 
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
|
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
In Reply to: A good friend of Adolph.....SO WHAT ? posted by mikenyc on September 09, 2002 at 13:35:43:
>>>Who really cares anymore what she allegedly did ? And what does "caring about it" have to with today ?>>>I think there are about six million dead Jews who could answer that question for you.
Follow Ups:
and I don't see many complaints about Eisenstein! Do you? Everything he made was made to extoll the virtues of the classless state (yeah, right . . . "How many daschas do you have Comrade Comissar?). Even "Ivan the Terrible" portrayed Ivan as the champion of the people vs. the "Evil Boyars".On the other hand, I think Eisenstein was a greater filmmaker. In fact, Hitler's favourite filmmaker never quite floated my boat. She is a skilled polemicist, but little more IMHO. She is however, a victim of the great rule of history, "Never be on the losing side". Eisenstein is the benefactor of the same rule.
Of course, assuming that other people also count (not just Jews and Tibettans {political correctness seems rampant, does it not? I mean, does anyone ever talk of the Chinese tortured and killed by the Japanese in WWII? Tojo's civilian victims were VERY numerous! Of course, we don't know any Japanese film directors to pillory.})
In truth, the greatest killer of the last Century was Mao, in peacetime or wartime. Find me a Chinese filmaker who loved Mao and I'll . . . nah . . . if the film-maker did not advocate genocide (which the lady in question did not) and he/she was a good film-maker, I'll like him/her, regardless. I thought this forum was about film, not politics.
A remarkable talent, but like most of the Nazis she glorified, she seems unwilling to accept responsibility for the evil that she helped propogate. Like baseball's somewhat infamous Pete Rose, if she would fully admit her culpability, I would likely be more favorably disposed towards her. As it is, at age 100 and more than two thirds of a century after the beginning of the 3rd Reich, I would guess that she feels no great inclination to change her viewpoint.Todd
I suggest you read her memoir..."Leni Riefenstahl: A Memoir"...
whether you feel she is "guilty" or not. It's quite compelling reading. It may change your mind.Whatever "case" it makes, it strongly impresses, that if ANYTHING, she is a specially Talented Artist, and woman.
It explains just what she "did". Whether what she did was "wrong", well, that's up to you.
I was expecting this answer.Respectfully, however, it is the usual political answer, that her critics bring up all these many years.
But it is still, not a specific answer, that has ANYTHING to do with her Talent, and her abilities to create and affect people as an Artist.
If one went, not very further along with this political rhetoric and logic, then, any politician who mastered and employed the techniques to manipulate Media, would also be "guilty" by association. And even that wouldn't touch upon the artistry in THAT use of it.
It's a prickly issue to discuss, because of the obvious emotional and intellectual obstacles, only because it's about politics, and NOT Art.
I've read her story too and agree it's compelling. In 1934 (Triumph of the Will) no-one had any indication of the horrors the Hitler regime would eventually unleash; while we now have the perspective of history, Leni Riefenstahl at that time did not.
When Truman was President, his tough decisions (and he had many of them!) more often than not, were so at odds with Public opinion, even that of his own administration, the media coined the phrase "To Err is Truman". History has vindicated Truman as being very much the right person at the right time, and vilified Leni Riefenstahl as being the right person at the wrong time. To condemn her out of hand is comfortable, trite, and wrong.
I see her as as much a victim of war as the soldier that came home shell-shocked. For a person of such talent to lose a brilliant career, in an atmosphere of resentment and recrimination, is a terrible waste. For her films that weren't made, as a result of her being postwar "persona non grata", in view of the standard of those few that were, it's a loss to Art, and so to us all.
Eric
Tokyo*
I absolutely agree, as in her last film , Flachland, ( Flatland )
she had that " ability as she " use " Gypsie " from the next KZ as statist.
She loves to sat down next to Hitler on a good fire place, no sex she said ..just the Führer lust, as a woman can feel that...
Mick Jagger is said to love her so Lucas and of course J Foster who is preparing her life on celluloid...As the Seven Years in Tibet, on more of the good guys to be glorified ! Thank you Hollywood.
.
nt
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
