Leni Riefenstahl interviewed by Kevin Brownlow
"If Leni Riefenstahl had done nothing but visit Africa and bring back her photographs, her place in history would be secure."
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We were amazed by mass scenes of tribesmen, the spears composed like paintings by Utrillo, powerful close-ups, full figure shots showing her fascination with the beauty of physique, swirling action pictures of wrestling... Her depictions of innocence, the paradise before civilization, were most effective in closeups of Nuba tribesmen and girls; the serene expressions she captured were most touching.
"Stills can also be artistic," she said, suspecting prejudice from us film-makers. "I like stills because there is more time to look." We all felt deeply privileged .
At the end of l966, Leni returned to Sudan for a brief visit. After the usual enthusiastic reception from the Nuba, she realised it was Christmas.
"I showed them what an angel looked like with a white sheet. I made some kind of wings. I tried to explain what Christmas was like with candles. I gave a small Christmas party-a surprise to the Nuba who didn't know what Christmas was. When I lit the candles in my hut, it turned out that they had never seen a candle."
She realised that she could no longer manage alone; ideally she needed someone familiar with motion picture cameras who was also an engineer. And, incredibly, she found him. Horst Kettner was a tall young man whose face "inspired my trust from the very first moment." (p. 548) And he proved his ability by going to England, despite not speaking a word of English, picking up a Land Rover, despite a strike at the factory, and driving it nonstop from London to Munich.
"I didn't film myself. I only photographed. Horst filmed (with a 16mm Arriflex.) Oh, he was a great help. Especially when the car broke down. Changing a wheel was very exhausting for me. And besides it was a very good feeling to have someone else to share all those beautiful things, a friend who could see and experience all that with me. For instance, if anyone were to doubt what I am telling you now, there would be a witness who could confirm what I said. He thinks the same way about the Nuba as I do."
After overcoming a series of almost insuperable difficulties, vividly told in her memoirs, Leni reached her Nuba once more and again received an ecstatic welcome. They had built her a house. But she was dismayed by the changes she saw.
"After (five) years" absence when I came back they were suddenly all dressed in rags. They were forced to-the Sudanese government brought them clothing. They weren't allowed to go about naked any more. And that had changed them as well."
When Horst and Leni attempted to film a wrestling festival, they discovered that even the athletes were wearing trousers and carrying plastic bottles. Horst could not persuade the men to discard their clothing; now they were embarrassed. The ritual had changed so much that it was no longer worth shooting. More disturbingly, Leni heard that the Nuba had begun to steal. "What had caused this change?" she wrote. "It couldn't be the fault of tourists, for apart from a British air hostess who had managed to advance this far with her father, no outsider had ever come here except for myself." (p. 557) A number of bad harvests had forced the young men to go to work in the towns; they returned with clothes, venereal diseases and money.
"The first coin, the first piece of money of whatever currency they got hold of changed the character of the Nuba. From that moment, they could buy something in the market. They grew cotton and sold it in the market, and when they got the money for that and could buy things, the others wanted money as well. Before there had been no difference between them. Without money, they were all equal. But with the arrival of money, one would have more, the other one less and so all of a sudden something arose they hadn't known before, a certain competitiveness, a certain envy. And that changed their character."
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Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
We were amazed by mass scenes of tribesmen, the spears composed like paintings by Utrillo, powerful close-ups, full figure shots showing her fascination with the beauty of physique, swirling action pictures of wrestling... Her depictions of innocence, the paradise before civilization, were most effective in closeups of Nuba tribesmen and girls; the serene expressions she captured were most touching.
"Stills can also be artistic," she said, suspecting prejudice from us film-makers. "I like stills because there is more time to look." We all felt deeply privileged .
At the end of l966, Leni returned to Sudan for a brief visit. After the usual enthusiastic reception from the Nuba, she realised it was Christmas.
"I showed them what an angel looked like with a white sheet. I made some kind of wings. I tried to explain what Christmas was like with candles. I gave a small Christmas party-a surprise to the Nuba who didn't know what Christmas was. When I lit the candles in my hut, it turned out that they had never seen a candle."
She realised that she could no longer manage alone; ideally she needed someone familiar with motion picture cameras who was also an engineer. And, incredibly, she found him. Horst Kettner was a tall young man whose face "inspired my trust from the very first moment." (p. 548) And he proved his ability by going to England, despite not speaking a word of English, picking up a Land Rover, despite a strike at the factory, and driving it nonstop from London to Munich.
"I didn't film myself. I only photographed. Horst filmed (with a 16mm Arriflex.) Oh, he was a great help. Especially when the car broke down. Changing a wheel was very exhausting for me. And besides it was a very good feeling to have someone else to share all those beautiful things, a friend who could see and experience all that with me. For instance, if anyone were to doubt what I am telling you now, there would be a witness who could confirm what I said. He thinks the same way about the Nuba as I do."
After overcoming a series of almost insuperable difficulties, vividly told in her memoirs, Leni reached her Nuba once more and again received an ecstatic welcome. They had built her a house. But she was dismayed by the changes she saw.
"After (five) years" absence when I came back they were suddenly all dressed in rags. They were forced to-the Sudanese government brought them clothing. They weren't allowed to go about naked any more. And that had changed them as well."
When Horst and Leni attempted to film a wrestling festival, they discovered that even the athletes were wearing trousers and carrying plastic bottles. Horst could not persuade the men to discard their clothing; now they were embarrassed. The ritual had changed so much that it was no longer worth shooting. More disturbingly, Leni heard that the Nuba had begun to steal. "What had caused this change?" she wrote. "It couldn't be the fault of tourists, for apart from a British air hostess who had managed to advance this far with her father, no outsider had ever come here except for myself." (p. 557) A number of bad harvests had forced the young men to go to work in the towns; they returned with clothes, venereal diseases and money.
"The first coin, the first piece of money of whatever currency they got hold of changed the character of the Nuba. From that moment, they could buy something in the market. They grew cotton and sold it in the market, and when they got the money for that and could buy things, the others wanted money as well. Before there had been no difference between them. Without money, they were all equal. But with the arrival of money, one would have more, the other one less and so all of a sudden something arose they hadn't known before, a certain competitiveness, a certain envy. And that changed their character."
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