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richard
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Leni Riefenstahl
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Sep 10 02:28 UTC 2003 |
Leni Riefenstahl died Monday night in Poecking, in Bavaria, at the age
of 101. If you don't know her name, you should. She was the mother of
documentary filmmaking. Her works are considered by filmmakers to be
among the greatest examples of the form. Of course her greatest, and
most controversial work, was "Triumph of the Will", the documentary
about Adolf Hitler and his appearance at a Nazi rally in Nurenberg in
1934. This film was the propoganda piece that the Nazis used in
Germany for years to seduce people there to their side. My dad, whose
parents were German, visted there in the mid 30's and reported that
theaters were required to play excerpts from that film before every
showing of every regular movie.
Leaving aside politics, Triumph of the Will is an amazing film. It was
released on DVD more than a year ago. The images and the imagery and
the shots, like Hitler in his plane descending from the clouds like a
God to start the movie, were revolutionary in their time. To many
filmmakers, that movie is sourcework. The bible of documentary
filmmaking. Where you see how its done. Steven Spielberg, in Raiders
of the Lost Ark, did certain scenes in it, directly based on Triumph of
the Will. Two years later, at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Riefenstahl did
the "Olympia" documentary, chronicling in detail those games, and that
is also considered one of the greatest films, documentaries or
otherwise ever made.
During filming of "Olympia", she also took up still photography and
there is a terrific coffee table book of her work at those games. When
Riefenstahl was banned for years from filmmaking for her controversial
association with Hitler, and she took up still photography full time.
She moved to africa and chronicled various african tribes in detail in
still photographs. Her works on the various tribes in Africa that are
disappearing over time are quite celebrated.
Later, in her seventies and eighties, she took up scuba diving and made
vast chronicles of underwater photography. I read her autobiography,
which came out only a few years ago, just recently. Leni Riefenstahl's
life was amazing, her life was so long and complex that a book can't
really cover it. She was Hitler's filmmaker and propogandist, and will
always, deservedly be reviled for that. But she was also the only
important female in an obsessively sexist political hierarchy. And in
her time, one of the few female filmmakers in the world. And the life
she led afterwards, going around the world as a still photographer,
living in the most remote conditions, among tribes of Africa and out at
sea and under all kinds of conditions, to take pictures, speaks for
itself.
Whatever you think of her politics, Leni Riefenstahl was a remarkable
woman. She is the mother of not only documentary filmmaking, but also
of modern political advertising. There isn't a 20th century political
history class or a filmmaking class that doesn't feature her work.
Leni Riefenstahl's influence is incalculable. She died at 101 and it
sounds like she lived, really lived, every year of that life
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| 45 responses total. |
richard
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response 1 of 45:
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Sep 10 02:43 UTC 2003 |
To give you an idea of how long and well Leni Riefenstahl lived, just last
year she released "Impressions Under Water", a widely acclaimed documentary
where she filmed sharks underwater for long periods of time. When she made
that movie, underwater filming sharks, she was in her nineties. It came out
when she was 100.
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happyboy
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response 2 of 45:
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Sep 10 08:28 UTC 2003 |
i am glad she's dead!
8D
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eprom
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response 3 of 45:
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Sep 10 12:28 UTC 2003 |
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fitz
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response 4 of 45:
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Sep 10 13:31 UTC 2003 |
I only saw one of her shoots of savanna- or sub-saharan-dwelling people in
Africa. Possibly the Masai, but I'll defer to the correction of the grexers
with her life's work.
It was National Geographic quality. Dignified, Respectful.
Saturated colors,
but having cloudless days helps along those lines.
The big surprise was in the editor's comments on the current issue. Along
with the blurb on her expedition was a photograph taken by an unidentified
collegue of her at the village. She was walking holding hands with a handsome
man of the village. He, with but a few decorative feathers, had little more
than some facial paint onand he looked to be about 6-foot seven-inches next
to the tiny euorpean woman he was holding hands with. They appeared to be
as unaffected as any couple in a park.
