Olympia (Festival Of The Nations & Festival Of Beauty)

Leni Riefenstahl's 2-part film of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
The opening (and the closing) of this piece are really the most interesting elements visually. Youhave your dissolves and superimpostions of bodies, mixed in with the consistent smooth horizontal tracks among the classical architecture. The superimpositon connecting the classical ideal body onto the modern day, the return of that myth. With the slow motion and the martial framings, the bodies are decontrxtualised; there is no nature, even the 'fire' is essentially fake.
Admitting being hypersenstive to finding fascist ideologies in the imagery is necessary. As in 'Triumph of The Will', we have the descent from the clouds, and the framings of the crowd from above. They are referred to, but not for long periods. Generally we have pretty straightforward 'narrative', a record of the events. Note that Riefenstahl is not afraid to cut out props, legs, and even heads as she frames the movements. The centre of attention is usually the torso, even the thighs, rather than the head. It is difficult to escape the thought that, in a few years, everyone here will be murdering each other.
Riefenstahl is obviously more interested in the msucles, for the throwing events, and generally in the bodies, than the sports. The cataloguing of events is indeed rather dull, and we would be better with more of Riefenstahl's whims. The editing is simply very smooth, each image is taken with care and simply a great eye for beauty, with no overriding style, except for the body-fetish. This body fetish, testing it, putting the flesh under pressure.
The final diving scene is indeed remarkable; and another example of a dynamic camera position. We have a fast montage of silloihetted figures, slow-motion, low framing against the sky. As though flying, we don't see the fall. Riefenstahl was a fine filmmaker, with each image, and the conjunction. Then it cuts to the balcony, and we feel mildly ashamed of ourselves. It is always worth repeating; the ideology, body-worship and all, is abhorent.