O CERCO POLITICAMENTE CORRECTO (continuação):

Bryan Ferry's Nazi gaffe


Olympia (real. Leni Riefenstahl, 1938)

"My God, the Nazis knew how to put themselves in the limelight... Leni Riefenstahl's movies, Albert Speer's buildings, the mass parades and the flags - just amazing. Really beautiful" (Bryan Ferry in "Welt Am Sonntag")

When Marks & Spencer recruited singer Bryan Ferry to be the face of its menswear collection, it believed his reputation as rock's "king of cool" would help them to boost sales.

But customers and management of the retailer, founded by Russian-Jewish refugees, will be alarmed to learn that the elegant singer has admitted he draws inspiration from the aesthetics of Nazi Germany.

Ferry, the lead singer of Roxy Music, has caused outrage at home and abroad for remarks he made to a German newspaper about his admiration for the work of Leni Riefenstahl, notorious for her Nazi propaganda films, and the architecture of Albert Speer.

Outubro (real. Sergei Eisenstein, 1927)

In an interview with "Welt am Sonntag", the 61-year-old also acknowledged that he calls his studio in west London his "Führerbunker". "My God, the Nazis knew how to put themselves in the limelight and present themselves," he said. "Leni Riefenstahl's movies and Albert Speer's buildings and the mass parades and the flags - just amazing. Really beautiful".

One German correspondent on the website of "Freundin", a German women's magazine, writes: "This can't be called intellectual humour and it tests even my tolerance when you hear such stupid, crazy and dangerous waffling."

The Labour peer and former war crimes investigator Greville Janner said: "It is deeply offensive when people think they can joke about the Nazis. Riefenstahl was part of the Nazi movement and the Nazis were murderers. And the mass parades he refers to make me vomit. Marks & Spencer should have a serious rethink about employing him".

O Destacamento Vermelho Feminino (Ópera de Pequim, 1964)

Nick Viner, chief executive of the Jewish Community Centre for London, said that Ferry's remarks were "ill-conceived" and "left a bad taste in the mouth".

"Riefenstahl was responsible for sending people to their deaths. There is a fine line between people going about their business and people colluding in truly terrible behaviour".

Ferry's manager dismissed the protests as "absurd". "To take offence here is to confuse the aesthetic with the ideological," Steven Howard said. "To suggest that a certain appreciation of art and architecture that happens to be associated with the Nazi regime means condoning the actions of that regime is illogical". ("The Independent Online" 15.04.07)

O Couraçado Potemkine (real. Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)

Ferry apologises for Nazi remarks

Singer Bryan Ferry has apologised for an interview in which he praised the iconography of the Nazi party. The UK star is reported to have told a German newspaper that the "mass marches and the flags" of Hitler's regime were "just fantastic - really beautiful". Jewish leaders in Britain condemned the comments, and called for Marks and Spencer to drop Ferry as a model. "I apologise unreservedly," the singer said in a statement, adding he found the Nazi regime "evil and abhorrent".

According to press reports, the 61-year-old told the "Welt Am Sonntag" newspaper last month: "The way that the Nazis staged themselves and presented themselves, my Lord! I'm talking about the films of Leni Riefenstahl and the buildings of Albert Speer and the mass marches and the flags. Just fantastic - really beautiful".

Olympia (real. Leni Riefenstahl, 1938)

(...) In a statement released on his behalf, Ferry said he was "deeply upset" by the publicity surrounding the interview. "I apologise unreservedly for any offence caused by my comments on Nazi iconography, which were solely made from an art history perspective," he said. "I, like every right-minded individual, find the Nazi regime, and all it stood for, evil and abhorrent".

"We do welcome the fact that he has issued a swift comment that there was no intention to condone the Nazi regime," said Jeremy Newmark, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council.

"Nevertheless, his choice of language was deeply insensitive", he added.

Lord Greville Janner, vice-president of the World Jewish Congress, told Reuters news agency: "His apology was total, appropriate and absolutely necessary. I hope that he will never make the same mistake again". (BBC News 16.04.07) (2007)