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August 2002, Week 4

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Subject:
From:
Sofia Bergting <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 25 Aug 2002 15:05:47 +0200
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I agree with everything you wrote on your mail. She was a genius in film
making but NOTHING can ever excuse her participation under the Nazi regime.
Because then one can always say that Hitler was just a crazy man so he
couldn't help killing all those innocent people.

S.B



> I can't see how you can watch Triumph of the Will and conclude Riefenstahl
> was just a naive victim. She was an active - and crucial - collaborator in
> the creation of the Nazi propaganda machine.
>
> Certainly, she is a masterful filmmaker. That's what made her such an
> effective architect of the Nazi aesthetic.
>
> -- Ted Friedman
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ron Leming" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2002 3:47 AM
> Subject: Re: leni riefenstahl turns 100 today
>
>
> I don't want to sound like I'm supporting Leni Riefenstahl entirely. I'm
> not sure the truth will ever be known.  As for there being a choice, I'm
> not so sure about that. You mention Lang, Wilder and the Siodmaks, but
> there's a very basic difference you're overlooking there. The examples
> you mention are all men. Even today, women aren't represented all that
> well in film making, though it's getting there. There may have been
> other women film makers in the 40s, but I can't think of any. I'm not
> THAT well educated in film, likely not as well as many on this list. But
> I know what it feels like to want to do something so badly you'd very
> nearly sell your soul for it. It's quite easy to look back at history
> now and say this was a horrible thing. But we forget that, at the time,
> many of the German people thought what was happening was a good thing
> for Germany, and many didn't know about the activities of the SS and the
> camps. And making the films she made, may have been, in her sight, the
> only way she would be able to make films at all. And she is a good film
> maker.
> Even when I was in film school in UCLA 25 years ago, women in the film
> school weren't taken as seriously or respected as well as the men. I
> don't know if that's still true, but it wouldn't surprise me. And, I
> find it reprehensible to blame anyone and everyone who didn't actively
> contest and fight for what happened and hold them responsible for the
> acts of others. She has always maintained that she didn't know what was
> happening until it was too late. Until someone can prove, beyond a doudt
> that she did know, I choose to believe her statement.
> --
> If I ever die by being buried alive in something, I hope it's something
> good.
> Like boobs or chicken wings.
>
> http://www.bonestructure.net
>
> ----
> Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
> University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu
>
> ----
> Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
> University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu
>

----
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