Bach's "Leni" bio
Hard on the heels of Jurgen Trimborn's Leni Reifenstahl: A Life (Faber and Faber, 1./23.07), a galley proof of Stephen Bach's Leni:, The Life and Work of Leni Reifenstahl arrived yesterday via messenger. I went through 30 or so pages last night during dinner, and it's obviously a very smart and perceptive read -- thorough, respectful, in some ways admiring but always clear-eyed and carefully measured.
I was struck by the following graph in the final chapter: "Thomas Mann once wrote that 'art is moral in that it awakens,' but Leni's art dulled and deceived. It is the perfect expression of the machinery of amnipulation it glorifies" in her two Nazi-era classics, Triumph of the Will and Olympia. Her films are, in the words of David Thomson, 'the most honest and compelling fruit of fascist temperament -- triumphant, certain and dreadful.'"
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on February 10, 2007 at 10:48 AM
comment #1
D.Z.
says ...
I actually got bored watching Triumph of the Will, when they showed part of it in my media class a while back. But in retrospect, I can see where Shrub got some of his ideas for "Mission Accomplished" and that fake turkey dinner he had with the troops.
Posted by D.Z.
at February 10, 2007 12:20 PM
comment #2
Pinko Punko
says ...
Olympia was fascinating and I'm not sure it resonates on the same level of fascism as ToTW.
Posted by Pinko Punko
at February 10, 2007 2:05 PM
comment #3
Dixon Steele
says ...
Steven Back was one of the UA executives who championed and supervised HEAVEN'S GATE. Ooops.
He did, however, write the excellent FINAL CUT, the behind-the-scenes look at the making of that catastrophe and its aftermath, which included his firing.
He left the movie biz (did he have a choice at that point?) and moved to Germany.
Hence the Leni R. book...
Posted by Dixon Steele
at February 10, 2007 6:56 PM