the LAST FILM YOU'VE SEEN thread

Glad you had such a good experience. A good exprience and a nice press packet can really enhance the old flick experience. Press screenings are the way to go. My favorite is the first "Time." I didn't respond as much to the second, though it is interesting I thought it not quite up to earlier similar films. As for the third, it is like Millennium Mambo, and I don't think contemporary debauchery is Hou's forte. Saw this at the NYFF, where everything was good, or 99% of it. Press screenings, though not just 5 people, no chance of that in NYC...

I just bought an Asian dvd of Three Times. I'll have to wait until the film fest is over to watch it though. Hou is one of the world's top 10 directors. His films are consistently in the "must see" to "masterpiece" range. I just watched L'Enfant at the fest and will be reviewing soon. Now that I think about it, I'd probably place the Dardennes in that director's Top 10 on the strength of their four fiction films. Will we ever get a chance to watch the documentaries that preceded them?

We should certainly be able to see the earlier work of the Dardennes to be able to speak "learnedly" about it as a whole. Good point.

No doubt about the fact that "Three Times" is beautiful and deserves to be seen on a big screen. I personally found the first part way more appealing and emotionally communicative than the other two. I think Hou had hits and misses. And there's nothing wrong with that. So does Jia, though Jia has a more visceral quality in his impact for me, somehow.

The 15 films of the

RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA

eleventh season at Lincoln Center, which I'll be reviewing here and posting about on my

WEBSITE

concurrently.

The Covenant

Interesting occult movie, with some young people getting caught up in magic and creepiness


Tamara

Another interesting occult "cult" movie, with the title character literally transforming into a haunting, sexy, other-worldly maniac killer witch- yep, she's an ax-wielding, seductive teen hottie.

Made for high-school preppies- you know, fans of "Scream" and "I Know What You did Last Summer".


To Live and Die in L.A.

80's cult classic.
Starring a younger Willem Dafoe & John Turturro, this is my kind of film.

Gritty, pulpy, and gorgeously photographed by ace cameraman Robby Muller, this is a masterpiece of urban violence and counterfeit money madness.

Doom

Craptastic grade-Z actioner with a dash of horror.

Some Space Marines led by "Sarge" (The Rock) are trying to figure out why scientists are biting the dust.

I yawned quite a bit, but it's got enough blood, gore and wacked-out violencia to keep teens and fans of the video game entertained.

Easy Rider

Counter-culture classic that I never get tired of.

Is that "tripping out" scene in the cemetary something else or what? I love it.

"Goin' down to Mardi Gras, gonna have myself a show..."

War of the Worlds

Saw this Spielberg film again on DVD- Cruise and kids are on the run from the get-go,and the action just gets more and more OUT THERE.

I really love how they created the whole "attack".
The special effects are boss. Thought so in the theatre, I think so now. SFX are incredible. VERY high believability factor.

I especially love the angles Kaminski shoots from.
I mean, look at how menacing and distant the pods look!
It stretches the plausibility quotient, but hey, this is WAR of the WORLDS. Who can say what's plausible when something like this happens?
:)


The Hills Have Eyes

This is the one from 2006.
HEAVY, brother, HEAVY.
Really really heavy after watching War of the Worlds...

Wes Craven takes us on an extremely uncomfortable trip with a family stranded in the desert.
Rob Zombie would love this movie.
And so would Clive Barker, probably.

Originally posted by Johann
The Hills Have Eyes

Not my kind of feel-bad but, for those interested, the sequel opens March 2nd.

1.) A Man Escaped.
Robert Bresson seems to be saying because each individual is essentially alone, one's courage means more to one's self than to others. But it is in that courage that others take strength and that appears, in a white puff of smoke at the film's end, to be our saving grace. A rigorous intellectual exercise cleverly offered as a thriller.

2.) The Rapture.
Michael Tolkin's condescending idea of what fundamentalism means to him suffers not only from his finger-pointing but also from the casual way he presents his characters. He asks us to accept leaps from his protagonist's promiscuity to her hardened belief in the purity of Christ's love to her rejection of it but he fails to imbue her with any notions of complexity (and Mimi Rogers in the lead isn't quite up to the task of finding any). Tolkin wants us to believe that this is a woman's personal journey but with his complete contempt of her and her ideals, what's the point of that? The preposterous wacked-out finale is clearly designed to Make You Think.

