Olympic film

[Guest]

This morning ESPN Classic aired an interview with Olympic filmmaker Bud Greenspan. He mention Leni Riefenstahl's "Olympia" (see http://www.runningmovies.com/o.htm#Olym ... e%20People and http://www.runningmovies.com/o.htm#Olym ... f%20Beauty ) as a major inspiration. I'd always heard it was good, so I went down to my neighborhood video store and rented it. (What can I say -- my neighborhood has a REALLY good video store!)

I expected some kind of artsy-fartsy thing. Instead I was stunned at its quality; it gives a straightforward account of all the track and field events plus many other sports while simultaneously capturing the innate artistry of great athletes.

Has anyone else seen this? What are your thoughts?

[gh]

After you've seen "Olympia" (or "Triumph of the Will," which is NOT about the Olympics and you're fascinated with this women's incredible film-making talent, see if you can find a copy of

"Die Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl" (also known as "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl in the dubbed version) which is autobiographical. Shows how she got incredible shots for Olympia by putting cameramen in trenches next to the vault pit. Also explains that she invented a camera on rails to come up the straight w/ the runners for the '36 Games (and we thought that was a Barcelona '92 invention!), but the IOC banned it.

It's available on both tape and DVD. This URL takes you to a description of the movie on the ultimate internet movie site which has a crossover box w/ Amazon.

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0107472

[Guest]

And don't miss the 1964 TOKYO movie. It makes you fall in love with women's shot put

[racewalker]

BTW, Reifenstahl is still alive and active at age 101. Her website (english version):
http://www.leni-riefenstahl.de/eng/index.html

In Barry Paris' biography of silent movie actress, Louise Brooks, there are some interesting observations that Brooks made about L.R. The two hated each other, apparently.