pumpkinstrokemarrow

Being written in Buffish, a bit heavy at times, and not a biography in the usual sense at all, which was a little frustrating. Nevertheless, Leni R. was an interesting bird. Part of the interest being the way in which her star waned for twenty years after the war, then waxed again. And the complete absence of any sense of guilt at having produced the far and away the best propaganda films to have come out of Nazi Germany. Also far and away her best work; without it we would have never heard of her. As it was, she was for a time very cosy with the shiny new Nazi regime, and the recipient of much government money with which to make said propaganda films and to bankroll a fancy lifestyle. And, incidentally, government money which gave rise to an unseemly dispute after the war about royalties. Who did the films belong to?

According to the Director, by using the excuse that she did not know what was going on, applying to her own case the chosen excuse of most of her compatriots, she become a symbolic villain. Someone to be cast out and shunned. But this passed with the passing of her generation, she being lucky enough to outlive most of it.

But the bit which really caught my eye was the way in which she, and she may have been one of the first to successfully do this, conflated the event with the report of the event. The thing itself and it's report became hopelessly intertwined. So we have the Führer, at some solemn moment of the party rally, taking the salute of the multitudes from his limo, with Leni R bottom up in the road by the side of the limo getting the best possible camera angle. She got involved in the planning of the rally to make sure that it was camera friendly. Going further, at the Olympics, some of the shots were staged after the event. They were not live footage at all, but included in the film as if they were. The report of the event has become more important than the event itself: not that this is new. We have been doing it at least since Homer wrote up the Trojan War - and think of how many events you have been to which are far more fun in the telling than they were at the time. Think of all those tourists for whom getting a snap of Big Ben is much more important than looking at the thing. What is new perhaps, is that the process of getting the story to tell has become more intrusive.

But what sort of a royal wedding would it be without huge number of camera people and press people all over the place? Without a giant press room with all kinds of interesting and expensive facilities for all those hard working gents. and gentesses. of the press? And I am going to sue the News of the World because they don't think I am important enough for it to be worth hacking into my mobile phone. Defamation it is to be sure.

This is not to knock the practise. Vicarious participation in important events is an important part of the lives of those of us who do not get invited to important events. Events like royal weddings, football matches and Christmas Carols from Kings. But we tolerate this exclusion, and vote for the people who do get included, provided that we are included from our tinny laden sofas.

PS: I thought about going to Amazon to get DVD copies of the films. But I suspect I have enjoyed reading about the films more than I would enjoy the films themselves. I suspect they would look old and creaky. Interesting to a buff but not to a couch potato. We shall see.