Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (1938)

The document of the 1936 Olympics at Berlin.

Director:

Leni Riefenstahl

Writer:

Leni Riefenstahl

Stars:

David Albritton, Arvo Askola, Jack Beresford

2 wins.

Cast

Uncredited cast:
David Albritton	...	Self - High Jump, USA (uncredited)
Arvo Askola	...	Self - 10000 Metres, FIN (uncredited)
Jack Beresford	...	Self - Carries British Flag (uncredited)
Erwin Blask	...	Self - Hammer Throw, German (uncredited)
Sulo Bärlund	...	Self - Shot Put, Finland (uncredited)
Ibolya Csák	...	Self - High Jump, Hungary (uncredited)
Glenn Cunningham	...	Self (uncredited)
Henri de Baillet-Latour	...	Self - IOC, Stands with Hitler, with Hurdlers (uncredited)
Philip Edwards	...	Self - 800 Metres, Canada (uncredited)
Donald Finlay	...	Self - 110m Hurdles, GB (uncredited)
Tilly Fleischer	...	Self - Javelin Throw, Germany (uncredited)
Wilhelm Frick	...	Self - Spectator (uncredited)
Joseph Goebbels	...	Self - Spectator (uncredited)
Hermann Göring	...	Self - Spectator (uncredited)
Ernest Harper	...	Self - Marathon, GB (uncredited)

Storyline

After being commissioned by the 1936 Olympic Committee to create a feature film of the Berlin Olympics, Riefenstahl shot a documentary that celebrates the human body by combining the poetry of bodies in motion with close-ups of athletes in the heat of competition. Includes the marathon, men's diving, and American track star Jesse Owen's sprint races at the 1936 Olympic games. The production tends to glorify the young male body and, some say, expresses the Nazi attitude toward athletic prowess. Includes the lighting of the torch at the stadium and Adolf Hitler looking on in amazement as Jesse Owens wins an unprecedented four Gold Medals.

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Plot Keywords:

year 1936 | olympic stadium berlin | athlete | olympics | berlin olympics | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Sport

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Leni Riefenstahl first contacted the biggest German film studio, Ufa, in order for them to finance the film. Friedrich A. Mainz, the studio head refused because of cost, so she contacted Tobis-Filmkunst who agreed to finance the film and put up ½ million Reichmarks upfront (three times the cost of a standard film at the time). The contract was only signed in December 1936, four months after the end of the Olympic Games.

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Connections

Referenced in Pretend It's a City: Department of Sports & Health (2021)

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Soundtracks

Olympische Hymnne
Richard Strauss

User Reviews

Highly original for its time, great use of camerawork

This is a brilliant sports documentary - the experimentation with camera angles was revolutionary at the time and the pole vault sequence at night is one of my favourite sequences in a film ever. The athletes are portrayed as superhuman, so in this sense the film is elitist and Nietzschean, but this is certainly not a racist film, politics does not play an explicit role, although one could argue that the deification of athletes (they are shown in close-up, alone, to contrast with the watching masses) promotes the idea that some men are greater than others. A fascinating film, and a definite progression from the standard documentary format of Das Triumph des Willens.

Details

Country:

Germany

Language:

German English Italian French Japanese Portuguese

Release Date:

8 March 1940 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Olympiad

Filming Locations:

Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Company Credits

Production Co:

Olympia Film GmbH, International Olympic Committee, Tobis Filmkunst

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono (Tobis-Klangfilm)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1