JODIE RIEFENSTAHL

I've joked that since Micheal Moore makes propaganda films for latter day Nazis (just take a look at what the terrorists believe and match it up with Nazi doctrine if you don't believe me), we should call him "Tubby Riefenstahl." The plays are obvious--Moore is a weeble and film maker Leni Riefenstahl was Hitler's favorite propagandist.

But now Jodie Foster is one-upping Tubby. He just makes films that serve as enemy propaganda. Foster is going to star in a film that lionizes the real Riefenstahl:

A leading Holocaust research institute has criticized actress Jodie Foster for her comments defending Nazi propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, whom Foster intends to play in an upcoming film.

Foster said in a just-released interview that Riefenstahl has been "libeled so many times" by people accusing her of membership in the Nazi Party or of having a romance with Adolf Hitler.

But according to Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies: "It's irrelevant if Leni Riefenstahl wasn't a member of the Nazi Party or wasn't Hitler's girlfriend. She was the leading artist making propaganda for the most evil regime in human history. Instead of defending Riefenstahl as an alleged victim of 'libel', Jodie Foster should frankly confront the reality that Riefenstahl is an example of how art can be perverted to promote fascism, racism, and genocide. Sadly, it appears from Ms. Foster's statements that her intention is to defend Riefenstahl."

Riefenstahl was Hitler's hand-picked filmmaker and directed such films as "Triumph of the Will" (1934), which Who's Who in Nazi Germany characterizes as "perhaps the most effective visual propaganda for Nazism ever made." The then-president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Jack Valenti, has written: "Young German girls and boys in 1941 were mesmerized by Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, in which Adolf Hitler is pictured as a new-born God." The Oscar-winning British filmmaker Arnold Schwartzman has noted, "Riefenstahl was probably the best propaganda tool that Hitler had and a lot of the terrible things that happened were as a consequence of what she did. There is no doubt she was a brilliant woman and a great documentarian, but she used her skills to rouse the German people into going along with Hitler."

Riefenstahl even used Gypsy prisoners from German concentration camps as extras in one of her films. Although Riefenstahl later claimed she did not support the Nazis, the historical record shows that when Hitler conquered Paris in 1940, she sent him a telegram declaring: "Your deeds exceed the power of human imagination. They are without equal in the history of mankind. How can we (the German people) ever thank you?"

In an interview in the latest issue of Premiere magazine (September 2005), Ms. Foster was asked: "For years, you've been planning a biopic about Leni Riefenstahl, who directed the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will and who died two years ago. Are you still going to make it?"

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...She wrote a biography that's almost all lies, but it's interesting. I wanted her archives, but I didn't want her involvement (in the film) -- and that's something she really wanted, because she'd been libeled so many times. She was not a member of the Nazi Party, and she was not Hitler's girlfriend--that's just stupid. But she's a complex morality tale."

Dr. Medoff said: "Foster is wrong. There's nothing morally complex about what Riefenstahl did as Hitler's favorite filmmaker. The only thing complex is Foster's confusion on this issue."

How can one libel Riefenstahl? She used prisoners as extras (and I'm sure she didn't pay them union scale) and made beautiful images to support the Nazi horror. She used her artistic skills to support crimes against humanity. You can't libel that. You can only either condemn it or pervert history to defend it. Foster is one more example of Hollywood's utter moral cluelessness and depravity. That depravity is endemic across the entire film and entertainment industry, though there are a few bright lights here and there:

Screenwriter Robert Avrech wrote for Front Page magazine about the difficulty of being conservative in left-wing Hollywood: “These Hollywood liberals spend their lives negotiating. They believe that when the time comes they will sit down with Osama bin Laden and cut a deal. Imagine how surprised they’ll be when the cold blade hits their necks. Imagine their shock when they realize there is no negotiating with barbarians.”

Doug TenNapel is another roaring lamb and liberal slayer in Hollywood. If you're not reading his blog, you should.

(thanks to Sally)