Olympia (1938)
Olympia Film

Description

Brought to you buy acclaimed German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Olympia Part 1, Festival of Nations, is a representation of the human body and Olympia Part 2, Festival of Beauty, showcases athletes from all nations involved in all sports.

Famous also for its ground breaking film techniques, Olympia employs unusual camera angles, smash cuts, extreme close-ups and the use of moving cameras. Olympia is the first documentary film on the Olympic Games ever made. Olympia set the precedent for future films documenting and glorifying the Olympic Games, particularly the Summer Games. The Olympic Torch Run, revered as an ancient tradition, was devised by Riefenstahl for these games and this film in conjunction with the German sports official Dr. Carl Diem. Riefenstahl herself, uncredited, appears briefly in the prologue of the film as the nude dancer.

Tags

1930s, Germany, Olympic games, Nazism

Collected reviews and ratings

10 Amazon user reviews

An excellent and beautiful film, marred by a horrible DVD transfer. It is a technical masterpiece and Reifensthal's camera work and eiting sets a standard that modern sport reporting has sadly forgotten in its quest to report without art.
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9.2 Old School Reviews | John Nesbit

Unfairly condemned by many for promoting Nazi ideals, the landmark film breaks new ground with its artistic views of world class athletes, most notably in sequences that capture the movement of beautiful human bodies to perfection.
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9.2 Entertainment Weekly | Jason Cochran

Using low-tech ingenuity (shooting from ankle-level pits, balloons, and cameras catapulted along rails), she recast a newsreely subject as a grand opera that, long after its political immediacy faded, still sings as art.
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9.0 Epinions.com | Stephen Murray

Co-ordinating what was shot with an unprecedented number of cameras, Riefenstahl wove together a document of historical and aesthetic accomplishment.
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9.0 DVD Talk | Svet Atanasov

Olympia (1938), the famous sports documentary which the Nazi propaganda machine unleashed to commemorate the Olympic Games in Berlin, is often seen by film scholars as one of the greatest achievements in the history of cinema. Both beautiful to watch and at the same time intimidating with its politically-charged agenda Olympia reveals a state firmly placed in the iron grip of a man with a dangerous mission.
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8.7 DVD Verdict | Jennifer Malkowski

From the runners in the mist that open Part Two, through the fencing shadows, and to the balletic diving finale, the second half truly is a "festival of beauty" in its own right. If the film feels long and padded (coming in at almost three-and-a-half hours), these moments make the waiting worthwhile.
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