Leni Riefenstahl

[danny bohy]

just found out i have to study Leni Riefenstahl in modern history this term in school. all i know is she made movies for the nazi's. as revleft is my unbias information site i just wondered if anyone knows anymore about her being a Nazi.

[Sasha]

actualy an realy intresting topic to study.
she was an extremly talented and groundbreaking movie maker. I dont know how much of here actions where out of being an convinced nazi and how much was going cowardly with the flow, to me it seems that she was somewhat in an mephisto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephisto_%28novel%29) situation.
(maybe because of the grey area's an intresting subject to hang your study around, was riefenstahl an nazi, an colaberator, neutral or an victim?)
to me it seems a bit like rodchenko who started also out as an briliant avant-garde painter and photographer but ended as an agit-prop loyal stalin servant who made propaganda photos about how happy and well norished the forced workers on some canal project where (will in fact they where dying by the thousands in horrible conditions).

[RED DAVE]

Get ahold of a copy of From Caligari to Hitler. It's a study of early German films by a left-winger. It has a lot of stuff on Riefenstahl as an actress and film maker. She definitely had a nazi-type mind and was aware of what she was doing. She spenT the rest of her very long life (she died only a few years ago, over 100) denying it, but a fascist mentality is obviious in every thing she did.

RED DAVE

[Dimentio]

What is a fascist mentality?

[RED DAVE]

What is a fascist mentality?Start here:

Umberto Eco: 14 Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt (http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_blackshirt.html)

then go here:

Wilhelm Reich: The Mass Psychology of Fascism (http://www.revleft.com/vb/thepiratebay.org/.../WILHELM_REICH_-_The_Mass_Psychology_of_Fascism.pdf)

RED DAVE

[Dimentio]

Interesting definition, at least that about the cult of heroism. Hardly that Riefenstahl's alone in that habitat. Zach Snyder's "300" is a perfect example of such an item. Another one is "The Lord of the Rings".

[Across The Street]

Red Dave had it right. She fervently supported and heralded fascist ideology while Hitler was in power, yet denied her ties with it until her death. I've seen Triumph of the Will and it seems as if she was genuinely trying to make art from a nazi perspective. I don't know if the propaganda was purposely infused into it (probably was), but it is definitely there.

[RED DAVE]

Terrific!

From Caligari to Hitler is available as a free download. I cannot recommend this book too much for people interested in cultural politics and the politics of culture.

http://www.archive.org/details/fromcaligaritohi013829mbp

RED DAVE

[RadioRaheem84]

Yeah she was a fascist. I wrote a major paper on the Triumph of the Will and while it was a triumph of film making it was still vile propaganda and she knew what she was doing. I would categorize her as half-fascist, half-opportunist. More like a scenester of the early Nazi era. Studying her life and society in Nazi Germany made me realize that where was definitely a bourgeoisie element to Fascism.

[Sasha]

what i find intresting is thats its not vile propaganda, its propanda, very effective propaganda but not the vile stuff like `'der eeuwige jude" etc.
its very aestetic and apealing, its the kind of propaganda that makes you catch yourself going, yeah those nazi where really bad but admit, those autobahns, architecture and stuff where pretty cool. :crying:
because it has an noticable artistic side its easy to forget your watching propaganda, wich makes it so damn effective.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Could one say Leni Riefenstahl was the Sergei Einstein of Nazism?

[Invincible Summer]

I agree with Psycho... Riefenstahl's "Triumph des Willens" was pretty good at making one sympathetic, even in awe at Hitler and the German culture. I was like "Shit... this is pretty epic" when I saw it in my German class

[narcomprom]

Start here:

Umberto Eco: 14 Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt (http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_blackshirt.html)

then go here:

Wilhelm Reich: The Mass Psychology of Fascism (http://www.revleft.com/vb/thepiratebay.org/.../WILHELM_REICH_-_The_Mass_Psychology_of_Fascism.pdf)

RED DAVE
no. don't. it's horribly unfashionable and outdated.

'fascist mentality' was a catchphrase amongst hippie ideologists.

[RED DAVE]

no. don't. it's horribly unfashionable and outdated.

'fascist mentality' was a catchphrase amongst hippie ideologists.(1) Most people say marxism is "horribly unfashionable and outdated," but that doesn't make it so.

(2) Just because the phrase was used by "hippie ideologists" doesn't invalidate it.

RED DAVE

[Invincible Summer]

An interesting (albeit unrelated) news article about Riefenstahl:

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/blogs/joeoconnor/2010/01/saluting-nazi-filmmaker-a-no-win-for-vanoc.html