What happened to Leni Riefenstahl? Did she ever make her precious Pensethilea? Even though Hitler (according to Goebbels’s diary) had agreed to personally finance her film about the Queen of the Amazons, it was never made. And the massive film studio designed by Nazi architect Albert Speer for her personal use was never constructed. Leni’s career goals were thwarted by geopolitical events. In 1939 Hitler invaded Poland, which precipitated France and Britain declaring war on Germany and the beginning of World War II.
Leni did make one more film during the war. It wasn’t an expensive color epic, but a return to the sentimental mountain fairy tale she’d found fame with earlier in her career. Tiefland (meaning “homeland”) was about a beautiful gypsy woman caught in a struggle between an aristocrat and a farmer. Leni wrote the script and directed and starred in the film, which required scores of Sinti and Roma extras. The Sinti and Roma were considered undesirables by the Nazi regime. Leni found her extras (68 adults and children) at the Marzahn internment camp near Berlin. They were not paid; instead, their fee was given to the camp authorities. After filming, they were returned to the camp—and to their fate. In 1943 they were deported to Auschwitz, where many of them perished.
Leni Riefenstahl was never convicted of war crimes, but she was let off with the designation of “fellow traveler,” or Nazi sympathizer. She would fervently deny all knowledge of the horrors of the Nazi regime for the rest of her life—no remorse or self-reproach, just protestations of innocence and a mountain of lies. Leni would claim that she had only ever been “an artist,” existing above the political fray. Unlike Melita Maschmann, there would be no reckoning with her former self. She died in 2003 at the age of 101.
GLOSSARY
Silver Pacific studios is fictional. I was lucky to have the help of film experts and former editing colleagues during my research, and I drew on my own experiences as an apprentice editor and assistant editor. Any small liberties taken with the depiction of post-production in the studio system are to benefit the story.
apprentice editor: An entry-level union position in the editing department. The apprentice works under the assistant editor and picture editor.
archive: The film library on a studio lot.
assistant director: The 1st AD plans the shooting schedule and runs the set, relaying the director’s instructions to the crew.
assistant editor: Works under the picture editor, organizes dailies, keeps track of footage and paperwork, sometimes assists with cutting scenes.
backdrop: A painted background on a film set, usually on canvas or flats.
call sheet: A document providing information for the day’s shoot, e.g., scenes to shoot, location, crew call times, special equipment.
call time: The time when the crew is to report to set.
cinematographer: Head of the camera department, also known as the director of photography (DP).
clapper loader: A member of the camera department, also known as second camera assistant (2nd AC). Loads film reels, operates the slate, handles paperwork.
continuity: Maintenance of seamless action and consistent details between different shots. On set, this is the job of the script supervisor, or “continuity girl”; in post-production, it’s the job of the editor.
crane shot: A shot from a camera mounted on a crane, usually for a high, wide-angle view.
cutting room: The editing suite.
dailies: The unedited footage from a day’s film shoot. Also, the viewing of that footage in a screening room, usually from the previous day’s shoot. (See also “rushes”)
dolly shot: A shot from a camera mounted on a wheeled cart (dolly) that can move forward, backward, or beside the subject of the shot. Usually the dolly is mounted on tracks for smooth movement.
head leader: A length of film at the beginning of a reel, often with a countdown and a synch pop.
lost film: Many silent films were destroyed, either by accident in vault fires or deliberately. Studios had a storage problem, and these films were deemed worthless, especially after the arrival of talkies. The films were sold for scrap and effectively recycled, melted down to recover the silver content and celluloid.
martini shot: The last shot of the day.
matte painting: A painting on glass to create the illusion of a background environment. The term is still used today for digitally painted backgrounds in VFX and animation.
mismatch: When the transitions between shots or scenes, otherwise known as continuity, don’t match in the cut footage.
MOS: No sound recorded. The term could have been coined as an abbreviation for “motor-only shot” or “motor-only synch,” referring to the way synch sound was originally recorded. Another theory is that a director with a thick German accent would ask for a scene to be shot “mit out sound” (mit is German for “with”).
Moviola: Early editing equipment that allowed the editor to view footage while editing.
