From ron at psymon.com Mon Jun 18 18:14:02 2007 From: ron at psymon.com (Ron Koster) Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:14:02 -0400 Subject: [LEN-E] Steven Bach on Charlie Rose (tonight!) Message-ID: <20070618221409.D4C442BB9E@mailwash40.pair.com> Hi folks! Anyone who has watched the Charlie Rose Show (here in North America) knows that he's by far one of the best, most knowledgeable/insightful interviewers around, and tonight he's interviewing Steven Bach all about his relatively recent biography Leni. There's some info about tonight's show here... http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2007/06/18/2/a-conversation-with-steven-bach ...although if you go back tomorrow (or whenever) there should be video of tonight's episode that you can watch online (if you're not able to catch it). Bach, as we know, has been extremely negative toward Leni -- I have no idea what Charlie Rose's perspective is on her (he's generally very good at remaining "objective"), but it should be very interesting to see how this interview goes! Ron :) Woof?... http://www.Psymon.com Ach, du Leni!... http://www.Riefenstahl.org Hmm... http://www.Imaginary-Friend.ca From luc.deneulin at skynet.be Mon Jun 18 19:20:20 2007 From: luc.deneulin at skynet.be (Luc Deneulin) Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:20:20 +0200 Subject: [LEN-E] Arnheim Message-ID: <747E92C8-F414-421D-97C0-A42DBE1B8007@skynet.be> Sometimes... it's hard who we have to believe. I came accross the radio interview descriptions a few years ago - here is R. Arnheim in his own words, , a big innovator in Filmstudies, one of the pioneers... undesirable in Germany as from 1933, he was a friend of Riefenstahl till...: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/12/ AR2007061201957.html Luc Deneulin luc.deneulin at skynet.be From luc.deneulin at skynet.be Mon Jun 18 19:21:20 2007 From: luc.deneulin at skynet.be (Luc Deneulin) Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:21:20 +0200 Subject: [LEN-E] Bach and Leni, Steven and Riefenstahl Message-ID: <4D3D0647-FBAB-4FFC-93BF-D4B273D914C6@skynet.be> > "Steven has been extremely negative towards Riefenstahl...mmm" > I read the book twice and made a lot of notes. S. Bach is a very good scholar imho. He did a good research and he prooved to know German very well - (which has been a major problem for other people writing about Leni Riefenstahl) so was able to consult many sources in German. It's a part of the truth about her life and her films and her photography.- I think it's very interesting to read it in combination with Trimborn, Rother, Salked, Berg-Pan , Ford, Hinton etc. to have some kind of image about Riefenstahl's work that comes close to reality on certain points. And why not mine, to be published late this year, in Dutch to start with. It's not easy to find mistakes in his work, unless selectivity (knowingly or unknowingly) and over-interpretation, but these big errors can be seen in "extremely positive" books like David Hinton's as well, not to talk about Charles Ford's book, published in France in 1978 and translated in German in the early 80ies, remaining for almost twenty years the only account on Riefenstahl's life and films. (besides Riefenstahl's Memoiren which contains some major mistakes about both history and filmhistory) Both Ford and Hinton made on top of their selectivity and over interpretations that lots of factual mistakes, by which they - in the end - did more bad than good to the image of Riefenstahl. Luc Deneulin, PhD Filmstudies Free University of Brussels > Bach, as we know, has been extremely negative toward Leni -- I have > no idea what Charlie Rose's perspective is on her (he's generally > very good at remaining "objective"), but it should be very > interesting to see how this interview goes! > > Luc Deneulin luc.deneulin at skynet.be From ron at psymon.com Tue Jun 19 07:44:54 2007 From: ron at psymon.com (Ron Koster) Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 07:44:54 -0400 Subject: [LEN-E] Steven Bach on Charlie Rose (tonight!) In-Reply-To: <20070618221409.D4C442BB9E@mailwash40.pair.com> References: <20070618221409.D4C442BB9E@mailwash40.pair.com> Message-ID: <20070619114502.2E1582BBE2@mailwash40.pair.com> I wrote: >There's some info about tonight's show here... > >http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2007/06/18/2/a-conversation-with-steven-bach The video is up now there this morning -- although perhaps I should point out that if you start watching it and go "Huh?" because right off the bat Charlie Rose says that he'll be talking with Sam Nunn, it's not a mistake. Just keep listening -- he also mentions that Steven Bach will be there later in the show (the Bach interview comes in around the 38-39 minute mark, which you can skip ahead to). Mind you, that Sam Nunn interview was really quite interesting, too...! Ron ;) Woof?... http://www.Psymon.com Ach, du Leni!... http://www.Riefenstahl.org Hmm... http://www.Imaginary-Friend.ca From ron at psymon.com Sun Jun 24 13:30:06 2007 From: ron at psymon.com (Ron Koster) Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 13:30:06 -0400 Subject: [LEN-E] Disney in Deutschland Message-ID: <20070624173008.02FFD2BBDC@mailwash40.pair.com> Yet another play about Leni (sort-of)... http://www.wehavemet.org/dind.html Ron :) Woof?... http://www.Psymon.com Ach, du Leni!... http://www.Riefenstahl.org Hmm... http://www.Imaginary-Friend.ca From ron at psymon.com Sun Jun 24 15:19:59 2007 From: ron at psymon.com (Ron Koster) Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:19:59 -0400 Subject: [LEN-E] Steven Bach on NPR Message-ID: <20070624192003.0EF182BBFA@mailwash40.pair.com> Here's an audio interview on NPR with Steven Bach... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10698820 ...