3.) Bound For Glory.
Though fraught with problems, Hal Ashby's biopic of Woody Guthrie is well worth seeing, most notably for the fine performances (David Carradine is superb as an aw-shucks, homegrown Guthrie given to fits of rage when pressured to shake his ideals), Robert Getchell's well-written dialogue (though he builds supporting actors up with such pathos that it's a shame when he consistently dumps them to focus on Guthrie), and the perfect dusty, sun-baked work of the gold standard of cinematographers, Haskell Wexler. Ashby, a hack director for most of his career (he frequently let his actors, such as Warren Beatty in "Shampoo", Ruth Gordon in "Harold And Maude" and Jack Nicholson in "The Last Detail", rule the roost) brings a fine looseness to the film, stuffing it with casual, endearing observations of Texans and Okies in odd short snippets. (A scene between Carradine and Lee McLaughlin as a self-described "insane" man is particularly notable.) There's a real feeling of outrage at California's de-evolution into a '30s prison camp that Ashby would never again display. Underrated.

Welcome back, bix171. I found your comments regarding the three films quite insightful. A Man Escaped is a personal favorite, like most of Bresson's. One of only two of his films to have what can be described as a "happy" ending. Film informed by the auteur's own experience of being interned during WWII. The idea that seems to unite all the characters is: redemption through purposeful activity. Your theme of personal courage and how others gain inspiration from it is quite fitting.

Thanks for the comments, bix--having just seen the Bob Dylan show at the Morgan Library, where Woody's guitar was one exhibit, I am interested in seeing this, which I never have. Excellent sharp, succinct reviews.

Oscar and Chris,

Glad to be back. Thanks for your kind words. They mean a lot to me.

Chris, where was the Dylan exhibit? What else was in it? I'm a very big Dylan fan and though I probably won't be travelling in the near term, it may be coming to Chicagoland.

The Dylan exhibit closed last Saturday at the Morgan Library in NYC after a run of several months. It was focused on Bob's early days coming to NYC when he was first becoming famous, 1956-1966,
"Bob Dylan's American Journey". A description of the show reads:

Quote:

---

This is the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to Bob Dylan's formative early career. The exhibition examines this critical ten-year period by charting Dylan's transformation from folk troubador to rock innovator. The exhibit, which includes works from Morgan's Dylan manuscripts and other material given to the Morgan from 1997 to 1999 by collector George Hecksher, follows Dylan's personal and artistic development from his teenage years in Hibbing, Minnesota, to early live performances at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. It incorporates historic facts, handwritten lyrics and letters, instruments, rare memorabilia and photographs-and interpretive films featuring rare performance footage and interviews with Dylan and other artists. Listening stations feature selections from several albums of the period covered by the exhibit.

---

The Morgan Library is the only probably site for the show. The NYTImes review reveiw hopefully will link here and you can get a good description of what you missed.

I was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in July of '05 and they attributed the dearth of Dylan material to a show they were curating the following spring (which I got a postcard about a few months later). Bummer I didn't get to see it or the exhibit you write about.

I don't know for sure but I suspect that a certain amount of the stuff belongs to the Morgan Library, and maybe if you applied to them they'd let you look at it. But I don't know. Maybe this will lead to other Dylan shows. There probably is a lot of material, MSS. and posters and memorabilia. It did give me the feeling of going back to that time and that was fun. I just read Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One and since I was staying in the Village near the streets Dylan lived on when he came to NYC, it was very apropos for me. And it was kind of a tradition since this time last year I bought the DVD of Scorsese's No Direction Home while in NYC and watched it. Another thing featured in the Morgan Library exhibition was the documentary Don't Look Back, with some accompanying documents, possibly an outtake. That reminded me what a great document that is and made me want to see it all the way through another time.

