Re: Riefenstahl

[George Robinson <grcomm...>]

I want to weigh in here with my film critic hat on. My position on Riefenstahl
is even more unfashionable than any expressed here.

I think she's one of the most overrated filmmakers in the history of the
medium. Triumph of the Will is a monumental bore, a massive gasbag of a movie.
Moreover, it's the work of someone who -- given unlimited resources -- 60
camera crews were shooting the rally -- managed to use footage that was shot
out of focus for the final film. That's not art, that's ineptitude. I would go
further and say that Olympia -- except for the diving sequence and all the
Jesse Owens footage -- is also pretty dull. Riefenstahl is a magazine
illustrator's idea of a great filmmaker. Her work is inert and leaden, her
cutting rhythms are mechanical and predictable, her subject matter, when not
actively offensive, is relentlessly middlebrow in the worst sense (and I'm not
convinced that her still photography is much better).

Leni Riefenstahl is a world-class self-promoter, not a great artist.

Taking that point of view might seem convenient -- it allows me to sidestep
the question of the relationship between art and politics altogether -- but at
least I'm consistent -- I've been saying this in conversation and in print for
30 years.

I have to admit to a grudging respect for anyone who can get a film made at
the age of 90; a lot of better filmmakers were forced into retirement in their
70s because they couldn't get insured. But that doesn't alter two important
facts -- she's a lying Nazi bitch and she's a lousy director and actress.

If you want to find a test case for the art-and-politics question, go read
Ezra Pound (who was a great poet and a vicious anti-Semite for most of his
lifespan).

George Robinson

Alex Lubet wrote:

> She's not only a liar, she's a Nazi, and that's the subject of the films
> for which she's famous.  I suppose she was skillful, but I'm certainly not
> "objective" enough to filter her ideology out of my assessment of her
> work.  I hope I never will be.
>
> Shabbat Shalom,
>
> At 02:22 PM 1/18/2002 -0500, you wrote:
> >--- lipkowitz (at) aa(dot)edu wrote:
> > > Riefenstahl is a liar.  She knew exactly what Nazism
> > > was about and what it
> > > was up to.
> >
> >So if she's a liar, then it's not art?  Or is this
> >only the case when applied to Nazism?  (if there
> >really wasn't a little bird sent from God who dictated
> >melodies to Pope Gregory on his shoulder, does that
> >invalidate all of Gregorian Chant?)
> >
> > > Music is different.
> > > Music (free of words) does
> > > not lend itself as easily to ideological
> > > interpretation.
> >
> >(Lots of music does have words!) Untexted music is
> >different, I agree, but I think it's because it lends
> >itself even MORE to ideological interpretation, after
> >all, there are no words stapling it down.  This is no
> >banal thing; many have died based on someone else's
> >interpretation of their music (see socialist realism
> >and again, nazism).
> >
> >Think of how much of the classical music we celebrate
> >today from the former Soviet Union (Shostakovich and
> >others) has only survived because Stalin thought of it
> >as ideal socialist music--upholding socialist ideals,
> >appealing to the masses, etc.  Can't we call this
> >music--to use your words--"high quality" communist
> >"propaganda?"  And if so, then is it any less valuable
> >as art?  (and isn't any kind of religious music
> >propaganda to some degree?)
> >
> >Just questions!
> >Jordan
> >
> >
> >______________________________________________________________________
> >Web-hosting solutions for home and business! http://website.yahoo.ca
> >
>
> Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
> Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
> Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
> University of Minnesota
> 100 Ferguson Hall
> Minneapolis, MN 55455
> 612 624-7840 (o)
> 612 699-1097 (h)
> 612 624-8001  ATTN:  Alex Lubet (FAX)
>

--
The world is new each morning--
that is God's gift, and a man should
believe he is reborn each day.
                  -The Baal Shem Tov