Leni Riefenstahl author event with Steven Bach
silentf...@gmail.com
biographer and author of the recently published book on filmmaker Leni
Riefenstahl. Steven Bach will be appearing at The Booksmith in San
Francisco - where I work as the events coordinator - to talk about his
widely reviewed new book. Bach will give a short talk, show some brief
film clips, answer questions from the audience, and then sign books. I
hope anyone interested would attend.
Like Louise Brooks, Riefenstahl worked with director G.W. Pabst and
made both silent and sound films. Brooks figures in this new book. I
am really looking forward to this special event. Here is some
descriptive material about it from the Booksmith.
STEVEN BACH - talk & booksigning for "Leni: The Life and Work of
Leni Riefenstahl"
Thursday, May 3rd at 7 pm
at The Booksmith (1644 Haight Street in San Francisco)
"Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl" is the definitive
biography of the woman known as "Hitler's filmmaker" - one of the most
controversial personalities of the 20th century. Relying on new
sources, Steven Bach has produced an exceptional work of historical
investigation which both untangles the past and is an objective and
unsparing appraisal of a woman of spectacular gifts corrupted by
ruthless personal ambition.
Steven Bach is the author of two previous biographies, "Marlene
Dietrich: Life and Legend" and "Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss
Hart." He was in charge of worldwide production for United Artists,
where he was involved in such films as Raging Bull, Manhattan, The
French Lieutenant's Woman, and Heaven's Gate, about which he wrote the
bestseller "Final Cut."
This Booksmith sponsored event will take place at The Booksmith
(1644 Haight Street in San Francisco). For further information, call
415-863-8688 or visit www.booksmith.com If you can't attend this
event and would like to order a signed copy of the author's new book,
please email or phone our store.
"Steven Bach's Leni finally presents Riefenstahl as she genuinely was:
not as we have seen her so far but as Hitler's self-serving and
mendacious p.r. handmaiden. If you haven't thought of 'Nazi artist' as
a noxious and corrupting oxymoron, Bach's scrupulous account of a
zealously masked life may persuade you otherwise."
-- Cynthia Ozick
"In this lively, engaging biography of the legendary Leni Riefenstahl,
Steven Bach finally separates fact from fiction to give the powerful
filmmaker, manipulative narcissist and friend of Hitler her due."
--Richard Rhodes
"It is difficult to overpraise Bach's efforts . . . Bach is determined
to present [Leni Riefenstahl] coolly, ironically, without loss of his
own moral vector. What emerges is a compulsively readable and
scrupulously crafted work . . . an almost novelistically compelling
narrative of a life endlessly obfuscated by lies . . . graceful . . .
nuanced . . . brilliant."
-Richard Schickel, The Los Angeles Times (March 11, 2007)
"First-rate . . . [a] richly fleshed-out portraiture and social
history"
- Judith Thurman, The New Yorker (March 19, 2007)
"Energetic . . . Serves as [a] much needed corrective to all the spin,
evasions and distortions of the record purveyed by Riefenstahl."
-Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times (March 13, 2007)
"Bach makes the vivid and exasperating Riefenstahl come back to life
and stand before us to be judged . . . Meticulous . . . Bach unearths
the buried facts, finds the truth behind the lies."
-Book World (March 4, 2007)
"Penetrating and superbly well-written . . . As Bach expertly
elucidates the opportunistic Riefenstahl's exploits . . . he takes
measure, as no one else has, of her ruthless ambition . . .
Riefenstahl loved fairy tales, and, as Bach so perceptively and
artistically reveals, she succeeded in living one, however insidious."
-Donna Seaman, Booklist (February 15, 2007)