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Olympia (1938)
Director: Leni Riefenstahl
Writer: Leni Riefenstahl
Stars: David Albritton, Arvo Askola, Jack Beresford
Initial release: (1938) (USA)

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Berlin, April 20, 1938: Hundreds of prominent politicians, artists and athletes were invited to the first screening of Leni Riefenstahl's "Olympia Films" at Berlin's Zoo Palast. It was Adolf Hitler's 49th birthday and the "Führer" was expected to appear. A rare occurrence, since Hitler did not normally attend events like this he left these things to his Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
It took almost four years for "Festival of the People" and "Festival of Beauty"to be completed. Leni Riefenstahl, who had directed "Triumph of the Will" in 1935, a documentary about the Nuremberg Rallies, was given total artistic freedom and unlimited resources for the production of the Olympics films. She created images reminiscent of Ancient Greece in her portrayal of the opening ceremonies, the lighting of the Olympic torch, the traditional relay and the sporting competitions themselves. The focus on track and field disciplines added to the effect.
Sports documentary or National Socialist propaganda? Opinions at the time were divided. Dr. Jürgen Trimborn, research assistant at the Cologne Institute for Theater Studies and organizer of a recent Riefenstahl exhibit in Cologne commented:
"Leni Riefenstahl always defended herself by saying that she only showed what presented itself to her lens. She claims to have made pure 'cinema verité,' and thus a purely documentary film. Her critics, of course, accused her of falsifying reality in the way she filmed the athletes, the way she depicted the Olympic Games of 1936 in Berlin, presenting an image of humanity that very closely corresponds to the idealized aspirations of the National Socialist regime. They claim that her film therefore became a propaganda tool in keeping with National Socialist ideology."
Nowadays, many agree that the form and content in Olympia films relate to the goals of the Nazi propaganda apparatus. They are considered to be part of the fascist aesthetic canon because of their elevation of the human ideal to new aesthetic heights and almost abstract portrayals in the crowd scenes.
The German press, on the same wavelength as Riefenstahl at the time the films were first screened, heaped praise on her work. But quite different opinions were also voiced.
"The international press, including the European, as well as Soviet and American, pointed out resolutely that the film was not to be regarded as propaganda – accusations were already being made back then," says film researcher Trimborn. "They saw this film, which was not made at the request of Hitler or the NSDAP but rather for the International Olympic Committee, as a thoroughly appropriate attempt to represent the Olympic idea and the Olympic games."
The cult of the body pervading the film was by no means the invention of the Nazis. German cultural films of the 1920s, like Soviet films of the era, played with similar images. The catalogue of a recent Riefenstahl exhibition in Potsdam made a sly reference to film pioneer Eisenstein by calling the director "Riefenstein." So does this mean it wasn't really a propaganda film?
When one examines the commentaries to the Olympia films, it becomes clear that this was a case of carefully orchestrated propaganda theater.
"And once again our Germans come onto the field. They attack and break through English supremacy," is to be heard at one point, and during the Olympic cross-country skiing competition, the commentator speaks of a "Finnish fighting force" that "unitedly defends the front line."
One can only probably attribute the centenarian director's claims of having shot purely documentary films to boundless naiveté mixed with manic repression. In recent years, Riefenstahl justified her work with the words: "Unfortunately, I was not interested in political matters. I don't want to say that I have anything against politics, but you have to have a gift for it or be interested in it. You have to have the talent. But when you live one hundred percent for just one thing – that was what art was to me, whether in the form of dance, or acting – then you don't have time to be concerned with the enormous problems that politics entail. Because when I do something, I like to do it thoroughly."
Even if many elements of the Olympia films have today become established elements of sport reporting, ignoring the historic and political context of the films, as Riefenstahl does, is a sign of great blindness.