This just isn't the sort of thing that I would have expected from any Nazi.
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rcurl
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response 5 of 45:
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Sep 10 15:58 UTC 2003 |
She wasn't a Nazi - she was a photographer, who on occasion photographed
Nazis. I ran across a filming of her movie Olympia late one evening (not
figuring out what it was for a long time as the introduction was all
symbolism of heroism and valor), which was about the Olympic games of 1936
in which Jesse Owens competed (and won). Eventually the movie got to the
games, and there was a lot of footage of Hitler and public adulation of
him. But the movie still showed Owens racing and winning and being
adulated also.
Photographers photograph their environemtn and what is happening. Nazi-ism
was happening. I can't fault her for pursuing her art regardless of the
relation to politics. The world is richer for having the products of her
art.
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other
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response 6 of 45:
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Sep 10 16:17 UTC 2003 |
She is castigated for remaining truly neutral to the Nazis' advantageous
use of her remarkable work in the pursuit of their cause.
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happyboy
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response 7 of 45:
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Sep 10 17:50 UTC 2003 |
nazi collaborator.
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rcurl
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response 8 of 45:
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Sep 10 19:00 UTC 2003 |
If anything, she was exhibiting to the world some aspects of German society
at that date - how one was to interpet that was up to the viewer. The threats
of Naziism were also not widely comprehended at that time. It can only
be said in hindsight that her work played into their hands.
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novomit
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response 9 of 45:
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Sep 11 18:40 UTC 2003 |
I recall seeing "Triumph of the Will" several years ago and I was quite
impressed with it. It was a really pretty good movie (for the time),
although obvious propaganda. What I find so amusing about her is that
there are loads and loads of people who just jump at the chance to
trash her because of some film that she made 70 years ago, but all too
often, these same people do more or less the same things nowadays and
no one gives a damn.
When WWII was being fought, the companies in the army (or in any other
branch of American service) were not integrated. Blacks in America were
treated more or less the same as the Jews in Nazi Germany -- they
didn't have to wear a yellow star, but their skin color served the same
purpose. True, there were no death camps in America, but a white man
could easily kill a black man and never be charged with any wrong
doing. Even now on television, black men in particular are portayed
more often than not as crack dealers or crooks of some stripe. And now
the same thing is being done to Arabs on a lesser scale with regards to
terrorism. Actually, now the propaganda is a lot more disturbing since
it is so much more subtle. You get it all the time, but you are never
aware that this is what you are getting. When Hitler's army was
defeated, it was not like all of the Germans who had participated in
the Holocaust suddenly had lightning transformations and saw the evil
of their ways. The same is true here. There are still people that feel
the same as people did 50 years ago about race. But these same people
who condemn Arabs and blacks, seem to have no problem using Leni as
their scapegoat. It cannot have been easy for an artist to produce
quality works of art under the Third Reich . . . I wonder all these
people who criticise the ones who tried . . . I wonder how much better
they would have done had they been in the same situations?
You can criticise Heidegger or Riefenstahl all you want, but if those
who do the most of the criticism were in the same situation, I doubt if
they would have acted boldly and sacrificed their lifes, reputations,
livelihoods and/or art to save an ethnic group already not well-liked.
I recall in the film "Judgement At Nuremberg," Spencer Tracey's
character said something to Burt Lancaster's character to the effect
that he "went too far" in his collusion in the Nazis machinations the
very first time he sentenced an innocent man to death. I kind of wish
Lancaster's character had snapped back, "When was the last time that
you stopped a lynching, Judge? When was the last time you hung a white
man for participating in the American Holocaust?" That of course would
have ruined the movie, especially after Lancaster's soliloquy at the
end. But I'll bet that if Dr. Ernst Janning was guilty of being chicken
shit rather than risking life and limb for decency's sake, Judge
Haywood probably wasn't much better. It's kind of strange how you can
always see others' faults, but never see them in yourself. Also strange
how we'd crucify someone else even though we are guilty of the same
sins.