Warren Beatty's directorial debut (he shares duties with Buck Henry) is an engaging screwball comedy perfectly matched with the 70s' rise of the auteur (and with his next film, 1981's "Reds" he would be confirmed as one). Though the film has that flat, one-dimensional feel of the big budget movies being put out at the time primarily by Paramount ("The Godfather" films being an exception here) and Universal, it maximizes a sharp screenplay by Elaine May and Beatty (with uncredited work by Robert Towne) and an excellent comic cast. Everything about it is delightful (except Dave Grusin's godawful score) but it's the crack timing of Dyan Cannon's hysteria and Charles Grodin's double-takes that provide the belly laughs.

I've posted my comments in that thread if anyone's interested. Unfortunately, I don't know how to create a link from here to there (but I'd be interested to learn if someone cares to show me).

Thank you for your contributions. Keep 'em coming!

http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/misc...&action=bbcode

Read section called URL Hyperlinking

The Cooler

MIchael Powell's 1937 elegaic tribute to the dying communities of the Shetland Islands is impossible to watch without being profoundly moved at both the plight of the declining age-old families and the stunning rocky landscape shot with both immediacy and granduer (by three separate cameramen but clearly guided by Powell's peerless eye). It's a more direct approach Powell takes here (there isn't as much of the warm wit evident is so many of his films) and the intense personal grief he invests in depicting an island people being worn away by natural selection is frequently overwhelming and almost too much to bear. (The superimposed ghostly images of the inhabitants as their lives erode is heartbreakingly devastating and a birth midway through the film accompanied by a Scottish lullabye is beyond words.) I spent the second half of the film sobbing and I defy you not to as well. A masterpiece from (along with Billy Wilder) my favorite filmmaker.

I'm also a big fan of Michael Powell. Among British filmmakers, the only one who might be superior to Powell is Hitch. But I've seen all of the master of suspense's movies and I have yet to watch several films by Powell, including The Edge of the World. I plan to purchase the superior UK dvd release of the film by the British Film Institute. Here's a comparison of the American and UK dvd releases: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCom...oftheworld.htm
It includes some nice screen captures.

Oscar,

You know, the comparison between Powell and Hitchcock is apt. Their wits are, I feel, remarkably similar. I remember dreading watching "The Red Shoes" (the first Powell film I'd seen), thinking it would be dull and dry and was delighted to find him to be funny and fast-paced--and reminded me almost exactly of Hitchcock.

I think Powell had a similar facination with women and their passion but was not as afraid of them as Hitchcock appeared to be; in fact, Powell seems almost celebratory of them. The use of Deborah Kerr in 3 separate roles to 3 separate ends in "The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp" is unique for its time; the hothouse lust in "Black Narcissus" fairly reeks off the screen; and Moira Shearer's fragility in "The Red Shoes" is handled with an appreciation of her delicacy. Only Wendy Hiller in "I Know Where I'm Going!" seems to get her comeuppance but, even there, that might be more as a result of England's class system and not her femininity.

As far as sheer beauty of filmmaking is concerned, I think Powell's only peer in his time is John Ford. Both used black and white, shadow and depth of vision to create landscapes so intense they seemed to be in color; and when they did move into Technicolor, their visuals were so overwhelmingly saturated they seems like paintings that haven't quite dried. It's still amazing that "Black Narcissus" was shot on a soundstage.

http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...5&pagenumber=2

If this link was not ceated, well, you can find my comments there and, in the meantime, I'll keep trying to create links. If it does work, thanks, Oscar.

That takes us to the page just fine. I don't know exactly how to link directly to a specific post myself.

Your welcome, bix. I like the things you say about Powell heroines, but you'd have to elaborate about Hitch appearing to be afraid of women. John Ford's films will give me pleasure and edification until the day I die. It was hard for me to believe Black Narcissus was not shot on location.

Raoul Peck's Lumumba (2000). In French. Netflix DVD.

A very depressing but thought-provoking film with a brilliant, intense performance by the lead, Eriq Ebouaney as Patrice Lumumba, who suffered a gruesome end after serving only nine months in the newly independent Congo in early 1961. There isn't a lot about how Lumumba became Lumumba, but the film richly details the independence struggle and the chaotic early days of the country once freed of Belgian control.

