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

olympic stadium berlin | athlete | olympics | berlin olympics | nazi germany | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Sport

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Certificate:

Not Rated

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

During the preliminary shooting sessions on the shores along the Baltic Sea in 1936, Leni Riefenstahl wanted to immortalize herself as a symbol of 'Aryan beauty,' and posed naked before her stunned collaborators. The stunning monochrome, showing Riefenstahl from behind with her arms held aloft and her head craned back, was achieved by underexposing the image and employing a yellow filter to highlight the cloudy sky, drawing the silhouette of Riefenstahl's statuesque form with the help of two powerful spotlights, one (more raw) placed in front of the subject, and the second (softened by a frost) behind her. The impromptu spur-of-the-moment nature of the photo is highlighted by a mark left on her buttocks in the final image, as specialists of the fashion industry teach, a model who is about to pose nude should not wear underwear or elastic constraints which may temporarily mark the body. After years of gruelling athletic training necessary for the rapid shooting pace of the earlier mountain films in which she starred, Leni (in spite of her 34 years at the time) posed defiantly next to other models, holding her own next to girls who were little more than teenagers. The final composition was subsequently used as the main image on many posters and pieces of advertising material for the film.

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Connections

Referenced in Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997)

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Soundtracks

Olympische Hymnne
Richard Strauss

User Reviews

Comment on gbheron Review

As you nicely pointed out the NFL footages that you watch today, and those of Olympia that were shot some 60+ years are the same. Which means that NFL is still using techniques that Leni Riefenstahl explored long time ago, which further means that she's 60+ years ahead of her time. When you denounce something you have to look at it from the historical context. This was groundbreaking at time, and every sport event coverage since borrowed from it. Leni Riefenstahl actually wanted to be catapulted with a camera to give an incredible feel of one of a kind sports event, but this could not be carried out. NFL ought to try some of this innovation that Leni considered long time ago, we're much more technologically advanced now...