Max Schmeling has died. He led an honorable life, some of it during very bad times.
How different he was from Leni Riefenstahl, who died in 2003; view “The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl” for a brilliant portrayal of that amoral artist.
Saying that what Riefenstahl was doing was “art” is like calling what Mengele was doing “medicine”.
Later, Riefenstahl was the face of “ugly Germany” that did not learn anything from the past (and did not want to). After the war, she suffered from a disease that was – and alas still is – wide-spread in Germany: Amnesia. She had forgotten many things… like the telegram she’d sent to Hitler to congratulate him when he invaded France, or the many people she had been employing, hired directly from a camp, sending them back there after filming was done.
NV
I agree with Ms. Vogel’s characterization of Leni Riefenstahl, except for the first sentence. Had Riefenstahl not enlisted in the service of evil, she would be hailed as one of the great pioneers of the cinema. I highly recommend the documentary mentioned above (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000INUB/qid=1107579296/sr=-1/ref=__1/103-2447442-6709449?v=glance&s=books ) for a look at both her artistic contributions and her approach to truth and to decency, which Ms. Vogel accurately describes.
I’ve seen the documentary you reference, which is an excellent film. It did, however, seem to me that she lacked the ability to project any sense of personal responsibility or remorse for her role as a propagandist.
And while I find it impossible to discount the artistic merit of her work based merely on the subject matter, I don’t know if I would use the word “amoral” in describing her. Her role in creating an exultant image of the party was clearly immoral in my book.
P.J. Yes, I agree. What I tried to convey with the term “amoral” was what you are referring to when you write that “she lacked the ability to project any sense of personal responsibility or remorse for her role as a propagandist.” I consider such “amorality” to be “immoral.”
I’ve always put Riefenstahl in the same category as Jacques Louis David, the French neo-classical painter who played a prominent role in the Reign of Terror. There are occasions when an artist’s work is so technically brilliant you’re forced to stop and experience the work while consciously isolating and condemning the message contained theirein.
But here’s the $64,000 question that Riefenstahl’s career poses: Why haven’t we seen more important female directors in the last century?
I’m reasonably confident you would have difficulty finding a significant number of film scholars who would argue with the assertion that she has been the most influential female director to date.
Tom: I did not know this about Schmeling and am now delighted to learn it. Thank you.