The Queen of Cinema in Germany "Leni Riefenstahl - A Memoir"

[MoseyWalker]

and am fascinated by this women's life. She lived 101 years, and may be the greatest female film director/producer of the 20th century. She died in 2003.

I have no illusions about her portraying herself in the most positive, and least Nazi-istic, way, but the story and thoughts expressed in this book are timeless. Just some of the perceptions of Hitler and his psycho friends is worth the price of the book.

"The Blue Light", "Olympia" (two parts), and others.

What a life.

I wonder who is filming the current fascists in action? (with an artistic touch, of course).

Anyone have any thoughts about this remarkable, and obviously controversial, person?

[MN ChimpH8R]

1. I read that remarkable autobiography

about ten years ago. I've always been somewhat conflicted about Riefenstahl. Clearly, she was one of the great masters as a film maker but I have never been able to figure out how much of a Nazi, if any, she was. I have been a musician for thirty-plus years, and have met artists who are so consumed by their passion for what they do that they will seize any opportunity to create while remaining blind to the non-artistic externalities.

Maybe that's the way it was with Riefenstahl. The clarity of her vision remained the same throughout her life, regardless of what she was working on, so I am inclined to give her a bit of the benefit of the doubt. She created some remarkable pieces of cinema that simultaneously functioned as stunningly effective propaganda. She clearly wasn't on the same level of culpability as Winifred Wagner, who turned Bayreuth into a Nazi cultural capitol. Even taking Riefenstahl's self-justification with a large grain of salt, it is clear that she had surprisingly and dangerously little regard for the Nazi elite and viewed herself rather grandiosely as "Riefenstahl the Artist."

She certainly led one of the most interesting lives of the 20th century and wrote one hell of a book about that life.

[MoseyWalker]

2. grandiose is right

but, she seems to have many reasons to feel that way.

Thanks for your ideas on the book, and her life.

[11cents]

3. Read Klaus Kremeier's "The UFA Story"

A very interesting book in itself if you're interested in German film and the history of the UFA studio, but its brief discussion of Riefenstahl may dispose of the notion that "Riefenstahl the Artist" as an image was anything less than maximally convenient for the Nazi elites and for Riefenstahl herself. As Kremeier says, Riefenstahl's entire claim to greatness is that she took a set of aesthetics developed for art and entertainment and turned it into the aesthetic representation of the Nazi state. That was her task, and how delightful that she could do it and still be Riefenstahl the Artist. "How much of a Nazi she was" is beside the point, I think. Few of the collaborators in the Nazi-era German film industry were in fact Nazis, and they'd all happily worked with their many Jewish colleagues for years; they collaborated anyway and pretended that their vanished colleagues had never existed, mostly for mundane careerist reasons.

In looking at the directors, actors, etc., who remained in Germany (and relatively few non-Jews left; Conrad Veidt and Marlene Dietrich are the actors who comes readily to mind, and the latter was already in Hollywood when Hitler took power) -- I think every story is different, but one can at least differentiate between those who just put their heads down and kept churning out the operettas and domestic comedies and those who went out of their way to participate in "films of the state." Werner Krauss, Emil Jannings, Harlan Veit (for sure!), and Leni Riefenstahl, are all in the latter category, IMHO.

[MoseyWalker]

4. I will find and read your suggestion

thanks!

Fascinating.

You obviously have much information regarding this, and I appreciate your suggestion to read more about UFA.

thanks again.

[11cents]

5. German movie history is a recent obsession of mine

Glad to share it! The story of how film and theater people responded when the Nazis took over would make a hell of a movie itself.

[MoseyWalker]

6. Someone HAS to make a movie out of this woman's life

and try to sort through all the political BS to find the artist involved with the political BS.

What a story.

[Bear down under]

8. Do the creators of new roses count as artists?

We rose lovers like to think they do. The German rose breeders have been world leaders in the field since about 1900; and though they introduced some very fine roses in the 30s and 40s, not one was named in honour of any of the Nazi gang.

[MoseyWalker]

7. just in case

someone's up and knows what I'm writing about.

a kick.