DAS BLAUE LICHT NEWS WIRE

April  2007

The Guardian online (UK) and Cinematical write that Jodie Foster has announced she has "signed" to play Leni Riefenstahl. The much cited biopic has been in "development hell" almost since its inception over 7 years ago. Foster did and later did not have the approval and support of Riefenstahl herself (for more see new_page_45.htm) Foster, now 44 years of age, was not Riefenstahl's ideal, thinking that she much preferred Sharon Stone. "With a director planned to be attached in the next few months, producer Gabriele Bacher hopes to get the film into production by the end of the year..." The article notes that Foster's own production company will be involved, and the script is still be finalized at this time (Rupert Walters). "Considering the technical advancement she made in the film medium I wonder if they will use her artistic vision and eye for imagery when filming her story."  Actual filming may occur as early as fall/winter of 2007. In late 2006 Premiere magazine noted Foster's continued interest in the seemingly ill-fated "Leni Riefenstahl Project" when they quoted her as stating, " Yeah, we're still working on the script, and I'm still going to play her. I met her a couple of times...I wanted her archives, but I didn't want her involvement  (in the film) and that's something she (Riefenstahl) really wanted, because she'd been libeled so many times...she's a complex morality tale." There was immediate reaction at that time to this idea of filming a Riefenstahl biopic from the Institute for Holocaust Studies. A spokesman had stated "There's nothing morally complex about what Riefenstahl did as Hitler's favorite filmmaker, The only thing complex is [Jodie] Foster's confusion on this issue."

Editors note: thanks to ALC at the Jodie Foster Fanforum (www.jodiefans.net) for bringing us this news

January  2007

Steven Bach's long anticipated biography Leni: The Work of Leni Riefenstahl is announced for a March 2007 release, about 6 years after it was announced. Bach is remembered as the executive in charge at United Artists when films such as Manhattan and Raging Bull were produced. He was also at the helm as cinema's most infamous flop Heaven's Gate was made by director Michael Cimino (who had just won an Oscar for Best Picture, The Deer Hunter). Bach went on to write a book of the production, one of the most cited texts on movie-making used in film schools, Final Cut.  Cimino, who was set loose by Bach, no doubt would not have appreciated the back-stage revelations on his seeming excesses.  Heaven's Gate as a film has a parallel to Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph des Willens in that is vilified by all, actually seen by few.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Initial press reviews indicate that Steven Bach is marketing the book as "definitive" (trivializing those European authors who have already expended much time and effort on several exhaustive texts) and featuring many new revelations that will "bear chilling witness" to "her role as silent eyewitness" and various "manipulations" and "shams" that she constructed to satisfy her own "ruthless ambition." Thus far nothing noted in the press appears either new or unknown. Certainly neither is the spin.

Perhaps Mr. Bach should have considered this image for his book?

The gossip page of the NY Post carried a story on January 13th called Leni's Affair. The Post taking the excerpts from Steven Bach's upcoming biography on Leni Riefenstahl, related accounts that he gives on her reported affair with Olympic champion Glenn Morris. Also the Post crows that Bach "reveals" that Riefenstahl was the victim of Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels "pleas for sex." This she was repulsed by. Pointed out by others, these items are hardly revelatory and well known to emanate from Riefenstahl's own autobiography. 

German biographer and cinema historian, Jurgen Trimborn's text Leni Riefenstahl: A Life is about to be released (January 2007) though it was released in the early 2002 in Europe. Trimborn quipped at Riefenstahl's 2003 death "she may have been an unscrupulous careerist, but she was also a brilliant artist. History will forgive her." Although much is made throughout the text of inconsistencies and what remains of the historical record, which may implicate Riefenstahl despite her protestations, most reviewers have perceived this as a favorable text. Released by Faber and Faber, available at Amazon.com.
 

October  2006

Sarah Greenman's production of LENI opens in Seattle for a 4 week run which ends  November 11th.