Her Nazi films were masterworks of propaganda, and excellent films
based on style. They were used to very bad ends. Her later work in the
Sudan showed that she was behaving very, very oddly for a real Nazi.
Was she a a Nazi collaborator? Yes. But so were most others in her
country at that time. This does not excuse her refusing to accept the
consequences of the films, but let me ask you all this: If you had been
alive 80 years ago and saw a lynching of a black taking place, how many
would have spoken up? How many would have risked their families, jobs,
life, etc. in order to stand up for justice? Every one of you, I am
sure . . .
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happyboy
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response 10 of 45:
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Sep 11 18:44 UTC 2003 |
oh...in that case i think it's really neat that she was a nazi
collaborator!
/applause
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novomit
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response 11 of 45:
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Sep 11 18:57 UTC 2003 |
As I said above "This does not excuse her", although if you or I were in her
position, I doubt if we would have done much better. When was the last time you
risked your neck for something?
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happyboy
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response 12 of 45:
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Sep 11 19:02 UTC 2003 |
would that include working with aggressive psychotic
people for the last 13 years?
when was the last time you risked YOUR neck for something?
(not counting the risk of going to jail for threatening people
with a gun at school)
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novomit
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response 13 of 45:
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Sep 11 19:11 UTC 2003 |
neck.
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happyboy
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response 14 of 45:
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Sep 11 19:14 UTC 2003 |
answer.
neck.
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novomit
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response 15 of 45:
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Sep 11 19:56 UTC 2003 |
For some reason my l;ast reply wasnt posted. if you still are pissed at me for
holding the gun on that kid 15 years ago, then you have no idea what it is like
to live in a gang infested area. Tough. I look after myself.
I know human nature a little too well to beleive that either of us would.
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happyboy
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response 16 of 45:
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Sep 11 21:18 UTC 2003 |
i'm not *mad* at you, mr. pistol.
"either of us would" *what*?
a gang infested area? oh my, that's scary.
i'll bet they're negroes, latinos, or asians too!!!
/runs across the street to where the family of 3 were
murdered (1996) before i lived here and asks the 4
bangers to quit hanging out in the still abandoned
domicile/daycare property and starts picking up the
crack baggies.
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novomit
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response 17 of 45:
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Sep 15 16:43 UTC 2003 |
with me without constantly referring to something I did once about 15 years
ago, could you please tell me something ythat you have done that you are
ashamed of so that I can mention it each time we talk? Fair is fair, after
all.
in authority had been doing their jobs, the incident would not have occured.
but youre perfect, so i guess all that is lost on you, hrey?
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tod
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response 18 of 45:
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Sep 15 17:10 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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clees
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response 19 of 45:
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Sep 17 20:02 UTC 2003 |
Speaking as a citizen from a country that sufffered severely (200,000+
gassed Jews, for instance) much from the nazi yoke: she never voiced
any regret from her colaboration to nazi propaganda. THAT makes her
suspect.
Maybe she wasn't like true nazis, but still...
We Dutch look at those people with much suspicion.
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other
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response 20 of 45:
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Sep 17 20:15 UTC 2003 |
A sin of omission, at the very least.
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tod
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response 21 of 45:
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Sep 17 21:18 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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rcurl
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response 22 of 45:
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Sep 17 22:10 UTC 2003 |
I don't think she had anything to apologize for. Her art did not further
the Nazi enterprise even if they used it as propaganda. However it never
succeeded as propaganda. Who looked more favorably upon the Nazis because
of her films?
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cross
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response 23 of 45:
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Sep 17 22:26 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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fitz
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response 24 of 45:
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Sep 17 22:51 UTC 2003 |
Quite so, but, as Bob Mondelo observed, subsequent imitation of her
cinimatography was immediately suspect, for we all understood (too late) the
horror that those images were connected to. In this sense, her work remains
influencial and stud.
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