Focus on Leni Riefenstahl

It was refreshing to read Allan deSouza’s Counterpunch about Leni Riefenstahl’s fascistic photography (“Does Riefenstahl Make a Fascist Statement?,” Oct. 7). It’s rare that anyone points out that this particular empress is naked.

For years, she has claimed that she was merely an artist during the ‘30s, not a Nazi. In a post-1945 world, it is easy enough to understand her lies, but difficult to understand why so many people have felt compelled to lie on her behalf. It seems as though every time people write about her, Riefenstahl’s close ties to Hitler are either denied categorically or, worse yet, justified by her towering talent as a filmmaker.

Well, having been a movie critic during my own checkered past, I am one of the few masochists who has actually sat through both of her alleged masterpieces, “Olympia” and “Triumph of the Will.” While both films are commonly referred to as documentaries, they are actually long, boring, heavy-handed Nazi propaganda films. If they’re documentaries, “Mein Kampf” is history.

BURT PRELUTSKY

North Hills