News about Leni Riefenstahl

She may have been a well-known actress, director, and photographer, but Leni Riefenstahl is the individual Adolf Hitler once described as the 'perfect German woman.' Leni, who died in her sleep at the age of 102 in 2003, caught the attention of the Nazi party leader thanks to her motion picture films that celebrated Aryan looks, having started training as a ballet dancer in the early 1920s. In 1934, Hitler had hired her to produce a documentary about the Nurnberg rallies, a barely disguised effort to demonstrate that the German people had fallen in love with the national party. The Stamp of Beauty, Fionala Meredith's highly awaited debut novel, was out this week, and the Irish journalist claims her book's protagonist was inspired by the 'terrible wonder' of the historical figure. Femail delves into Leni Riefenstahl's meteoric rise and fall from grace, as well as how she managed to escape punishment and re-invent herself as an artistic 'feminism pioneer' in later life.