NG: Film jargon for “no good,” used by the script supervisor to mark an unusable take.
nitrate: A type of film stock, used before 1950, with a highly flammable nitrocellulose base (the same chemicals as explosives).
pick-up shots: Additional photography needed to complete assembly of a movie.
process photography: Another term for rear projection.
rear projection: A shot in which actors are filmed in front of a projected background.
rushes: Another term for dailies.
setup: One camera angle usually comprised of several takes.
sides: Scenes from a script to be shot on a particular day, usually printed smaller than regular script pages.
slate: Identifies the scene, setup, and take number when the camera begins to roll. Provides a synch point for sound and image when the sticks are clapped together.
splicer: A tool used to cut spools of film.
stand-in: A person who takes the place of a principal actor during the technical setup before filming (e.g., when the DP lights the set, the camera sets focus, and the director rehearses blocking). While not a double, the stand-in is the same height and build, with the same coloring, as the actor. They don’t appear on film.
stock footage: Generic footage that can be used by different films: e.g., an establishing shot of a city skyline.
synch: When sound and image play in time.
synch pop: The short pop of sound on the countdown leader. Allows the projectionist or editor to check the synch. Today, referred to as the “two-pop.”
tail leader: The length of blank film at the end of a reel.
tracking shot: When the camera moves with the actor.
trim bin: Editing equipment that holds strips of selected film. In nitrate days, the metal lid was kept closed when unattended because of the risk of fire.
FILMOGRAPHY
When I was growing up in Scotland, I would watch classic Hollywood movies with my father. It was our shared passion, and it became a tradition: we would rewatch our favorites year in, year out, and they became as familiar as old friends. Much later, this love of cinema led me to a career in film editing in Los Angeles.
During the research for this book, I was lucky enough to attend some nitrate screenings at UCLA’s Billy Wilder Theater and the American Cinematheque’s film festival Noir City at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. It’s a rare thing now, as very few theaters are equipped to handle flammable film stock. Watching a film in its original form as it was intended to be seen, up on the big screen—there’s nothing quite like it. To share my passion for classic Hollywood, I wanted to highlight the films mentioned in the novel, as well as those which inspired the fictional Silver Pacific movies, Letter from Argentan and A Call to Arms.
Casablanca (1942), directed by Michael Curtiz
The ultimate wartime romance, this is the movie playing during the pr
ologue. Starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and featuring a slew of notable supporting roles, including Dooley Wilson, who sings the famous theme song, “As Time Goes By.” This film still transports audiences—a true classic. Casablanca won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1944.
Double Indemnity (1944), directed by Billy Wilder
The definitive film noir based on James M. Cain’s hardboiled novel. Stars Fred MacMurray as a flirtatious insurance salesman and Barbara Stanwyck as the manipulative Mrs. Dietrichson, who wants to bump off her husband for the insurance money. There’s definitely a dose of the steely Barbara Stanwyck in Babe Bannon’s character.
Gilda (1946), directed by Charles Vidor
A noir gem starring Rita Hayworth in her iconic femme fatale role. The visual style, especially the way Hayworth is lit in certain scenes, influenced my descriptions of the cinematography in Argentan. But the kind of sizzling performance Rita Hayworth gives as Gilda is more reminiscent of how I imagined Babe Bannon’s earlier roles with Quinn.
His Girl Friday (1940), directed by Howard Hawks
The reference in the opening chapter is to Rosalind Russell’s whip-smart reporter character, who spars with her editor and ex-husband, played by Cary Grant, as she tries to land a scoop for the paper. This screwball comedy is known for its rapid-fire, overlapping dialogue. “Hawksian” women are often tough and intelligent, not meek or overly feminine.
Laura (1944), directed by Otto Preminger
Based on the novel by Vera Caspary. A young woman is murdered, and the detective investigating the case becomes enamored of her portrait. Laura herself shows up halfway through the movie very much alive. This plot twist inspired Bannon’s entrance on Stage 11 at the end of the first act. Indeed, this especially noir theme of doubles is very present in the novel; many characters have not only a doppelgänger—most obviously Connie Milligan and Babe Bannon—but also two versions of the same person: Ruby Kaminsky and Babe Bannon; eleven-year-old Klara and eighteen-year-old Clara.
Mrs. Miniver (1942), directed by William Wyler
A Call to Arms, my Silver Pacific Oscar winner, is a nod to this American film set in an English village during World War II. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1943 and is credited with consolidating American support for the war. Director William Wyler told reporter Hedda Hopper upon its release: “We’re in an all-out war—a people’s war—it’s the time to face it. Let’s make propaganda pictures, but make them good.” Indeed Nazi propaganda minster Joseph Goebbels feared the power of this film. “There is not a single angry word spoken against Germany; nevertheless the anti-German tendency is perfectly accomplished.”
