Tuesday, September 09, 2003
Leni Riefenstahl dead at 101
Joseph Goebbels was widely recognised as Hitler's propaganda chief. However, I'd argue that Leni Riefenstahl, the maker of Triumph of the Will and Olympia, played an equally big role in creating the myth around Hitler, especially in the early and mid-1930's. I have watched both the movies and I believe that if it weren't for her Nazi past, those movies would held in the same esteem as a Citizen Kane. Leni Riefenstahl was treated as a pariah instead, inspite of the amazing work she did among the Nuba or the underwater coral gardens. Leni Riefenstahl died earlier today and this was the obit carried by the Washington Post.
As a filmmaker and artist, she had an eye for detail and a talent for editing that evoked the hypnotic spectacle of the massed Nazi legions, the raw charisma of the German fuhrer and the mesmerizing drama and majesty of Olympic competition with a force and power not seen before in the film medium.
As a filmmaker and artist, she had an eye for detail and a talent for editing that evoked the hypnotic spectacle of the massed Nazi legions, the raw charisma of the German fuhrer and the mesmerizing drama and majesty of Olympic competition with a force and power not seen before in the film medium.
