Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/01/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 12:23 AM 1/11/02 +0100, Hans-Peter.Lammerich@t-online.de wrote: >Leni Riefenstahl chiefly is remembered for her coverage of the Nuremberg >NSDAP summit in 1935 and of the Berlin Olympics 1936. Both were >propaganda events. The visual power of theses movies is nothing less >than spectacular, and all that with limited technical means of the mid >1930s! Imagine what she could have done in Hollywood! Particularly the >documentary of the 1936 party summit gives the impression that >Riefenstahl did not simply "cover" the event, but that she was the >choreographer. She was not a plain Nazi collaborator, naive and >ignorant. She made the Nazis to dance for her. Maybe she wasn't a >dedicated Nazi, but she didn't bother to do propaganda for them. And >because of her work the allies wanted the trials to take place in >Nuremberg, too. Well, just to keep the record straight: The Party Rally was choreographed by the Propaganda Minister, Goebbels. Riefenstahl simply filmed what he told her to film though the specific style remained hers. The set-up for the event was the work of Albrecht Speer, later to be Leni's lover. The TRIUMPH OF THE WILL was certainly a team effort, though Riefenstahl was a vital part of the team. The Olympic movies were made, of course, not for the Nazi Party or even for the German state, but were commissioned by the International Olympic Committee, an organization noted more for its athletic than political interests. And the Nuremburg Trials were held in Nuremburg not because of anything Riefenstahl did, of course, but for the same exact reason the Party Rallys were held there: the national headquarters of the Nazi Party was in Nuremburg. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir! - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html