Hi Frank, that's exactly my point of view! Best Regards Rolf
Frank wrote:
"You're right, Sid,
What's not controversial about her is her skill and innovation as a filmaker. Beyond that, I don't know what to think.
She claimed never to have been a party member. Claimed that in her later years at least, she didn't subscribe to Nazi politics or policy. Claimed that she never (as was rumoured) had an affair with Hitler, and that she wasn't that close to him. Claimed that her great works, including her personal triumph, "Triumph of the Will" was not propaganda, but merely (from her point of view) "a commission".
In her old age she said that she wished she'd never been born.
OTOH, she could have denounced the Nazi regime, but she didn't. She could have apologized for (even unwittingly) making propaganda for one of the most evil regimes that this earth has ever seen, but she didn't.
She may not have been a party member, but evidence seems to point to the fact that as a young woman she was enamoured of the party, and it's policies, and seemed somewhat eager to become "an insider". If that was true, she could have, after the fact, said that she was young, deluded, like many others in her country was fooled by the absolute and intoxicating power that the new party promised, and thereby blinded to the darker elements that we can now see were lurking just under the surface. But she didn't.
It has been said that some propagandists of evil regimes, such as Eisenstein in the USSR, weren't vilified like her, and that their works were allowed to be seen as the art that they were, and not dismissed as propaganda. It has been suggested that there was some sort of vendetta against Leni, who never did a film after WWII, as she could never get any sort of funding (and thus was effectively black-listed) - the reason that she could only produce works of still photography.
She was an enogma to be sure. She was a great filmaker and photographer to be sure (her still photographs of the '36 Olympics are amazing). I personally think that her personal politics were much more in line with Nazi-ism than she ever let on after the war. Rightly or wrongly, that feeling colours my appreciation for her as an artist.
regards, frank"
