Leni Riefenstahl dies at 101; Known for Nazi Era Propoganda Films

AP

[ffusco]

The Nazi's weren't fascists. Fascism was a dictatorship, not a totalitarian police state like Stalin's Russia, and Germany.

[ffusco]

Way to apologize for evil.

Leni could have fled like most of the creative classes did. She loved Germany- even Nazi Germany. So she did her best work for the fatherland, and throughout her post war career she maintained she was justr an innocent artist, maybe just a bit naive.

I'm not buying those crocadile tears for a minute. The woman was pure evil.

[habs4ever]

Her big act of contrition was to become an eco-filmaker and swim with the porpoises and share in the brotherhood of all living sea creatures.She went from one extreme to the other, a trademark of a zealot or someone with no moral center.Her talent was extraordinary, but as Orwell used to say about Dali, what a revolting person!

[ffusco]

Soviet Film director Sergei Eisenstein's work is praised because American "intellectuals" gave the Soviets a pass. No one discusses the Soviet genocide of hundreds of millions. This set of blinders persists: Nazism was almost identical to Stalinism.

[veronica]

Some left Nazi Germany and used their talent elsewhere...

And some, had they not left Germany, would have been murdered, gassed. Like Billy Wilder, one of the greatest film directors of all time.

Leni Riefenstahl's "talent" doesn't even begin to approach the talent of Billy Wilder, whose accomplishments are even more to be admired, when one considers that his family perished in the death camps, thanks to Riefenstahl's "mentor", Hitler.

[CatoRenasci]

Obviously. His work is great, however. Just as Riefenstahl's is great.

[CatoRenasci]

You're quick to condemn, but seem rather short on the knowledged upon which to base judgement. It sounds to me like you have little understanding of the various totalitarian regimes of the thirties, or the history of fascism. You should really read Ernst Nolte's The Three Faces of Fascism as well as Alan Bullock's Hitler and his Hitler and Stalin.

[veronica]

I studied filmmaking in college. Leni Riefenstahl does not play much of a role in the history of movies. She's mentioned, mostly because she was female. A footnote, not a major player.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Roast in hell, Leni.

[twigs]

Excellent summary. I agree with you.

[Junior]

I honestly saw such a review. Of course, it did paint Clinton in a rather Hitlerian light...

[veronica]

Roast in hell, Leni.

Great post!! :))

[ffusco]

I know enough about fascism, my family having lived in Italy during the war. Fascism is now a catch-all phrase for anything we don't agree with.

[jjm2111]

In terms of movie direction and editing Moore cannot come close to Leni.

[jjm2111]

Wow, that was a well thought out post. </sarcasm>

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Anything wrong with the notion?

[jjm2111]

Yes. Who knows what was in her heart or her beliefs and who know where her soul ended up? Unless, you knew her personally.

[Clemenza]

Let's not forget the great Film Director Fritz Lang, who turned down a job offer from Goebbels himself and fled to America.

[Clemenza]

Ping!

[Snickersnee]

In recent years, Leni was also a very outspoken Green Party activist. Figures.