Wonderful Horrible Life

A couple of nights ago I finally watched "The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl" on DVD. Riefenstahl was a remarkable woman - born in Germany in 1902, she was by turns a dancer, actress, mountaineer, pioneering film director and photographer, who learned to scuba dive at the age of 70 and died in 2003 aged 101. I first read about her a few years ago in Charles Sprawston's cultural history of swimming "The Haunts of the Black Masseur", in a section where he talks about the incredible diving sequences she filmed for her own documentary about the 1936 Berlin Olympics (they are amazing to watch even now).

The most controversial part of Riefenstahl's life however was her involvement with Hitler and the Nazis during the 1930s and 40s. She famously made a film of the 1934 Nazi party congress ("Triumph of the Will") and continued to work during the war. She later claimed ignorance of the Nazi atrocities, and was determined to be a "fellow traveller" rather than a Nazi activist by post-war tribunals, but her film career was effectively finished after the war and she was vilified as "Hitler's film-maker" for the rest of her life.

The film is principally based around interviews with Riefenstahl (aged around 90 at the time) by the director Ray Mueller as he talks to her about these various episodes of her life. It's fascinating to see how in spite of her age her mind was still very active - especially when she is arguing with Mueller and his crew about how to shoot a particular sequence, recalling the technical details of shooting her films in the 30s, or reviewing underwater footage that she had shot earlier in the day. She seemed to light up when talking about editing machinery, film stock and camera angles - and in that regard she appears basically to have been what you might now call "a complete geek".

I think that the tight focus on Riefenstahl to some extent obscures the broader picture, though there is some attempt to contextualise the films with her life especially during the Nazi era (the account of her life after the war is disappointingly vague). To his credit Mueller does ask some direct questions about her past, but I felt like the documentary as a whole shied away from really challenging the view that she puts forward. The picture that emerged for me was of someone who wanted desperately and above all else to make her films, and didn't want to engage with the reality of her times. This self-delusion is the most troubling part of her story (and is elaborated on in an excellent review at Bright Lights Film Journal).

What is clear though is that she was a truly gifted and innovative film maker, pioneering techniques (for example the use of cranes and tracking shots) that have since become commonplace. One of the joys of "Wonderful Horrible Life..." is having the opportunity to see the beautiful footage that she shot (some of it previously unseen), and based on this the comparisons with Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock don't seem inappropriate (all the more impressive for a woman working in a male industry). Ultimately though her involvement with the Nazis - whatever the truth of it - is likely to always colour the perception of her life and work: wonderful horrible life indeed.

Get the buzz

A few weeks ago I saw a TV programme called Who Killed the Honey Bee? about the recent and worrying decline of honey bees around the world. Bees of all kinds are the principal pollinator of plants on Earth (including most of the food crops that people depend upon) so the loss of bees would be an unimaginable disaster.

The TV programme visited various places looking for the cause of the decline - various possible culprits were suggested, including loss of diverse habitats from crop monocultures, increases in the use of pesticides and parasitic diseases, but the blame couldn't be pinned firmly on any one cause and it seems most likely that it's a combination of all these factors.

I was reminded of this because over the last couple of days while out in my weed-infested yard, I've noticed a couple of bees visiting the we- er, flowers, there. I don't know where they come from to get to my "garden" (apparently they routinely travel 2 miles, but will fly up to 6) and also these are actually bumblebees, but according to this Guardian article Ten Things to Do to Help Honeybees, I'm doing the right thing (at Kyle's prompting): number 3 is "plant your garden with bee friendly plants." And I guess that as shabby as my own contribution is, I still feel a little pride now that it's doing the bees some small good.

Bzzzzt!

The Inconstant Gardener

I don't have a garden, I just have a paved yard. When I first moved here it looked like a bit of a sterile environment, and I remember I had this idea that I would get some big stone or terracotta pots and have some flowers to brighten it up.

Unfortunately I never got around to it, for various reasons. I'm not a natural with growing things (although I had some success one year with tomatoes), especially things that flower - maybe part of the problem is that I don't really like getting my hands dirty. Also someone warned me that the pots need regular watering, which was a problem since I was frequently away.

However every year it seems the yard takes on a life of its own, as some extremely tenancious plants appear each spring clinging to the most precarious toe-holds, and it's become a garden of sorts. They may be weeds, but they're my weeds! While it's not exactly the Chelsea Flower Show, the small flowers do have their own charm, and sometimes there are some surprises (such as the purple flowers above - I have no idea what they are, by the way).

Usually after a few weeks I reluctantly go out and pull them all up - they're not supposed to there after all, and I doubt that the landlord would approve. However when I told Kyle about it this year, she made a succint plea for clemency:

"i think your garden is fine, let your flowers be--they have gone through a lot to be where they are now."

which seems like a fair point. So for this summer I'm going to let them be, and just enjoy the view.

New shoes

So, I finally bought myself some new running shoes today. Pretty nice, huh? My current pair have been doing stalwart duty for the last 200 years (ok, last 8 years more realistically but that's still about 7 years longer than you're supposed to use them) so it's hardly an extravagance.

I went to Up and Running in Manchester, since I'd heard that they do "gait analysis" to help you choose the right shoes, and I was curious to know what this actually involves. It turns out that you put on a pair of shoes, get on a treadmill and then run for maybe a minute while your feet and lower legs are filmed by a little video camera. Afterwards the salesperson reviews the footage (no pun intended) with you on a laptop, and explains what's happening and what sort of shoe might be best.

First off I tried a "neutral" shoe (one with no special support). Looking at the footage the guy thought that I might benefit from a shoe with some extra support as my feet seemed to be "rolling out" a little bit too far at the end of the stride (I think that this is "overpronation" or "supination" - there's a nice simple explanation at Runnersworld). This seemed to be particularly pronounced on the left foot, which is interesting since when I've observed myself running at the gym I do seem to turn my left foot out (I'm hoping that over time Alexander Technique will help me reduce that somewhat). With the support the rolling out seemed to be reduced.

I tried some different brands and ultimately settled on the Asics shoe (GT 2140 if you want to know the gory details), which is the same make as the ones I have already. As the sales guy said, if you know that you like them already then it's a good bet. I'm always a little unsure going into shops to buy "technical" products when I don't really know my stuff, but I really enjoyed the low-key low-pressure approach.

They will need some breaking in I gather. However, hopefully having new shoes will make running a bit easier on the old pins, as well as providing some extra incentive to keep my running up through the year. Wish me luck!

I'm gonna miss your love, the minute you walk out that door

I took Kyle to the airport this morning so she could fly back to New Jersey after a week here in the UK. We had a really fun week and I'm feeling sad now that she's gone back, although that's the way of things and we'll see each other in a few months time when I go back to the US again.

We had a pretty full trip, which included a visit to Southport as well as meeting with my folks and with some mutual friends here in Warrington. Kyle is a champion blogger and diligently wrote up our adventures each night before bed - start here and work backwards if you'd like to read her posts (she also has some great pictures on Flickr).

Since we didn't get around to taking any engagement photos when we were together in January, Kyle decided that we should do an informal photoshoot last night, using her classic "mirror photography" technique. She posted the results on Flickr too. I liked quite a few of them and in fact have stolen one to head up this post, on account of not taking any pictures of her while she was here (oops).

It's pretty quiet here without her now (and not the good kind of quiet, if you know what I mean). It's great to share your space with someone that you love, and be able to do a lot of fun things together. So the drive back was a little sad. But I have great memories of our time together and I'm looking forward to seeing her again soon. Thanks for coming here Kyle - love you baby!