From the production's casting call the play is outlined as "German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl is dead, but she is not ready to lie down. Her 1934 film, Triumph of the Will supplied the Third Reich with a valiant, embattled epic. Fascism was mythic politics and Riefenstahl became its myth-maker. She was a child of the century and embodied some of its most troubling contradictions. Sarah Greenman's play journeys deep inside the mind and media of Leni Riefenstahl to discover why art can be a dangerous business." The work features actresses JoAnn Johnson and Cecily Overman playing Leni and Helen and has received the Gertrude Hung Chan Playwright award. 
 

August 2006

Amazon.com offers the US release of Leni Riefenstahl's Das blaue Licht, or The Blue Light on  DVD.

The release from Pathfinder Home Entertainment is in NTSC (American) format, Dolby 2.0 and includes the original German version (79 minutes) with English subtitles with the "rare English silent version" (52 minutes) and supplement that includes a still photo gallery.

August 22,  2006

On this date, 104 years ago Leni Riefenstahl was born. 

According the UK's Guardian press, the recent revelation that author Gunter Grass (The Tin Drum) had volunteered to be in a weapons group of the Waffen-SS has sparked "yet another" discussion on the "complex morality" of creative talent and a "shameful" past. The article, like many others in the international post mortem of this news regarding an important artist, reflects on being judged on one's past against one's superior, unquestioned talent and work. The article relates "it nowadays seems possible - if not uncontroversial - to admire the films of Leni Riefenstahl..."  A Toronto Star writer stated that although the links to Nazi power make Riefenstahl's film "a potent source of debate" Triumph des Willens is "still shown in first-year film studies classes around the world." In other words "links to Nazi past don't negate genius."

US Newswire reports that Jodi Foster's recent public statements supporting Mel Gibson following his infamous DUI related anti-semtic ramblings have caused some controversy. Foster, who announced more than six years ago that she intended to make a film on Leni Riefenstahl, was (according to the Wyman Institute) the wrong person to stand in defense of Gibson and views on the Holocaust. "Just last year" the Institute spokesman stated, "Foster also claimed that Nazi propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl was not really a Nazi. A Dr. Medoff went on to say "no matter how much she admires Gibson or Riefenstahl, Ms. Foster needs to judge them according to their actual statements and actions not according to her fantasy images of them."

 July  2006

Amazon.com offers the American DVD release of Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia. The disc from Pathfinder Home Entertainment includes part I and II.

The DVD offers about 5 hours of material including two related documentaries (Jugend Der Welt or Youth of the World) a documentary of the 1936 German winter Olympiad and Die Kamera Fahrt Mit (or The Camera Goes Too) which includes Riefenstahl footage from both Triumph des Willens and Olympia. From Olympia there are out takes from sequences different in the German and Italian releases along with the various NSDAP scenes excised from all current releases. Other material includes a trailer and essays by film historians.

Germany's Deutsche Welle reports that the Berlin stadium, site of the 1936 Olympics and stage for Leni Riefenstahl's seminal sports documentary,  Olympia t is creating controversy as the World Cup matches approach. Berlin stadium will be the host for six games including the final. According to the BBC the stadium has "been immortalized by Leni Riefenstahl's epic film."  Although undergoing a massive upgrade and renovation, the stadium still holds the architecture (modeled after the LA Coliseum, site of the 1932 Olympic games) and statuary from Hitler's favorite sculptor, Arno Breker. Described by some who would like to see these removed as "delusions of racism carved in stone."  In addition the idea of nationalistic pride appears to be an issue. "We were so serious before," says one German fan, "but now we've shown that we can party."

The New York Times reports on controversy of favored Third Reich sculptor Arno Breker's retrospective being opened this month in Germany. Schwerin is the town hosting the exhibit of 70 works, most provided by Breker's aging widow. Approximately 90% of Breker's work was destroyed by the Allies at the fall of Germany in 1944 and 1945.  Breker unlike Leni Riefenstahl had faded into obscurity after the War. Due to his massive "aryan" sculptures (some of which survive quite visibly at the Olympic stadium in Berlin) and his "cozy ties" to Albert Speer and Hitler himself, the work has been shunned and not evaluated for any artistic merit.

 Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia consulted Das Blaue Licht.net for clarifications and information. See revised pages at these links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Will

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leni_Riefenstahl

 Walter Frentz, cinematographer on such films as Sieg des Glaubens, Triumph des Willens and Olympia has passed away. He was often featured in a variety of History Channel "documentaries" in the Third Reich and most recently in Hitler's Women, a one hour feature about former employer, Leni Riefenstahl. Frentz was often referred to as "Hitler's photographer" and his introduction to both Riefenstahl and Hitler was through inner circle confidant Albert Speer. He took the last images of Hitler outside the bunker in April 1945.

June  2006

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art opens a 3 month photography exhibit on Susan Sontag. Her "fascist" aesthetic essays are counterbalanced  by a single image photographed by Leni Riefenstahl. Sontag who in the 1960's originally defended Riefenstahl's work as "brilliant" and beyond reproach, famously reversed that view in her essay Fascinating Facism.

Multibillion dollar online auction giant eBay announced that it " has recently made the decision to prohibit the sale of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will on the site due to the fact that it is deemed a Nazi propaganda film". Asked by Das Blaue Licht.net for clarification a spokesperson related that "although this item was allowed in the past, it is no longer permitted on eBay". Oddly the film, and the recently issued A&M release of the "Nuremberg Trilogy" (pictured) which includes des Willens and the other two rally films by Riefenstahl, remains though there are reports that items related to Riefenstahl's rally film have been pulled.

April  2006

Canadian playwright Mieko Ouchi has produced a play entitled The Blue Light about Leni Riefenstahl. The work directed by Ron Jenkins and starring Kate Hennig in the Riefenstahl role opened in March. Asked in Vue magazine online about her motivation Ouchi related "When AFI does their top 100 films, she's the only woman filmmaker on that list. When you find her, well, I felt very conflicted. I admired many things about her journey, and her perseverance, and her ability to, as I say in the play, stand next to these incredibly powerful men...as someone who belonged there." The film is a series of flashbacks which occur as a fictional story unfolds with Riefenstahl attempting to get production approval on her final film.

March  2006

Amazon.com offers a reissue of 2000's Triumph of the Will  (Triumph des Willens)  from Synapse. Most of the same supplements remain ( the commentary and shorts) but they offer a new 2006 digitally re-mastered transfer from a 35 mm fine grain element along with newly translated subtitles.

November  2005

As reported in the DVD review page, Digitally Obsessed, Kino's November release of The White Hell of Pitz Palu (see below) has a substantial extra in the documentary entitled  The Immoderation in Me. This a 2002 interview with the then-100-year-old Leni Riefenstahl, conducted by Sandra Maischberger. The piece was completed at Riefenstahl's home near Munich as she was preparing a preamble for the release of her final film and is conducted in German with English subtitles. In the running time of around 59 minutes, the discussion includes Riefenstahl's system of editing, her then-new film of undersea footage, her work on both Triumph of the Will and Olympia. As the documentary progresses, Riefenstahl  "demonstrates a fondness for high tech, showing off the Avid editing suite that she was using to work on her latest film and chatting off-handedly about CGI." 

Digitally Obsessed remarks to the content of the interview as "she remained to the end fiercely independent and an intriguing figure who never quite was able to overcome the shadow of her work under the Nazis, though she points out that she had no choice if she wanted to work at all in Germany. The viewer will have to judge for himself whether she's being defensive or really just an artist first and oblivious to politics of any kind."
 

October  2005

"If Leni Riefenstahl had done nothing but visit Africa and bring back her photographs, her place in history would be secure." -Kevin Brownlow. So reads the preface to Taschen Book's monumental Riefenstahl photography book, Africa, released in time for Leni Riefenstahl's 100th birthday in 2002. Amazon.com lists the re-issue of Africa at the msrp of $60  (which they presently reduce to $38.00) for mid-October 2005. It can be said that Taschen for the price, has again outdone themselves. This smaller version is beautifully rendered, in a hard box sleeve (with Riefenstahl's own proclaimed "image of the century" on the cover). The original oversized format of Africa was a $1,700 in a limited edition, numbered and signed by Riefenstahl. Taschen, who now sells that issue for $2,000 announced that as of 2006, the remaining copies will cost you $2500.

