Leni's Life

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

[Riefenstahl, not Pokler]

hg remarks:
"
New mail on node MKVAX1 from IN%"davemarc at panix.com"  "davemarc"
""less vacuous than that of Spielberg?" - difficult, difficult indeed.
But maybe less cynical. Remembering a long Riefenstahl documentary,
what comes to mind is her total inability to think of herself and her
work in abstract terms, to even imagine what a 'fascist aesthetic' might
be, to just function on a totally unconscious level, not self-aware at all."
 
Which may be just what Leni wants us to think.  If you're referring to
the recent THE WONDERFUL HORRIBLE LIFE OF LENI RIEFENSTAHL, notice how she
keeps denying that she had any hand in planning the Nuremberg Rally of
TRIUMPH OF THE WILL and then watch her beady little eyes light up while
she drools over the Steenbeck machine, pointing out all the carefully
placed shots and strategically designed camera placements.  When she defends
her love of modern art ("degenerate" to the Nazis), there's a very large
book on Van Gogh evident just in back of her (It's far more distinct on film
than on tape, but I don't think its placement was any accident!).
 
Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)