9/11/2003

The Journal does an interesting obit on perhaps the weirdest genius of the 20th century, the Nazi loving Leni Riefenstahl. It's very hard to admit that somebody who supported the things she supported was a fucking genius, but these things happen. She invented the documentary film. If you have an interest, see the documentary on her life called "The Wonderful, Horrible Life Of Leni Riefenstahl" which starts out luring the audience into thinking you are seeing a feminist bullshit piece about women in movies but about 45 minutes into the movie you realize that this crazy old broad was still in love with Hitler. And I mean in love. Hey, Picasso was a prick with women, Ezra Pound was a fascist, and Brecht was a Communist. I guess we have to deal with this stuff. BTW many people believe that the Nurenberg Rally of 1934 was staged to accommodate her cameras and that it was not an "honest" documentary of an event. Whatever. She sure was good. Oh, and guess who was the first outside of Germany to praise her and give her an award for her Nazi movies? Was it Italy? (No, they were the second) Future ally Japan? Or could it have been that bastion of democracy and pro Jewish sentiment, France? You got it, even as far back as 1937 the Jew hating French gave "Triumph of the Will", her cinematic homage to Hitler and the Nazis, the Gold Medal in Paris. Gotta love them democracy loving French, don't cha? Hollywood snubbed her, mainly because so many in Hollywood were Jews who had escaped from Germany and knew the score.

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