But the Belgian cadres and commanders of the Congolese military did not leave then, and this led to revolts. Lumumba expelled the general, and that led to chaos. The largest and most resource-rich province, Katanga, headed by Moïse Tshombe, ceded from the union, and further chaos followed. The remaining Belgians appear as hostile and not interested in helping out. The film begins and ends with the incineration of Lumumba's chopped-up body by Belgian white men, along with bodies of a couple other associates who were tortured, beaten and shot witih him. Pretty ugly stuff.

Eriq Ebouaney, who looks exactly like Lumumba in the film, gives a riveting performance, but ironically one without the charisma and charm exuded by Forest Whitiker as the wicked Idi Amin in this year's Last King of Scotland. Lumumba as seen here is intensely driven, even grim, though he has a few smiles and even a moment of uproarious laughter in a prison cell. He emerges as a brave and fearless man defeated by circumstance: he says, he arrived a few years too soon. There are few personal moments. No intimate scene with his wife till 52 minutes into the film. I'd have liked to see the early life of the man sketched in a bit more detail. Peck seems as relentless and driven as his subject. Good evocations of the turmoil but an unvaried intensity may become wearing to the viewer.

"His [Peck's] first attempt at exploring Lumumba's story on film was through the documentary, Lumumba - Death of a Prophet which he directed in 1991. The film was awarded the Procirep Prize at the Festival du Réel in Paris and Best Documentary at the Montreal Film Festival in 1992."--FrenchCultur.org. Peck is of Haitian origin and came to the Congo with his father, a teacher sent there to work, in 1963. Before this film he made a documentary about Lumumba.

The more critical of the French press reviews felt Peck was too stolid and preachy in his approach and was overwhelmed in his attempt to render the chaos of the new Congolese government; they found the film more edifying than alive. There is something in that, but it outlines most of the events extremely clearly.

Rodolphe Marconi: The Last Day (Le dernier jour, 2004). In French. Netflix DVD.

Another nice little recent film from France that lacked the wattage to get into American theaters. People will look at it now, because lead actor Gaspard Ulliel's strong presence and savage faun look have made him a star. He has shone in such films as Téchiné's Égarés (Strayed) and the upcoming Hannibal Rising that exploit his wild features, his animalistic air of danger. He is frequently seen as frightening and independent. He is sweet as the boyfriend in A Very Long Engagement, though. The Last Day shows him off better as an actor because here he is almost always on screen, but is allowed to be hesitant, mysterious -- the essence of a film that holds back its meanings and makes us guess what's going on. Simon is delicate, thoughtful and kind, a manchild and a slightly maladroit creature who detaches by filming and photographing the world. In playing Simon, Ulliel reveals admirable restraint. He shows how an actor must use he physical equipment. His looks are striking, but what counts is that he can do such different things with them.

Simon (Ulliel) is a young arts student. On the night train to his family's Christmas party he picks up a girl who comes along and then quickly takes up with someone who seems to be Simon's former flame. Simon sleeps with (along side) her, but can't have her. And he's been left out of the know because despite being all of 18 he still isn't aware of something important about himself. Rodolphe Marconi's film is nicely understated, never dwelling on a scene too long, stingy with dialogue and scornful of flashy effects. Ulliel's delicacy is essential to these qualities. So is something inaccessible about him that helps keep his somewhat pathetic situation from ever seeming sentimental.

The Last Day is full of a dry French tact, and escapes being dreary (if only just) by the characters' composure and fortitude. Simon is an athlete (swimming, tennis), but also a good sport in everything--and despite his breathtaking ease in the pool, he has a jerky little walk. What good manners he has! He is always there in deep close-ups, bashful and quiet. Yet we feel his hurt all the more deeply because it isn't acted out. Bruno Todeschini simmers. Nicole Garcia is like a more ravaged Rampling. There's nothing not to like except the ditsy pop songs with English lyrics. Fortunately at a crucial late scene an elegant John Lewis piano solo takes over.

I'm surprised it was not selected by Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Rotterdam or Toronto. It wasn't even reviewed by Variety.

It does seem to have been under the radar. I should have mentioned Mélanie Laurent as the girl, and Christophe Malavoy as the head of the household, other notable actors in an impeccable cast. Europeans may be tired of paintful coming of age stories?

Henri-Georges Clouzot, Le Mystère Picasso 1956. Netflix DVD. Not a particularly good one: minimal visual quality and the commentary would not open.