Notorious (1946), directed by Alfred Hitchcock
A stylish romantic suspense film, and my all-time favorite Hitchcock. With her German father convicted of treason against the United States, Ingrid Bergman is recruited by Cary Grant’s handsome CIA agent to help ferret out her dad’s Nazi friends in South America. Famous for its long kissing scene, which managed to get around the censor’s three-second rule, Hitchcock proved he was more than just the master of suspense. Bergman and Grant are sublime, and Claude Rains is almost sympathetic as the Nazi villain head over heels for Bergman.
The Philadelphia Story (1940), directed by George Cukor
A frothy romantic comedy, based on the successful stage play, starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and James Stewart. Hepburn also starred in several films directed by Howard Hawks and embodies that strong, no-nonsense, determined kind of woman Clara tries to channel when her life is in danger during the novel’s climax.
Rebecca (1940), directed by Alfred Hitchcock
A gothic suspense movie. Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier star in Hitchcock’s adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s famous novel. Letter from Argentan incorporates elements from Rebecca as well as other melodramas and suspense films, such as Suspicion, Gaslight, and Mildred Pierce. Melodrama was referred to as the “woman’s picture.”
To Have and Have Not (1944) and The Big Sleep (1946), both directed by Howard Hawks
These films starred real-life lovers Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The first is an adventure romance based on an Ernest Hemingway novel, and the second is the seminal film noir based on Raymond Chandler’s detective novel of the same name. The Bogart/Bacall relationship was, of course, the touchstone for the romance I imagined between Babe Bannon and Gregory Quinn. Bacall was only nineteen when she starred in To Have and Have Not. As the actress later described it: “No one has ever written a romance better than we lived it.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people supported me on the journey of writing this book. I’m incredibly thankful for:
My fabulous agent Brenda Bowen and the Book Group; at Delacorte, editing dream team Krista Marino and Monica Jean, with assistance from Lydia Gregovic; publisher Beverly Horowitz; cover designer Neil Swaab; text designer Cathy Bobak; copyeditor Bara MacNeill; and the RHCB Marketing and Publicity teams.
The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Canada; writing residency mentors Cecilia Ekback, Peter Behrens, Anne Fleming, and Pasha Malla; the camaraderie of fellow writers and the beauty of the mountains.
The Motion Picture Editors Guild and Sharon Smith Holley; film editor Lisa Zeno Churgin, for securing access to the old nitrate vaults at Paramount Studios. Chuck Woodfill, at the Paramount Archives. Dirk Westervelt, editor, mentor, and friend—grateful for all the years in the cutting room, not to mention the vault tour of the Fox lot. Ed Marsh, for his limitless film knowledge. Antoine Saito, for research help and for giving me my first editing job. Jonas Thaler, for being nothing like Thaler in the book.
Beth Ann Bauman, for her brilliant mind and sharp feedback on early and later drafts. Laura Nicol, writing sister and dear friend—I couldn’t have made it through this without you. For all the inspiring conversations and BC escapes, my adored cousin Eilidh McAllister. Cinephile Jason White for the nitrate screenings. Hilary Hattenbach and Jared Mazzaschi for the Silverlake retreats. Sabine Heller and Kirsten Westervelt Foster for the German translation.
For their friendship: Lisa Marra, Jen Underdahl, Katy Wood, Andrew Pask, Annette Wu, Terence Heuston, Tinh Luong, Liz Bolton, Cindy Lin, Kristen Lamberston, Fia Cooper, Nutan Khanna, Alain Demaine, Elza Kephart, Maria-Elena Martoglio, Elizabeth Lawrence, Brent Lambert, Chris Russell, Lauren Feige, Lucy Proctor, Rebecca Blackwood, and my siblings, Fiona Ross and Ewan Ross.
My husband’s family, for cheerleading and childcare: Nadine Watson, Amy Glading, Michael Muench, Barry Glading, and Rosemary Kelly.
I am, as always, grateful to my parents, Elsa and Hamish Ross: thank you for your unwavering support and for sharing your love of cinema. Lastly, I am most indebted to my own little family, Shane, Callum, and Ozzie the dog.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ELIZABETH ROSS is the author of Belle Epoque, a finalist for both the William C. Morris Award and the California Book Award. Her career working as a film editor in Los Angeles inspired her second novel, The Silver Blonde. Originally from Scotland, she lives with her family on the coast of British Columbia, Canada.
elizabethross.com
@RossElizabeth
@elizarosswrites
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