Leni Riefenstahl

Leni Riefenstahl didn’t exactly take the straight-and-narrow route into film. First, she wanted to feel the adrenaline of dancing on stage, so she just… did it. No big deal, just chasing the spotlight until everyone took notice. And man, people did—her moves landed her smack in the middle of the movie biz, catching director Arnold Fanck’s eye. Next thing you know, she’s starring in these wild, icy mountaineering flicks, hanging off cliffs and looking like she was born for the camera. Fanck wasn’t just any director—he basically became her film sensei, showing her the ropes, and soon she’s calling the shots herself. Riefenstahl had this thing for making art on film, and critics ate it up. Awards, applause, the whole nine yards. But then, yeah, things got complicated. In 1935, she makes Triumph des Willens, a Nazi propaganda documentary that’s all about glorifying Hitler and his cronies. She swore up and down she was just an artist, not a politician, but good luck convincing the rest of the world after that disaster. The film became infamous, and so did she—suddenly, no one wanted to work with her. After WWII, folks saw her as one of Hitler’s pet filmmakers, no matter what she said. International backlash was brutal, and her directing career just… stopped, frozen in time for more than half a century.