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Tuesday, September 9, 2003 |
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Leni Riefenstahl dead at 101. [Cnn.com] She made the amazing 1934 Nazi propoganda film, Triumph of the Will, which I have seen a couple of times in NYC "art cinemas." My wife is Jewish and saw it with me the second time, and also experienced its incredible power to make you want to immediately sign up for the Party! (Of course, the film shows nothing of the murderous beliefs held already by Hitler at that time, but instead depicts the seemingly positive vision he projected in that period of all "true" Germans coming together in a sort of spiritual brotherhood of the volk.) If you ever get a chance to see Triumph of the Will, particularly in a theater, do it, not only because it is the best example ever created of the power of the media to seduce people into unknowingly move in utterly horrific directions, and not only because it will give you insight into how a Hitler can move people to unconditionally follow him, but also because, if you are a film lover, you will actually enjoy it purely as brilliant filmmaking. Here's a short clip from the film of Hitler giving a speech, breaking occasionally to members of the enthralled audience: "In you is also that which we ... hope from Germany. We want to be one people (ein Volk), and you, young people, are to be that Volk." Notice how the audience members themselves are idealized, how a viewer might want to be one of them. Riefenstahl later spent some time living in African tribal cultures and making films of those lives, again creating an idiolized image of a particular place and time. I have seen one of those films, and also films she made in her 70's of coral reefs. They are all excellent. She was an inspired filmmaker, probably one of the best who ever lived at making viewers feel the effects she wanted them to feel. Unfortunately, at one time she was taken in by Hitler, and probably helped a lot of other people get taken in by Hitler. And of course the result of so many being taken in by Hitler was tens of millions of innocent lives lost, many in horrible ways. Leni Riefenstahl was a fascinating figure and in some ways a symbol of the 20th century -- in particular with respect to embodying the power of new media like film to manipulate and move people to ends that may be far from ideal. 8:22:21 AM 
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