Olympia (BFI Film Classics) - Softcover

Downing, Taylor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0851703410 ISBN 13: 9780851703411

Publisher: British Film Institute, 1993

Synopsis

Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia is one of the most controversial films ever made. Capitalizing on the success of Triumph of the Will, her propaganda film for the Nazi Party, Riefenstahl secured Hitler's approval for her grandiose plans to film the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The result was a work as notorious for its politics as celebrated for its aesthetic power. Taylor Downing provides an indispensable guide to this major work of film documentary. He gives the full story of how Riefenstahl negotiated relative independence from the Nazi authorities by pitting Hitler against Goebbels, the propaganda minister, who wanted complete control. Downing also gives a filmmaker's insights into the logistical and technical problems thrown up by managing a production which employed nearly forty cameramen to shoot 400,000 metres of film. He concludes that though its political effect was to glorify Nazi achievements, the film undeniably set the standard for Olympic filmmaking for the next five decades.

About this title

About the Author:

Taylor Downing is a writer and a documentary filmmaker who filmed at both the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

About this edition

• Publisher: British Film Institute
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0851703410
• ISBN 13: 9780851703411
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96