September  2005

KINO Films of Germany announced November 2005 DVD releases for three films that star Leni Riefenstahl. As directed by her mentor, Arnold Fanck the films include the seminal White Hell of Pitz Palu, Storm Over Mont Blanc and SOS Eisberg. SOS Iceberg includes both the American and German release versions of the film along with Leni Riefenstahl's last known video interview. "Absolutely not" was the emphatic response from KINO when asked in 2003 if they intended to release any more Fanck / Riefenstahl films. This after they released of Fanck's initial collaboration with Leni Riefenstahl,  The Holy Mountain.

In October, the Goethe Institut of Los Angeles will screen the rarely shown IhrTraum von Afrika (aka Her Dream of Africa) 2001 in German with English subtitles. A 58 minute documentary follow up to The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993) both directed by Ray Muller and profiles Riefenstahl's amazing return to the Sudan in search of the Nuba along with her near fatal helicopter crash at the age of 99. A crash that led TIME magazine to refer to her as "one tough Teutonic."

Goethe Institut of Atlanta will replicate the essential films of the Leni Riefenstahl film retrospective (in September and October 2005) that UCLA and the Goethe LA presented in the winter of 2004. Screenings will include Triumph des Willens, Das blaue Licht, Tiefland and Olympia Parts I and II.

Vienna Online reports that Jodie Foster, in a just published Cinema magazine interview confirmed that she continues to be involved in pre-production work on The Leni Riefenstahl project, originally announced in late 1999. Although Foster "did not give the exact date" she alluded to filming being scheduled to start. Although an acclaimed director herself, the online Austrian newswire stated that her "role would be limited before the camera" apparently choosing to not direct this film.  Likewise, when asked about the project in Premiere magazine this month Foster replied " Yeah, we're still working on the script, and I'm still going to play her. I met her a couple of times...I wanted her archives, but I didn't want her involvement  (in the film) and that's something she (Riefenstahl) really wanted, because she'd been libeled so many times...she's a complex morality tale." There was immediate reaction to this renewal of press regarding the Riefenstahl biopic, stalled for years and described by one Hollywood trade paper as "in development hell", from the Institute for Holocaust Studies. A spokesman stated "There's nothing morally complex about what Riefenstahl did as Hitler's favorite filmmaker, The only thing complex is [Jodie] Foster's confusion on this issue."

See More on the Leni Riefenstahl Project here: http://dasblauelicht.net/new_page_45.htm

Travesty Productions has released, both theatrically and on DVD an inside look at the art of film editing, Edge Codes.com. The film profiles  the work of "visionaries of the art" such as Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorcese and George Lucas. Editing, described as "the essence of cinema" was the most creative element of Leni Riefenstahl's work as well. Clips from Olympia are profiled as Riefenstahl and others are profiled as "masters of the craft."

According to a recent Tribeca Film Festival press release, screenwriter Martina Nagel has completed a treatment of "a political thriller" based on the life of Leni Riefenstahl. Tribeca refers to this project as "Victim of My Own Talent", though Nagel's presence on Eagle Film's website has a small image of Riefenstahl in a mock-up poster entitled "Myth Maker." Nagel who is also a director and cinematographer was kind enough to respond to Das Blaue Licht.Net's request for information regarding this news. However, she relates that "there is no film script, only a treatment" and that no film project is planned. Nagel went on to state that although she enjoyed her exploration of Riefenstahl via the writing she has accomplished on Leni's life, she views all of this as a "purely private" endeavor.

