From docio at nhaysom.com  Wed Apr 18 16:26:49 2007
From: docio at nhaysom.com (Nick Haysom)
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 21:26:49 +0100
Subject: [LEN-E] Leni & Ken B
References: <20070217165710.8E7612BAB1@mailwash40.pair.com>
Message-ID: <008701c781f7$e7797370$0a00000a@nhaysom>

Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4:

Monday 16 - Friday 20 April 2007

Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl

By Steven Bach, read by Kenneth Branagh

Leni Riefenstahl was one of the greatest women film directors of the 20th 
century, famous for her Triumph of the Will, a propaganda film of the 1934 
Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany and for her film of the 1936 Olympics 
at Berlin, orchestrated as Nazi propaganda. This biography looks behind the 
myths and legends which have cloaked Leni Riefenstahl's actions during the 
Nazi period.

Available online for seven days:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/book_week.shtml 


From ron at psymon.com  Wed Apr 25 07:55:16 2007
From: ron at psymon.com (Ron Koster)
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 07:55:16 -0400
Subject: [LEN-E] Time Magazine: Capable if not superlative acting by Leni
Message-ID: <20070425115620.2E4112BB5D@mailwash40.pair.com>

Gee, it's been slow around here! ;)

Well, that's partially my own fault, I guess. I've just been very 
busy with various other things for a while now, but hopefully next 
month I should be able to get back into "Leni stuff" again.

In the meantime, just this morning I discovered that Time Magazine 
has an online searchable archive of articles/covers going way, way back...

http://www.time.com/time/archive/

...including numerous (if not innumerable) articles about Leni. It's 
definitely worth checking out (and you can narrow your search to 
whatever years, or what type of articles, are of particular interest).

The earliest one they would appear to have would be a film review from 1927...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,737111,00.html

On page 2 (as displayed in the non-print version of that article) 
you'll find a review of "Peaks of Destiny" -- interestingly, it's not 
referring to Fanck's earlier film of that name, however, but rather 
"The Holy Mountain", and it's actually quite a good review, 
concluding with: "Brilliant photography of snow storms and ski races, 
capable if not superlative acting by Leni Riefenstahl, Louis Trenker 
and Ernst Peterson, make the picture a valuable and exciting 
experiment in spectacle and a worthy product of the German UFA, noted 
for its success in experimenting."

In addition to articles, one can also search for covers, and you can 
see the Feb. 17, 1936 cover that featured Leni...

http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19360217,00.html

...and, back to the articles search, one can find a letter-to-the 
editor in a subsequent issue about that cover...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,847672,00.html

...where the reader/writer states: "Your cover (Feb. 17, Hitler's 
Leni Riefenstahl) beat the cables easily in vividness of depiction, 
but you made it extremely difficult for persons in the Puritan 
highlands to keep their minds on their work."

Funny...!

Ron ;)

Woof?... http://www.Psymon.com
Ach, du Leni!... http://www.Riefenstahl.org
Hmm... http://www.Imaginary-Friend.ca


From ron at psymon.com  Wed Apr 25 08:19:03 2007
From: ron at psymon.com (Ron Koster)
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:19:03 -0400
Subject: [LEN-E] Legendary Sin Cities: Berlin
Message-ID: <20070425122006.6BBE32BB3F@mailwash40.pair.com>

Last week, the CBC (here in Canada) began a re-broadcast of their 
"Legendary Sin Cities" series of documentaries. It's a 3-part series 
about Paris, Berlin and Shanghai in the 1920s and '30s.

Tonight is the Berlin episode (last week was Paris, next week is 
Shanghai) and although there's no mention of Leni at all in it -- I 
guess she wasn't "sinful" enough ;) -- it's still extremely 
insightful about what Berlin was like during Leni's youth. Indeed, 
one can easily understand her father's apprehension when she 
expressed interest in becoming a dancer -- I'm sure that if I was the 
father of a young daughter in that time, I'd be very worried, too! ;)

I don't know how many people here live in Canada (or have access to 
the CBC via satellite), but below is the CBC's description for the 
show, including a link to their site for more information, where one 
can also purchase this documentary on DVD. Even sans-Leni, it's 
*really* worth catching, if you can!

Ron :)

>LEGENDARY SIN CITIES
>Of all the remarkable events of this century perhaps the most 
>fascinating has been the spontaneous growth, flowering and then 
>decay of a handful of great cities. These cities were places where 
>art, culture and political liberties co-mingled with corruption, 
>brutality and decadence. Everything and just about anyone could be 
>bought and sold. The immigrant would struggle beside the artist. 
>Gamblers, thieves and prostitutes co-habited with soul-savers, the 
>rich and the powerful.
>
>The exhilarating combination of the seamy with the sublime made 
>these places a magnet for all the lost souls and refugees of the 
>world. Pushing the limits of tolerance and freedom, they defined the 
>social, political and sexual culture of the 20 th century. Their 
>names ring out: Paris of the '20s, Berlin of the '20s and '30s and 
>Shanghai of the '30s. In the period between the wars, these were the 
>LEGENDARY SIN CITIES of the world.
>
>Read more reviews, a filmmaker bio and visit a photogallery of 
>pictures from the 20's and 30's.
>http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/sincities/
>Series starts on Wednesday April 18 at 10pm PT on CBC Newsworld