LENI RIEFENSTAHL: FIVE LIVES Nuremberg Berlin Nazi

Leni Riefenstahl: Five Lives, a Biography in Pictures, edited by Angelika Taschen. Hardcover with unclipped dust-jacket, published by Taschen, 2000. 336 pages, extensive bibliography, superb largely full-page photographs. About 11” x 13”, 275mm x 335mm.

An extraordinary woman with an extraordinary career: This book, Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives, reveals in photographs the path taken by a life spanning nearly an entire century.

Born in 1902, she began as a celebrated dancer in Berlin during the early twenties, became and actress, then finally directed and produced her own films, several of which are among the most influential and most controversial in the history of film. Since the fifties she has traveled frequently to Africa and has lived for extended periods in the Sudan with the primitive Nuba tribes. Though long since a legend, she again attracted worldwide attention with her photographs of the Nuba. Then, at 71, she learned to dive and yet again turned her experiences into art with photographs of the undersea world. Today, at the age of 98, she lives near Munich, continuing work on various film and exhibition projects and planning new trips and diving expeditions.

The ‘influential’ and ‘controversial’ films are, of course, the Nazi-era films, Triumph of the Will, about the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, and Olympia, on the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

Excellent condition. Interior of book absolutely clean and unmarked. Boards with a hint of marking to lower edges. Two light pressure marks to rear board. Dust jacket very good with a little edge-wear, tiny tear (5mm) at front fold, and a hint of rubbing. Some marking to rear.