Picasso (at 75, typically vigorous and wearing only shorts) drew or painted with colored ink on stretched canvas or paper which Clouzot's cameraman photographed from the back to show the artist doing maybe 20 paintings as they unfold from a few lines to a piece bristling with shapes and color. The assumption behind this is a little naive as Michael Atkinson said six years ago in the Voice. Atkinson called it the "bourgeois" assumption that we can see into the mind of an artistic genious by watching him at work. Well, as some of the sequences show and as the old Art News series "So-and-So Paints a Picture" showed, actually you can learn quite a lot about how an artist works out his ideas by following the sequence -- especially if he makes a lot of changes, and it is fascinating to get that kind of inside look. A slight weakness of Clouzot's film is that the process is staged, and allegedly (some say it isn't true) the paintings were even destroyed after the film was made.

Now, some of these pictures Picasso whipped off aren't particularly good. But Picasso worked fast normally. And as Motherwell once said, his unsuccessful paintings were necessary stepping-stones to the good ones. If you've looked at a lot of Picasso's work as I have, including the Skira suite of 180 drawings titled in the English edition "Picasso and the Human Comedy" of 1954,* which relates directly to some of the drawings done for the film, there won't be much "mystery" about the sequences--particularly as they relate to drawings. Toward the end though, Picasso starts doing some full-fledged paintings with overlays (I'm not at all sure how that was filmed, possibly by another method), where he really changes things all around multiple times (as he did with some of his etchings too--and looking at the sequence of them will give you very simimar information). That's more like the abstract expressionists (De Kooning, for instance) memorably chronicled in the "........Paints a Picture" Art News articles, and such metamorphoses do show the genius of the man, if not really how it works, since we're looking at, not into. I think Atkinson calls Georges Auric's music "bombastic." I found it unnecessary and turned it off and I also speeded up the sequences because I can think visually faster than this movie plods. The self-importance of the project is not untypical of other Fifties coverage of super-famous artists and it's mildly grating, but though I waited a long time, this film had to be seen.

*This book cost about $25 then. It is now worth a couple thousand dollars. Similarly the film has supposedly been declared a "national treasure" by the French. "Bourgeois" or "hagiographic" or self-important though it may be, this is an invaluable record.

Great Netflix reviews Chris

This site is a great archive...


My next door neighbor (apartment down the hall) has got tons of VHS tapes that he hasn't watched in years. He's been giving me 4 at a time. I watch 'em, get 4 more. Free 'o charge!
Nice to have friends like that...


52 Pick-Up

I forgot how great this little Frankenheimer film is.
Strictly adult all the way. Hookers, torture, extreme violence
The script is by Elmore Leonard and I'm sure Tarantino loves it.

Roy Scheider is being blackmailed into giving up 110 thousand dollars. Things don't go so well.
Ann-Margret is really good in it- I didn't realize how good an actress she can be.
AWESOME movie.
My fanboy rave: I watched it late at night all alone and it was wicked.


Citizen Kane

Hadn't seen it in about three years.
What can I say?
Fellini said it had "immense depth of field"
Polanski said "it was like a blueprint"
von Stroheim said "Welles' theme is small"

I say HE'S MISTER KANE!

Love it to death.
I always gagged on that silver spoon...





Alex Haley's QUEEN

Excellent T.V. miniseries, with a great cast including Martin Sheen, Ossie Davis, Ann-Margret (again) and Danny Glover.

I guess it could be a companion to ROOTS, but it stands on it's own too. It was made according to Alex Haley's wishes and it is dedicated to him.
It's about the South, black slaves and black history.
Very important film, and not just for blacks.
EVERYBODY should see it.
I was very moved by it.

Thanks, Johann. Sounds like you're getting some good opportunities, VHS is a hidden resource. Unfortunately public libraries are phasing them out -- a mistake. 52 Pickup was one of the first I saw after I "discovered" Elmore Leonard. A good one. For sure Tarantino likes this one.

Did not know about The Queen. Might be hard to find? As I said, tapes are just disappearing, and we're going to regret it because I don't think the films are all making it to DVD. I know they're not.

Jacques Audiard: Read My Lips/Sur mes lèvres. (2001).

