Hitler's favourite film-maker dies at 101

FILM-MAKER Leni Riefenstahl, reputed to be Adolf Hitler's lover and whose hypnotic depiction of the German dictator's Nuremberg rally, Triumph of the Will, was renowned and despised as the best propaganda film ever made, has died, aged 101.

Riefenstahl, whose health had been weakened by injuries sustained in accidents, died last night at her home in the Bavarian lakeside town of Poecking.

Riefenstahl's companion Horst Kettner said she died in her sleep. "Her heart simply stopped," he said.