The footsteps of a master photographer

She not only has compelling beauty, but also has amazing talent given by heaven. She is not only a dancer and movie star, but also a famous director, producer and photographer. She is known as "the mother of modern documentaries". Her tree of life is evergreen: she learned to dive at the age of 72, shot sharks at the bottom of the sea at the age of 94, and finished her last documentary at the age of 100.

Hitler once affectionately called her "my perfect German woman".

However, within seven months, she made a big mistake, which led to people's different opinions on her, which lasted for 70 years. Without this mistake, she might be the most perfect woman in the world. She is leni riefenstahl leni riefenstahl, a guilty rose and a flawed white jade.

The perfect German woman leni riefenstahl.

1902 On August 22nd, Rifenstar was born in a wealthy family in Berlin, Germany. She is brilliant and fascinated by poetry, painting, movies and drama. In order to study art, she secretly entered a dance class and became a dancer despite her father's strong opposition.

Riefenstahl is a beautiful woman who has fallen wild, and her dancing is more agile and full of amorous feelings. At the age of 2 1, she performed dance for the first time, which amazed the whole Berlin. However, while performing in Prague, she accidentally broke her knee and began a long recovery process.

During the gloomy recovery period, she watched the movie "Mountain of Destiny", and she couldn't help being at a loss and her depression was swept away. She boldly wrote a letter to director Arnold, which was filled with the pride of young girls:

"Only I am the heroine in your movie."

She also sent photos with the letter.

Unexpectedly, the director was impressed by her aggressive beauty and soon agreed to meet her. But Arnold prefers adventure films, and requires actors to have strong bodies. He was worried that her knees would be too much for her.

She made a bold decision: at the risk of leaving a lifelong disability, operate on her knee immediately! Fortunately, the operation was very successful, and Rifenstar successfully became the heroine and starred in the movie Holy Mountain.

After the film was released, she became a household name star. In the film, she climbs the peak bravely barefoot, giving off the light of courage and strength. Since then, she has entered the film industry. She quickly mastered the skill of making movies. Later, she wrote, directed and acted in the film Blu-ray, and won the silver prize at Venice Film Festival with 1932. She also became the first female director in German history.

A lifetime mistake?

If it weren't for the following mistakes, she might have reached the peak of her career, enjoyed a lifetime of praise and become a unique and perfect woman. Maybe God was jealous of her beauty and talent, so he set an attractive trap for her.

Among her many fans, there is a great man with extraordinary status-Nazi leader Hitler. She once listened to his speech at the Berlin Gymnasium and was "brainwashed" by him in just a few minutes. She once recalled the feeling at that time: "I felt that the earth's surface suddenly cracked, and a huge water jet from it was strong enough to make the earth shake ..."

Later, she wrote a letter to Hitler, expressing her admiration and asking to meet. To her surprise, Hitler readily agreed. After all, he was also a big fan of hers.

They fell in love at first sight at this meeting. Hitler opened his arms and embraced her warmly, but then he let go and vowed, "I'm not allowed to fall in love with women until I finish my career."

Since then, they have kept close contact, and there are even rumors that she is his mistress. However, they all denied it and only admitted that they were each other's confidants.

The sweet trap was slowly laid, and Rivenstal took the first step.

Triumph of the Will

One of the representative works of legendary female directors is 1935 film Triumph de Willens. At that time, she accepted Hitler's invitation and filmed the National Party Congress held by the German Nazi Party in Nuremberg in 1934. More than 700,000 supporters attended the conference, and the work was shot in various ways, which fully highlighted the inflammatory Nazi image and was a political propaganda film.

The film won many awards after its release, but it was banned after World War II until 2004. But it has a far-reaching impact on the film industry and documentaries, and it is also extremely important in promoting the masses to support the Nazis. At first she was reluctant, but Hitler's tongue was colorful: "Give me your life for six days, and you will never work for me against your will again." On cloud nine, Riefenstahl agreed.

Hitler gave her the greatest support: unlimited production funds! Provide a huge film crew of 100 people!

16 photographer and 16 assistant worked at the same time, 36 cameras worked together, 26 cars and many security personnel went out with her. Even during the filming, Hitler himself obeyed her command.

At that time, only 32-year-old Rifenstar was like a powerful queen, deploying troops on the spot and showing amazing talent. She is very familiar with shooting magnificent military parade scenes, such as cooking small fresh vegetables.

In the film, Hitler was beautified as a radiant male god who descended from the sky by plane. Suddenly, shouts and cheers resounded through the sky.

When Nazi politicians offered to show their faces in the film, Riefenstahl refused for the beauty of the picture. Hitler begged her condescendingly: "Everyone has a vanity side ...".

She stamped her foot and refused again, so Hitler had to be overbearing: "Don't forget who is standing in front of you!" " "Finally, she had to compromise.

