-"The Fuhrer was quite impressed with Olympiad." -"Olympia. Yes, I know, Herr Minister."
"When I finally came to terms with what he was...it shattered everything I'd known."
"A Mobius Strip is perfectly logical. You think you progress, but really, you go nowhere."
(
as Martha in Tiefland (1951)
"There is a gypsy girl named Martha who goes to dance in a village that is ruled by a tyrranical lord..."
"Ernie...promise me that you'll stay."
Left: Burns and Riefenstahl. Right: with Michael Palin, "Leni Riefenstahl's Flying Circus" (BBC-TV, 1971)
"I won't even bring up how you humiliated yourself with those idiotic comedy albums." - Marlene Dietrich
Left: "Leni Drinks Lord Buckley Under the Table" (EMI, 1956) Right: "Spike Jones Cold-Cocks Leni Riefenstahl With a Slide Whistle"(RCA, 1943)
"Leni, liepschen, the camera will be close up on you the entire time, so always be aware of it!" - Dr. Arnold Fanck
from the film Der Grobe Sprung, 1928
"You must remember the good times. Beautiful things...like the first time we went scuba diving.
Remember how I told the dive captain I was fifty? Who mistakes a seventy-two year old woman for fifty?"
photos of Jen Ryan & Rik Sansone by Dixie Sheridan.
Production photos courtesy of Dr. Albert Knapp (8/21/04, Studio at Cherry Lane)
Digitally manipulated by Michael MacEachern