ON THE BIOPOLITCS IN BIOGRAM OR HOW LENI RIENFENSTAHL MOVE ON THROW THE FASCIM

Abstract

Originally published in the book Relationscapes , movement, art, philosophy (MIT University Press, 2009), this article is an abridged version of the chapter in which the author discusses the controversial junctions between aesthetic, art making and political ideologies. In celebration of the twentyth aniversary of the Nuremberg Tribunal and the recent film biography of Hannah Arendt, the junctions resurfaces as a key topic for aesthetics today. Manning discusses the brilliance of Riefenstahl from a careful analysis of Olympia, considering the camera movements become an invention of the body itself, speculating around the ideologies contained in the portrayed gestures by still objects, invented in the film. The arguments deviate from the recurrent charges around the work of Riefenstah, and allow for a meaningfull discussion about the limits of transcendentalism and physical appearances in movies. As a theorical move, the filmmaker is compared to her contemporaries from the Futurist movement.