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Jan. 19, 2007
Doing anything for art
Filmmaker claimed politics were not her concern.
BAILA LAZARUS
How far would you go to pursue your dream? If you were an artist,
desperate to create a painting, would you steal the money for canvas
and paint? If you were a dancer who wanted more than anything to
star in her own show, would you secretly hurt or sabotage a competitor
who had a better chance?
And if you were a filmmaker, and you wanted to have your own production
studio, get credits on your own movie and have full creative control,
possibly to create a masterpiece, would you turn a blind eye to
a mass-murder?
This is one of the questions raised in an excellent new play at
the Firehall Arts Centre – The Blue Light – about
the life of Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's filmmaker.
Gabrielle Rose, in a role that is demanding and complex, plays Riefenstahl
in three periods of her life – opening as an old woman who
has come to Los Angeles to get another film made; then flashing
back and forth to the days where she was an actress in a movie called
The Blue Light in the early 1930s; and then to a period where
she was working under Joseph Goebbels, a propagandist for the Nazis,
documenting Hitler's speeches and activities on the war front.
We start to learn about Riefenstahl through her conversation in
the present with a young, pretty film producer who happens to have
written a thesis on the filmmaker. The producer says that Riefenstahl
would have an easier time getting a film produced in Hollywood if
she were only to apologize for the work she did as a propaganda
filmmaker for Hitler. Riefenstahl takes offence and keeps repeating
that she is an artist; a filmmaker, not a politician. Over the years,
she has become a sarcastic, bitter woman, who has been attacked
for her films, but won't accept other people's views of her.
Riefenstahl, who died at the age of 101 in 2003, argues that there
is hypocrisy in the way people view documentaries, accepting Michael
Moore's work as filmmaking, rather than propaganda.
"Did you really feel good watching him skewer an old man with
Alzheimer's, even if it was Charlton Heston?" she spits out
at the producer. Then she turns the tables and asks the producer
if she feels responsible for the actions of her bosses.
In the flashbacks, we learn what she was like as an actress and
dancer – free-spirited, creative, enthusiastic and hopeful,
acting in the film The Blue Light, about a lonely mountain
girl. But she wants more – to create her own masterpieces,
and we see in her a real sincerity to produce artistic films.
So when she is introduced to Goebbels, who offers her the freedom
to do what she wants, as Hitler's filmmaker, she takes it without
hesitation. When the cameraman from The Blue Light refuses
to work with her, she says, "What [Hitler] says has nothing
to do with me; I'm an artist, not a politician."
The two films she made during this time that she is best known for
were Triumph of the Will (1935), on Hitler's rally at Nuremberg,
and the four-hour Olympia (1938), which garnered several
awards at film festivals in Europe. To her credit, she earned tremendous
acclaim for her work, especially for a female filmmaker, but they
also earned her the wrath of the world.
Although this play raises very interesting questions about art and
politics, and Rose does an amazing job in the various roles as Riefenstahl,
it can be very confusing due to the changes in time. The same set
is used for the present and the past, Rose herself doesn't change
clothing for the different time periods and her hair and clothing
are those of an old lady, so it's hard to tell sometimes what period
she is in. As well, there are times where Rose is acting and times
when she's narrating a movie scene or plot and it's hard to tell
who she's talking to.
Despite these shortcomings, however, writer Mieko Ouchi maintains
Riefenstahl's integrity as a character from beginning to end, never
once doubting her calling to make films.
Even as the Third Reich is crumbling, and she falls out of favor
with Hitler, she's still running after people for money for a new
film.
"No one cares about your goddamn film," Goebbels yells
at her, as he prepares to flee. And she is left as the lonely little
mountain girl, "misunderstood and living in misery."
The Blue Light co-stars Sean Divine, Doug Herbert, Jack Paterson
and Daniella Vlaskalic. The choreographer and movement consultant
was Jewish community member Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg. The play
runs until Jan. 27 at the Firehall Arts Centre at 280 East Cordova.
Call 604-689-0926 for tickets.
Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer, photographer and
illustrator living in Vancouver. Her work can be seen at www.orchiddesigns.net.
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