HOLLYWOOD'S LENI

American Spectator - Letters ^ | 3/3/04 | Several

[swilhelm73]

believe the inclusion of Leni Riefenstahl was directly related to inclusion of Elia Kazan in the list of the recently departed.

At the time of Riefenstahl's death, many Hollywood and New York Times's types tried to compare her notoriety with Kazan's. Basically, the obits read: she may have had horrible politics but could sure create great films. Another case of Hollywood's strange moral equivalence. For them, Kazan fighting against Communists = Riefenstahl whoring for Hitler. -- Chris Harley Piedmont, California

I saw the "In Memoriam" bit at the Oscars. I don't know anything about Gregory Peck and never saw (or read -- somehow never had it assigned in high school) To Kill a Mockingbird, so I can't compare him to Leni. However, I caught another person in that segment: Elia Kazan. Hollywood fawns over Leni and how wonderful a director she was, but mention Kazan and the spitting begins. The message we get is that it's okay to be Hitler's favorite and produce the most significant Nazi propaganda, but it doesn't matter how good a director you are if you expose Hollywood's communists. -- Jeff Chrzanowski Marlton, New Jersey

I did notice that the applause died down to nothing when she appeared in the "In Memoriam" segment. I think most people were taken by surprise. I was. But, then again, you are talking about a crowd, many of whom fully support Fidel Castro and probably supported the Soviet Union.

I would guess the thinking of including Riefenstahl in the list is that she was a filmmaker first, Nazi second. And the elitist attitude that runs Hollywood and that could snuggle up to The Beard, could put Hitler's most ardent propagandist up on a pedestal.

It can be a tough choice for some. Not me. The cinematography in Triumph of the Will is amazing. The subject matter was excrement. I saw it once, was amazed, then watched the documentary series World At War to remember what Leni's efforts really represented. -- Paul Austin

Ben, you are missing conscience of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. -- Jeff Brownell Herndon, Virginia

Tell Ben Stein that not all Jews are as simpleminded as he is. Many of us recognize that Leni Riefenstahl was a major film artist who paid with her career for making one retrospectively infamous propaganda film for Adolf Hitler. Since 6 million innocent Jews also lost their lives, the loss Riefenstahl suffered seems rather insignificant. But it was entirely appropriate for the motion picture academy to memorialize the director of Olympiad and Triumph of the Will on her death. -- unsigned

Are these the same people who accuse Mel Gibson of anti-Semitism? -- Kevin Walsh

[swilhelm73]

I think the last letters bears repeating...

[Prodigal Son]

I've got Triumph of the Will on DVD. An amazing thing it is.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Say what they want but Leni was an excellent film maker born in the wrong place in the world. Look at Sergi Eisenstein(sp?) of the USSR, another excellent film maker born in the wrong place.
If you are given the choice of making a propaganda film or getting a bullet in the head which would you do?

[DentsRun]

Say what they want but Leni was an excellent film maker born in the wrong place in the world. Look at Sergi Eisenstein(sp?) of the USSR, another excellent film maker born in the wrong place.

You make an excellent point. I've never heard anyone condemn Eisenstein for glorifying the Russian revolution in his two great Marxist polemics, "Battleship Potemkin" and "Ten days that Shook the World."

Eisenstein wasn't any apolitical artist caught up in politics against his will. He embraced the Bolsheviks without hesitation even when they were burning churches, killing priests, raping nuns, and otherwise starving the Christian peasantry. The Bolsheviks killed something like 20 million souls prior to WWII. And Eisenstein, a great favorite of Stalin, never ceased applauding them till the day he died.