So every politician in the film shouted a few empty slogans, which may be a failure of the film. It took 6.5438+0.7 million feet of film to shoot this masterpiece. After careful editing, the film became a victory of will that shocked the world, and won the gold medal at Venice Film Festival and Paris World Expo.

In this wonderful film, Hitler was played brilliantly. Even a few years later, Germans will burst into tears when they see this film. It is said that even now, university professors dare not fully show the film in film class, because its demagoguery and incitement are simply terrible.

After all, the lady was indeed wearing a military uniform to take pictures at that time, and her works did have considerable influence. Even her close relationship with Hitler is beyond doubt, so critics in the future have always believed that she must take responsibility for war crimes.

Even after the war, even though she said that she knew nothing about the concentration camp, she was once under house arrest, and France * * * also destroyed her filming work, and she was named as a "Nazi photographer" from then on. The more successful this film is, the more guilty Rivenstal is. But before she came to her senses, she was still in dancing with the devil.

1936, Rifenstar directed and filmed the Berlin Olympic Games.

In addition, leni riefenstahl also has 1938 Olympia, which recorded 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, and the momentum is even more magnificent.

This is the first documentary of the Olympic Games, and her excellent and avant-garde lens application technology has become the industry standard in the future, and it has been listed as one of the 100 films by Time magazine. Although this is a documentary about sports competition, which has shot and highlighted the graceful posture of athletes and won many awards, it has also been criticized for propagating the idea of Nazi superior race.

For the perfection of the lens, she simply "buried in the ground", dug trenches and set up machines at the edge of the stadium to photograph the elevation of athletes; Install cameras on board and on horseback to shoot the athletes' movements; Even arrange planes and hot air balloons to take spectacular aerial views.

She directed a film crew of more than 200 people, spent 18 months shooting, and finally cut out the essence of 205 minutes in the film of1.2000 feet.

She said: "The Olympic Games will end in 14 days, and my film will be shown to others for 20 years." Indeed, as she hoped, "Olympia" won the gold medal at the Venice Film Festival, and the media commented that it was "an epic on the screen".

However, this non-political documentary became a gift for Hitler's 49th birthday in 1938, and thus became one of the crimes of Riefenstahl. "Victory of Will" and "Olympia" have become the pinnacle of brilliant documentaries, but also the most controversial works.

For Riefenstahl, these two films have become a "stain" that she can't clean up. It was not until 1939 that World War II broke out and the Nazis showed their ferocious face that Rifenstar saw Hitler's hypocrisy and cruelty. She once said regretfully, "I would rather die before 1939 September 1." After that, she vowed never to work for politics again.

1945 Hitler fell and she was sent to prison. She was acquitted after four years in prison. The verdict said that she "didn't do anything unrelated to art". What makes her sad, however, is that people always refuse to forgive her and always accuse her of that stain.

After all, the influence of those two documentaries is far-reaching. She had to constantly clarify to the public: "I'm just an artist, only loyal to beautiful and harmonious things ..." At this point, her directing career was ruined and her husband had already abandoned her. When she is in trouble, she even has to squeeze into a friend's attic with her mother.

Rivenstar's only marriage was with Major Peter Jacob in 1944, and they had no children. However, she didn't want to get involved. She wants to continue to prove herself to people and is not afraid to start all over again. She picked up a camera and became a photographer.

In the 1950s and 1960s, she traveled to Africa many times to live with the Nuba people of the primitive tribe. Their metallic skin and sculptural figure fascinated her. With them, she laughed more than ever before.

1972, her album Nuba caused a sensation. Under her lens, Nuba people are so bright and gorgeous, which brings visual shock to people. Letters flew like snowflakes, and at one time she even hired three people to reply.

She lived in Africa many times and stayed with the local Nuba people, but people didn't fully understand her. In one of her 1997 photo exhibitions, she was accused of peddling "fascist aesthetics". Rivenstal refused, saying, "Don't deny my life just because I worked for Hitler for seven months."

Nuba people under the lens of Rifenstar

Rivenstar's footsteps did not stop because of the controversy. She lives under great pressure of public opinion, but makes her life more exciting, even though she is old.

At the age of 72, she lied that she was 52 years old, attended a diving training class, became an underwater photographer, and published photo albums Coral Garden and Underwater Wonders. She dived more than 2000 times, becoming the oldest person in this record.

At the age of 94, she came to Costa Rica to photograph sharks at the bottom of the sea. At the age of 95, she mastered new professional equipment and learned to process images with Apple software. ; At the age of 97, she went to Sudan again to visit the Nuba people who missed her day and night. At the age of 98, she took a camera team to shoot in the mountains. The plane suddenly crashed and her ribs were broken, but she survived. /kloc-At the age of 0/00, she edited the last documentary "Underwater Impression".

On September 9, 2003, at the age of10/kloc-0, she left her home in Munich safely.

She is so clever and so evil. History has proved her innocence, but it has also preserved her stain. In the face of people's accusations, she once said disappointedly, "Women are not allowed to make mistakes." Will you forgive this guilty rose and this flawed white jade?