The heart of the movie's original concept is the "troubling meeting of two outcasts," as one French critic puts it, the deaf, isolated, but highly competent office worker (Emmanuelle Devos) and the rough just-paroled ex-con (Vincent Cassel) who is sent to help her out in the fax room. Both find out they can get something important from the other that the other may not want to give and this leads them to be collaborators in excitement and danger -- yet the lovemaking doesn't happen till near the end. The two actors turn in terrific performances, Devos' more central and marginally more rich (and she got the César; so did the sound and the screenplay, but this was Amélie's year).

This was how I originally discovered Audiard. It was greeted as his best to date (see Frondon, Le Monde, on Allociné) and the performances of Cassel and Devos celebrated in France as a collaboration to be long remembered. Then came Audiard's next one, The Beat My Heart Skipped/De battre mon coeur s'est arrèté (2005), and that was even better and was even more of a sweep at the Césas than Amélie (8 vs. 4) So I wanted to go back and review. The Beat is more exciting and complex but both do much the same thing: combine psychological and social study with "polar noir," action crime story -- and each time with great originality, due I suspect in large part to the lively imagination of co-author Tonino Benacquista: this is a great collaboration. Audiard impresses me as one of the most focused and original of French directors today and I await his next film with great anticipation.

Devos is my favorite "new" French film actress. See her splendidly used in Arnaud Desplechin's films, My Sex Life and Kings and Queen, the recently DVD-released Gilles' Wife/La femme de Gilles (Frédéric Fonteyne, of the completely different An Affair of Love). She has been in a ton of other films I haven't seen and a couple others I have. She is beautiful but not pretty-pretty, and her more complex looks and vulnerable yet strong manner contribute to her ability to take on roles of more depth than the French cutesy or ice queen beauties. She has a small role in The Beat. There's something a little repulsive about Cassel, but also scary, wiry, energetic--he has been particularly good in Crimson Rivers/Les Rivières pourpres (2000), Brotherhood of the Wolf/Le pacte des loups (2001), and, of course, the edgy and nauseating Irréversible (2002).

Read My Lips has been criticized for ending with a "mere" crime story and dragging that part out more than the "more interesting" earlier section. True the film changes direction but it does not drag at the end nor is the relationship lost sight of.

Oscar Jubis wrote:
you'd have to elaborate about Hitch appearing to be afraid of women.

I think Hitchcock's treatment of women, especially from the '50s onward, which has a degre of cruelty I'd say bordered on sadism (culminating in Tippi Hedren's attack in "The Birds"), stemmed from what appears to be a mistrust of women, especially blondes. He continually puts them in harm's way and forces them to defend themselves, whether it be Grace Kelly in "Rear Window" or "Dial M For Murder" up to the aforementioned Hedren in "Marnie" and "The Birds". Whether or not this comes from his personal interactions with these women on and off the set (my understanding is Hedren, in particular, rebuffed him although I've also read he was celibate after the birth of his daughter) I can't be sure but I do think it heightens the experience of watching his films.

François Ozon: Time to Leave/Le temps qui reste (2005, US release 2006). Netflix DVD.

Moved to mouton's Le temps qui reste thread:

http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...6911#post16911

The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl

Outstanding documentary on the greatest female filmmaker of all time.

Yes, she made films for the Third Reich.
No, she was not a part of the Nazi party or the Nationalists.

She was an artist.

Hitler saw her do a dance by the sea in one of her movies and fell in love with her style.
She was a "daredevil" actress, who with her mentor/partner Fanck made "mountain" films that had powerful expressive beauty and real-life danger. She was a rock climber who was subjected to really dangerous stunts (like being placed in the line of an avalanche) and learned a great deal about editing and lighting and the demands of shooting in harsh conditions.

Her time as the Fuhrer's filmmaker was actually an amazing time.

90% of the people supported Hitler before the war.
He was all about social justice and lifting Germany into a world power.
Work and Peace was the message.
Not "kill all Jews"- all of the anti-Semitic stuff came later.
It started small- people thought it was just political campaigning.
They didn't think people were serious about the Jewish hatred.
Then there was Goebbels. Then the shit hit the fan.

