Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by gware (D) on September 11, 2002 at 07:53:41

In Reply to: Re: A good friend of Adolph.....SO WHAT ? posted by mikenyc on September 09, 2002 at 15:07:04:

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*