Riefenstahl

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

Inquiry:
"  Did anybody (in the New York area, at least) see a documentary on Public
  TV last night about Leni Riefenstahl? I started watching towards the end.
  She was making a film about the Strength and Beauty of the young men of a
  particular African tribe, but refused to acknowledge the existence of a
  "fascist visual aesthetic" (let alone apologize for some of her earlier
  work on Strength and Beauty).
 
  The film ended showing her filming in and around a coral reef with her
  boyfriend, Horst (50 years younger than Leni). There was a heart-warming
  scene with a giant stingray. I never found out the name of the film, but
  I think it may be called something like "The Strange and Terrible Life of
  Leni Riefenstahl."
 
  Anybody know any more?"

It's called THE WONDERFUL HORRIBLE LIFE OF LENI REIFENSTAHL and documents her
career as actress and film director and the many controversies surrounding her
films, such as whether she simply recorded the Nuremberg Rally for TRIUMPH OF
THE WILL or whether it was all manipulated for a total persuasive effect.
While the film doesn't do a big number on her, it lets her undercut herself
quite often by her own contradictions--and a pretty remarkable woman to boot,
even if either terribly deceptive or self-deceptive.

Let me also recommend the recent A & E Biography episode on Josef Goebbels.
It pays quite a bit of attention to his interest in the film industry--and
his championing (if that's the right term) of "entertaining" films over
more overtly propagandistic items like JEW SUSS and THE ETERNAL JEW.  He
also really disliked the attention given by the Fuhrer to Leni Reifenstahl,
despite persistent rumors that the two had an affair.  He's even more loathsome
than you can imagine.


The film described by Molina in Puig's KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN is much truer
in style and content to the kind of Goebbels-sanctioned film than the output
of Von Goll and Erdmann in GR.

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)