"Hundreds mourn Hitler's film-maker Riefenstahl"--WTF?

[Fenris]

Alright, I know she died last week, but I just found this bizarre article on Reuter's. The headline was enough to draw me in. But then...

Hundreds of mainly elderly people have attended a memorial service for Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's official film-maker and last of Germany's famous Nazi-era figures, who died on Monday aged 101.

Mainly elderly Germans, eh? Suspicious. I guess the young kids just don't appreciate filmmaking anymore.

A painting of her stood by the coffin and music from the opera "Tannhaeuser" by Richard Wagner, Hitler's favourite composer, echoed around the hall where some 500 people gathered.

Yep, that's what I call unapologetic!

Whether consciously or unwittingly, she delivered films that glorified the Nazis, and she remained a villain to many for failing to repent for that work up to her death just weeks after her 101st birthday. Bild newspaper called her the "devil's brilliant diva".

Alright, John Ritter and Warren Zevon never worked for the Nazis and died at young ages. But Leni Riefenstahl dies at 101. God indeed works in mysterious ways. Or else is a giant cosmic asshole. Either way.

And who couldn't love this face?!



AHHH! AHHH! IT'S THAT CLOWN FROM "IT"! KILL IT! KILL IT!

[AntiCoup2K4]

1. As Billy Joel said....

Only the good die young. The fact that this Nazi hag and Strom Thurmond made it to 101 is sufficient proof.

Don't think God's directly involved though, unless He gave her a few extra years to repent from glorifying a fascist murdering bastard, before taking the elevator downstairs to a very warm eternity with her friend Adolf :evilgrin:

[Brucey]

2. Riefenstahl was a great, great filmmaker, and

invented techniques used today. Unfortunately she got pulled onto the Nazi bandwagon, as did most people in Germany. Young people simply don't know about her wonderful work in films. There is a very nice documentary about her called The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl. It's 3 hours long, but worth it. Her films, such as Triumph of the Will, that glorified Nazis, were beautiful, very successful propaganda films. (The US made lots of propaganda films too, some by Frank Capra). She claimed she wasn't a Nazi, and there is no evidence that she was. Still, we wish she would have followed the great film director Fritz Lang who fled Germany when Hitler asked him to be the official Nazi filmmaker.

[Fenris]

5. Saw the documentary. I own a DVD of "Triumph of the Will"

(That was a birthday present one year...had me dad special order it from amazon). I also own all of Frank Capra's propaganda films. I don't debate her value as a filmmaker. I think her life was just really bizarre and somewhat unsettling. I don't think she made the best decisions, but at the same time, I can't help but admire her technique.

[HEyHEY]

3. what a scary lookin lady

[Dirk39]

4. Stupid idiotic nazi-bitch...

that is. I start to believe that there's some truth about the best dying young. After Ernst Jünger and her. There are so many pseudo-discourses about her: IMHO she isn't respected so much, although she is a nazi-bitch, she's still admired because of this. Without being so close to the leading nazis, noone would remember or mention her. Stupid mountain-climber. Just because some BOSS-advertising is as fashist as your "art" is, doesn't make you an artist.
I'm so angry that you didn't die earlier,
Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[Fenris]

6. Danke Dirk! Thanks for your opinion as a younger German

Very informative.

[newyawker99]

11. Congrats Dirk39!! 600 posts

:toast:

[scarlet_owl]

7. I think her makeup gun was set to "whore"

Nazi whore, that is.

[LittleApple81]

8. She might be all you say but when she was young

she was stunning...

She really made a pact with the devil, didn't she?

I wonder what will happen to our fearless leaders who have participated in this criminal administration.

Old age is not very forgiving. (and if you don't behave well, you might get to look like that... but compared to the alternative it does not sound too bad).




There is a resource page for her where her role in the Nazi regime and as a cinematographer are reviewed
http://www.webster.edu/~barrettb/riefenstahl2a.htm

[scarlet_owl]

9. There is nothing wrong with aging gracefully

It's wearing so much makeup you have to apply it with a trowel that bugs me.

[Deja Q]

10. You sure that's not Phyillis Diller on crack?

:shrug:

If she knew that Hitler had but one testicle, d'you think she would have stuck around?

I wonder if Bush* has only one testicle...

[Paranoid_Portlander]

12. Leni congratulated Hitler...

...on his victory over France in 1940. She sent him a congratulatory telegram full of praise.