I am not familiar with the work of Riefenstahl, but this discussion makes me ask the question: If Riefenstahl's abhorrent political views make it innapropriate to defend her on artistic grounds, then why is D.H. Lawrence's _Birth of a Nation_ canonized based on it's groundbreaking approach to film- making? Being a black person, I have never felt comfortable with the near universal reverence directed at Lawrence and his film filled with Ku Klux Klan propaganda. I'm curious about the thoughts of others . . . Marc [log in to unmask] On Tue, 14 Jun 1994, David Desser wrote: [stuff deleted] > ...More than this (since I know you don't in any way mean to > imply this sort of thing in your wildest imagination), can "techniques" be > separated from the cause to which they are put? More than that, as Susan > Sontag demonstrated quite convincingly years ago, in "Fascinating Fascism," > Riefenstahl was obviously and clearly a fascist and a Nazi sympathizer. It > makes no sense to defend her on purely aesthetic grounds, as if her values > and beliefs, not to mention her contribution to the Nazi effort, were > merely "something to get past." Has cultural relativism and "pluralism" > allowed us to accept the Nazis as just one more value system to "get past" > in our aesthetic sensibilities? > > _____________________________________ > David Desser,UIUC Cinema Studies > 2109 FLB/707 S. Mathews, Urbana, IL 61801 > 217/244-2705