German online newspaper Welt am Sonntag marked the upcoming 60th birthday of the German "new wave" director Wim Wenders with an article that included a reference to Leni Riefenstahl. When referring to a recently published TIME Magazine article on the 100 Best Films, they noted to Wenders that he "stands between John Wayne, the Duke, and Leni Riefenstahl." Wenders stated, "Riefenstahl was a large influence in film, even if the work [she did] stood in the service of the wrong things. Without Leni Riefenstahl such works [as that] of George Lucas' Star Wars could not have been."

June  2005

Rolling Stone magazine's Peter Travers calls Rize, the new film by David La  Chapelle "a documentary film like no other." The opening of the work juxtaposes contemporary Los Angeles' Watts "krump" footage wit African tribal footage shot of the Nuba by Leni Riefenstahl in a powerful sequence of artisanship and editing.

Parisian based writer Claire Berlinski writes in Azure magazine about German rock band Rammstein as they tour Europe. "As everyone knows" she laments, the "fascination" with "death worship" and "sadism" is evidence of the band's purported affinity with Third Reich ideals. According to Berlinski, lead singer's urging of the audience with the refrain "think with your heart" are the exact words utilized by NSDAP rally mongers. Of extreme concern to the writer is a video ( utilized in opening a Rammstein favorite ), which projects "an animated homage" of Leni Riefenstahl's work from Triumph des Willens. This along with use of Riefenstahl's Olympia to open the song Stripped, is evidence that Rammstein sings the "praise to the ideals of National Socialism." Rammstein band member retort "our music is German...that's what comes through...[but] we're almost too German for Germany." Their stance of use of Riefenstahl footage is that it fits the music and is simply "beautiful" in its execution. As to the self conscious "guilt" that some Germans might feel uneasy about regarding their stage persona, they state "our music is about the revival of a healthy German self-esteem." 

BBC news reports that a Shropshire gallery in England briefly had for sale, images from the film production of Leni Reifenstahl's last dramatic release, Tiefland. The images have now been withdrawn. A claim was made that documents specialist Richard Westwood-Brookes, had related the photos, mostly of Gypsy extras utilized for the film, were shot by the director, Riefenstahl. Oddly the news service refers to these candid shots as "nazi propaganda" despite lacking of any apparent political value. A spokesperson for the Shropshire-based auctioneers, said they had been contacted by an organization which represented the Gypsy-traveler community who wanted to purchase the images. They now have two weeks to come up with the money to complete the transaction.

Director Ron Howard's Cinderalla Man, starring Russell Crowe in a film about 1930's America, contains a street scene with film posters plastered across a city wall. The posters are of S.O.S. Iceberg, the Arnold Fanck adventure vehicle starring Leni Riefenstahl.

May  2005

Renowned German modernist painter, Norbert Bisky has opened a major show in Berlin according to the news organization, Deutsche Welle. Obvious influence on Bisky's canvases from Leni Riefenstahl has led to accusations of that his work is propping up totalitarian ideals and laced with a "fascist" aesthetic. Devotees are frustrated by these comments. Guido Westerwelle, a leader of Germany's neo-liberal Free Democrats reportedly thinks that the issue stems from fellow left-wingers having an inherent problem with the depiction of any beauty in art.

February  2005

New York based musician and conceptual artist Paul D. Miller, a.k.a. DJ Spooky, is planning as part two of a trilogy of remixes, to grapple with Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph des Willens. Miller is currently touring the U.S. performing his initial entry of this three part series to DW Griffen's The Birth of a Nation. Miller, who's stage persona is DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, related to the Cambridge Chronicle that he is "in negotiation with Leni Riefenstahl's estate." According to him  he sees no conflict with the artist's legacy, her estate he reports is "totally into it." . Apparently Miller's artistic agenda is provocative if not political, as he seeks to show that the nation-state is to a great extent a "cinematic creation". Miller apparently avoids taking a stance on the show he entitled Rebirth of a Nation. “I don’t want to be heavy-handed and say ‘this is good,’ ‘this is bad. It’s a blur.” Miller has mentioned that the third part will  likely be a remix of French filmmaker Abel Gance’s deeply nationalistic Napoleon. [Source: Harvard Crimson, Boston Phoenix  Photo: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Michael Raz-Russo]
 

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