book features photographs (without text) spanning Riefenstahl's entire set of careers, with pictures of her on stage as a dancer and on the set as an actress and film-maker, as well as film stills and her own photographs (precise commentaries about the pictures can be found in the comprehensive appendix). The illustrated biography, international bibliography, and detailed filmography complement the illustrative section with extensive information about her personaland professional lives. Fans and critics alike will be impressed with this sweeping visual tribute.
Produced in collaboration with the artist, now 98, the latest in Taschen's oversized photographers' series showcases Riefenstahl's undeniably unique life here called "lives" as a dancer, actress, photographer, filmmaker, and, most recently, deep-sea diver. Mostly, it is a collection of reproductions of stills from her films and photos from her various books (Last of the Nuba and others have been reissued by St. Martin's in recent years). Although her talent is clear and the work speaks for itself in many ways, larger questions invariably arise. She is certainly one of the most controversial figures in 20th-century arts, and it is nearly inconceivable to discuss her without also examining her connection to Hitler and her years as his favorite filmmaker. Yet the contributors here either gloss over such troubling historic issues or take the artist at her word. In this regard, the book recalls Riefenstahl's dissembling 1995 memoir, though it would best be paired in library collections with the critical biographical film The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl. Still, this is a fine, affordable choice for libraries that don't already own Riefenstahl's individual photography books. Douglas McClemont, New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