Triumph of the Will won Gold seals, film awards as artistic achievement par excellence. THIS WAS BEFORE THE WAR FOLKS.
1934!
Germans loved Hitler because here was a guy who was standing up and showing & telling them what to do.
People were fascinated by him.

Leni says he had a hypnotic quality about him that she feared, because she loved her freedom. She felt herself being taken away from her own beliefs whenever she was in his presence.
Dude had the charisma.

He wanted a filmmaker to make propaganda films that were not newsreels.
He wanted an artist. He got one.

Because she was considered a Nazi, someone who slept with the devil, someone whose artistic talents were null and void because of her prominent position within the Reich, she had a hard hard time making films since Triumph of the Will.
She has had every hateful thing in the universe spewed at her.
And it's tremendously unfair. This doc will show you why.
She wanted to be considered a cinematic angel actress like Dietrich.
She wanted only to be an artist.

She worked damn hard, breaking her back editing miles and miles of celluloid for a vision that she didn't really share.
It was the times. She says it was pretty much impossible to get away from Hitler and Goebbels. She says she damaged her health making those films.

She was their slave. Goebbels told her once when she was arguing with him that if she wasn't a woman he would throw her down a staircase.

She agreed to make Triumph on the grounds that it be the last film she make for the Reich.

Olympia is the film all of her critics should take a look at.

400 kilometers of film was shot. She and her crews made a groundbreaking document of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

She dug holes in the ground to contrast the athletes with the sky, she had underwater cameras for the high divers, she had Hot Air Balloons to get aerial shots!

The woman was a genius.

See this amazing doc by Ray Muller to see what I mean.

I've only scratched the surface of what's in this profile of this incredible (deep-sea diving at 91!) German Goddess.

Chris, I'm sorry. I didn't read as carefully as I should've.

Johann wrote:

Not "kill all Jews"- all of the anti-semitic stuff came later.

Um, have you read "Mein Kampf"?

Quote:

---

Chris Knipp wrote:

Not "kill all Jews"- all of the anti-semitic stuff came later.

Um, have you read "Mein Kampf"?

---

Whoa, there!

That was NOT my post! It was from Johann. Under the circumstances I would appreciate it if you would delete that post and repost it with the right name on it, not mine. These are not my views on Leni Riefenstahl or on the Nazis, at all.

Ooh, we've hit a nerve!

The "anti-Semitic stuff came later" is in the context of "later" as in the sheer horror of the Jew persecution.

I'm talking about BEFORE the concentration camps.

BEFORE the horrors that Hitler ordered.

The anti-Semitic sentiment didn't explode until later.
The German people thought it was POLITICAL CAMPAIGNING.

How little did they know...


What are your views on Riefenstahl, Chris?
I'm insanely curious.

You can hardly call Leni Riefenstahl a documentarian. Her work for the Nazi Party only furthered the view Hitler should be considered some man of the people. Nothing could be further from the truth. As with all propoganda, it only serves to further the political views of those behind the work, and divides people along party (ethnic, cultural, religious) lines with the premise that anyone opposing those views must be against the government, anti-patriotic.

Take Fox News. This isn't news. They don't have sources. They spout opinion all day long without facts (such as the recent 'scandal' about Obama - completely untrue and unsubstantiated). The Nazi's would be proud of Fox News. I changed my sign off (below) for a reason. I've grown tired of those people who keep stating we are embolding the enemy when we criticize the President's plan.

In a democracy, "the supreme power is vested in the people." It seems to me that the people voted overwhelmingly last fall to change that policy. Bush may be untouchable now as President, but any man in that office can be impeached. Take those embolding words to the bank. And put Riefenstahl back in the ground with her anti-semitic ways. Her only genius was in dying, and none too soon as far as I'm concerned.

Have you ever heard a single anti-Semitic thing come out of Riefenstahl's mouth?

Give me a quote from her.

Post a quote of her saying something against the Jews.

Give me a direct quote. There is absolutely NO record of her saying ANYWHERE anything anti-Semitic.

Come on- back up what you say.

Point to the quote of Riefenstahl's that is pure hatred for Jews.

That's right- there is none. No history book, no film has her saying or doing anything against Jewish people.