Riefenstahl

American  

[ree-fuhn-shtahl] / ˈri fənˌʃtɑl /

noun

1. Leni 1902–2003, German film director.

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Riefenstahl British  

/ ˈriːfənʃtaːl /

noun

1. Leni (ˈleːni). 1902–2003, German photographer and film director, best known for her Nazi propaganda films, such as Triumph of the Will (1934)

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Example Sentences

Ever since its re-release in the early 1950s, “Battleship Potemkin” has been consistently rated among the greatest films ever made, and has influenced numerous creative artists, from the notorious Leni Riefenstahl in her propagandist documentaries to the painter Francis Bacon, who was inspired by the agonizing images of the Odessa Steps sequence, as was Brian De Palma in making the railroad-station scene in “The Untouchables.”

From The Wall Street Journal

When not making phone calls with convicted Nazi architect Albert Speer about how to strike the best book deal, Riefenstahl is seen — in jaw-dropping footage — skiing, living her untroubled mountain lifestyle with a partner 25 years her junior and being confronted on talk shows.

From Los Angeles Times

The real-life Pabst, who returned to Europe after a disappointing sojourn in Hollywood, fell in readily with Hitler’s propaganda machine, to include directing “The White Hell of Pitz Palu” starring none other than future Third Reich filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl.

From Los Angeles Times

After the Nazis were defeated, “Triumph of the Will” director Leni Riefenstahl, stripped of her Third Reich protections but saved from prison by a sympathetic tribunal, realized she’d need to become her greatest propaganda subject yet: selling the world that she was merely a persecuted naif taking a commission — someone who cared only about art, not politics.

From Los Angeles Times

“Riefenstahl,” Andres Veiel’s scrupulous, powerful documentary about the documentarian’s efforts to rehabilitate her image and art — a biography folded into an investigation — amounts to one big “not so fast” of a response.

From Los Angeles Times