Olympia 1. Teil - Fest der Völker (1938)

Director:

Leni Riefenstahl

Writer:

Leni Riefenstahl (writer)

Release Date:

8 March 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Sport

Plot:

The document of the 1936 Olympics at Berlin, orchestrated as Nazi propaganda.

Plot Keywords:

Female Nudity | Nude Dance | Nudity | Propaganda | Narration

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

(in alphabetical order)

David Albritton	...	Himself (high jump, USA) (uncredited)
Jack Beresford	...	Himself (carries British flag) (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)
Wilhelm Frick	...	Himself (spectator) (uncredited)
Josef Goebbels	...	Himself (spectator) (uncredited)
Hermann Göring	...	Himself (spectator) (uncredited)
Ernest Harper	...	Himself (marathon, GB) (uncredited)
Rudolf Hess	...	Himself (stands with Hitler) (uncredited)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (declares Games open) (uncredited)
Cornelius Johnson	...	Himself (high jump, USA) (uncredited)
King Umberto II	...	Himself (stands with Hitler, salutes Italian team) (uncredited)
Theodor Lewald	...	Himself (German Olympic Committee, stands with Hitler) (uncredited)
Luz Long	...	Himself (long jump, Germany) (uncredited)
Spiridon Louis	...	Himself (walks behind Greek flag, in Greek costume) (uncredited)
John Lovelock	...	Himself (1500 metres, NZ) (uncredited)
Ralph Metcalfe	...	Himself (sprinter, USA) (uncredited)
Seung-yong Nam	...	Himself (marathon, Japan) (uncredited)
Henri Nannen	...	Announcer (uncredited)
Dorothy Odam	...	Herself (high jump, GB) (uncredited)
Martinus Osendarp	...	Himself (100 metres, Holland) (uncredited)
Jesse Owens	...	Himself (sprinter, USA) (uncredited)
Leni Riefenstahl	...	Nude dancer (prologue) (uncredited)
Mack Robinson	...	Himself (second, after Owens) (uncredited)
Julius Schaub	...	Himself (spectator, with glasses, behind Hitler) (uncredited)
Kee-chung Sohn	...	Himself (marathon, Japan) (uncredited)
Julius Streicher	...	Himself (spectator) (uncredited)
Forrest Towns	...	Himself (110m hurdles, USA) (uncredited)
Werner von Blomberg	...	Himself (spectator) (uncredited)
August von Mackensen	...	Himself (spectator) (uncredited)
Hans von Tschammer und Osten	...	Himself (spectator, in white suit) (uncredited) (unconfirmed)

Also Known As:

Olympia - Fest der Völker - Erster Film von den olympischen Spielen Berlin 1936 (Germany) (poster title)
Olympia 1. Teil - Götter des Stadions
Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (International: English title) (literal title)
Olympia: The Film of the XI. Olympic Games Berlin, 1936 (UK)
The Olympiad (USA)

Runtime:

Sweden:121 min | USA:111 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German | English | Italian | French | Japanese | Portuguese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Avus race track, Berlin, Germany

Company:

International Olympic Committee

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997)

Soundtrack:

Olympische Hymnne

The evil this reveals lies precisely where we least expect it to - here and now

It was the 1936 Berlin Games that introduced the opening ceremony, the torch relay, the three-tiered presentation ceremony, and the overall sense of lavish, religious spectacle. In a way these are the first modern games. Does it worry you that most of the stuff we most fondly associate with the Olympics originated with the Nazis? It doesn't worry me: the Nazis' moral sense may have been deplorable, but their aesthetic sense was not nearly so bad as people like to pretend.

The most striking thing about Riefenstahl's documentary, viewed today, is its good taste. I admit I haven't seen the whole thing. Split into two parts for German release, it was edited somewhat and released simply as "Olympia" elsewhere, and it's "Olympia" that I've seen. I mention this because it's quite possible that "Olympia" is the version with the jingoism edited out. But I don't think so. (Surely if the film were to wave the swastika offensively, it would do so around the beginning, and the introductory sequence is just marvellous - it no more deserves to be associated with Nazism than Orff's "Carmina Burana".) In any case, if they edited all the jingoism out of a modern, two-hundred-hour Olympic telecast, it would last about ten minutes. It's amazing how much more crass and brazenly nationalistic modern coverage is when compared with Nazi propaganda. Riefenstahl shows races won by people other than Germans (and yes, some of them are non-Aryan) - she even shows us enough of the presentation ceremonies afterwards for us to be able to hear other national anthems! During the local coverage of the Sydney games I heard NOTHING but "Advance Australia Fair". Only other Australians can fully appreciate the horror of this.

Australian sports coverage, of course, was much better when it was in the hands of the state (or rather, the state-owned ABC network) ... but then, Australia is a democracy; the real shock is finding out that even HITLER'S regime could produce more even-handed, tasteful and intelligent Olympics coverage than we'll ever see from a modern commercial network.

Riefenstahl's footage is also more beautiful and better edited, and the athletes in general look LESS like fascist monuments and more like human beings than they do today. But that goes without saying.