Later Years and Death
Riefenstahl celebrated her 101st birthday on 22 August 2003 and, according to one tabloid in 2007, married Horst Kettner.
Leni Riefenstahl died in her sleep on the late evening of 8 September 2003 at her home in Pöcking, Germany. She had been suffering from cancer. She was buried in Munich's Waldfriedhof cemetery.
There was varied response in the obituary pages of leading publications, although most recognized her technical breakthroughs in film making:
The Daily Telegraph wrote that she
was perhaps the most talented female cinema director of the 20th century; her celebration of Nazi Germany in film ensured that she was certainly the most infamous...Critics would later decry her fascination with the athletes’ physiques as fascistic; but in truth her interest was born not of racist ends but of the delight she, as a former dancer, took in the human form.The Independent wrote that
Opinions will be divided between those who see her as a young, talented and ambitious woman caught up in the tide of events which she did not fully understand, and those who believe her to be a cold and opportunist propagandist and a Nazi by association.The Independent also offered
At the end of her long life she was still the controversial femme fatale of German films...She was interested in beauty, adventure and films, but she was famous for being the woman you love to hate.Read more about this topic: Leni Riefenstahl
Famous quotes containing the words years and/or death:
“Theoretically, we know that the world turns, but in fact we do not notice it, the earth on which we walk does not seem to move and we live on in peace. This is how it is concerning Time in our lives. And to render its passing perceptible, novelists must... have their readers cross ten, twenty, thirty years in two minutes.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“Voice number one says,
“I am the leaves. I am the martyred.
Come unto me with death for I am the siren.
I am forty young girls in green shells....””
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)