(click the "listen" icon under the title, of course). Ron :) Woof?... http://www.Psymon.com Ach, du Leni!... http://www.Riefenstahl.org Hmm... http://www.Imaginary-Friend.ca From ron at psymon.com Sun Jun 24 15:38:14 2007 From: ron at psymon.com (Ron Koster) Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:38:14 -0400 Subject: [LEN-E] Leni in the news Message-ID: <20070624193830.281752BBDA@mailwash40.pair.com> At 01:20 AM 6/19/2007 +0200, Luc Deneulin wrote: >I came accross the >radio interview descriptions a few years ago - here is R. Arnheim in >his own words, , a big innovator in Filmstudies, one of the >pioneers... undesirable in Germany as from 1933, he was a friend of >Riefenstahl till...: > >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/12/AR2007061201957.html Thanks for that, Luc! I know I've been slow in updated the news section of my site, but I just did so (including the above item)... http://www.riefenstahl.org/resources/news/ For reference, my last update ended on April 30th, so it's basically everything after that date that I just added in today. Apart from the things mentioned in my earlier messages of today, there hasn't been much of interest, really. There have been a LOT of reviews of Steven Bach's book, and I mentioned any that seemed relevant (without being repetitive -- many articles appear multiple times at different locations) while not including others that were little more than just a "blurb". Recently there's also been many articles about Bryan Ferry and his positive comments about Leni's films and Speer's architecture (as Thomas mentioned here a while ago) -- this doesn't really tell us anything about Leni, of course, but I included the first mention of what happened there as things progressed. Apart from that, there's also been a lot of hubbub about Steven Spielberg's plans to film the Olympics in China, with it being reported over and over again that Mia Farrow called him "the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Olympics", not to mention Michael Moore often being referred to as "the Riefenstahl of the left". I *didn't* include these latter (because they amount to little more than name-calling and tell us virtually nothing about Leni -- other than, I suppose, that her name has become a nasty epithet that you can hurl at another person when you don't like what they're doing), but I *did* include the Bryan Ferry items because they do, in a way, provide an example of not only a positive perception toward Leni/her films, but also the professional/public repercussions for simply making such a statement. Anyway, that's "LeNiews" for the past month-and-a-half or so! Ron ;) Woof?... http://www.Psymon.com Ach, du Leni!... http://www.Riefenstahl.org Hmm... http://www.Imaginary-Friend.ca From ron at psymon.com Sun Jun 24 15:50:50 2007 From: ron at psymon.com (Ron Koster) Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:50:50 -0400 Subject: [LEN-E] Fascinating Fascism Message-ID: <20070624195052.C9A8E2BBDC@mailwash40.pair.com> Susan Sontag's "Fascinating Fascism" article can easily be found in several places on the 'net, but I just came across this version... http://www.nybooks.com/articles/9280 ...(reproduced from the original source of the article back in 1975, i.e. The New York Review of Books) which, if you scroll down to the links at the bottom, includes two separate rebuttals/comments from David B. Hinton and Adrienne Rich (plus responses to each by Sontag), as well as a "correction" (confession?) by Sontag with regard to her plagiarizing Kracauer. Nice to find that, all together! Ron :) Woof?... http://www.Psymon.com Ach, du Leni!... http://www.Riefenstahl.org Hmm... http://www.Imaginary-Friend.ca From luc.deneulin at skynet.be Sun Jun 24 17:14:43 2007 From: luc.deneulin at skynet.be (Luc Deneulin) Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 23:14:43 +0200 Subject: [LEN-E] S. Sontag Message-ID: <5E33CDA4-E3F2-4A16-89A9-6901B7B2B852@skynet.be> Thanks Ron, for this! S. Sontag, as S. Bach points out is not completely negative about LR in that sense: she finds Triumph and Olympia probably the two best documentaries ever made. Besides sales of the Nuba book raised immediately after the publication of her article. Daviud Hinton has a point against Sontag, but he is also very very selective and his book published in 1978 on Riefenstahl contains twice as much mistakes as Susan Sontag's article, however to create a positive image. As I pointed out in my PhD, Kracauer was at the origin of all this, in a much larger context (about all the Weimar films expressing the desire of the Germans for a F?hrer) - however Kracauer nor Sontag take in account that for Fanck and Riefenstahl's work during that period the contribution of Jews was extremely important - as well as one can wonder whether without Sokal or Balazs - some of Fanck films and certanly Das blaue Licht would have been made. Then we must conclude that exactly these opponents of the nazis Jews and communist were concerned in making these protonazi films which is nonsense of course. Both haven't given this idea a thought although one must say that Riefenstahl has minimised Sokal & Balzs' influence/importance in the making of the film for decades; as she found Kracauer and Sontag her biggest ennemies my point to Riefenstahl was exactly for Das blaue Licht to mention Sokal (as co-producer) and Balazs (as co- director) again. It was difficult for her since she wanted on the other hand show that she had worked completely on her own on a film before Hitler came to power and liked to use that in her deferse to her being labelled as a filmmaker of the Third Reich. As you know, finally, she did do something on her site about that, at least concerning Balazs. But when the 1932 version of Das blaue Licht came out... she choose to cut their names again. Susan Sontag's "Fascinating Fascism" article can easily be found in several places on the 'net, but I just came across this version... http://www.nybooks.com/articles/9280 .