[lbo-talk] Triumph of the Ill

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Tue Sep 9 08:43:51 PDT 2003


On Tue, 9 Sep 2003, Dennis Perrin wrote:


> So long to the gal who made the Third Reich roll (apologies to The
> Residents).

BTW, I highly recommend the documentary _The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Reifenstahl_. In some ways, her third reich story is a reductio ad absurdum of the ultimate liberal self-delusion, up there with _Man in the High Tower_. She essentially says the reason she left anti-semitism out of _Triumph of the Will_ was because she thought that if she emphasized what she saw as the positive she could influence Hitler.

But I'm not recommending the film just as a didactic joke. She's really remarkably sympathetic and it's weird to feel to sympathetic for her, not just because of the Third Reich stuff, but also the Nubian and other stuff. But it makes a for a great documentary.

Michael



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