1936 Berlin Olympics

[bricks29]

Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia: Festival of Nations and Olympia: Festival of Beauty are now on DVD. They are highlight films of the 1936 games.

[Double R Bar]

One of the best Olympic films ever produced.

[mrbowie]

My set of Olympia arrived that night and I plan on watching it today.

[Mighty Favog]

It's been available on DVD for two years. Is this some newer, better-transferred version?

[gh]

If you're intrigued by Riefenstahl's work (she was amazing), check The Wonderful Horrible Life Of Leni Riefenstahl for a terrific biopic, or Triumph des Willens ("Triumph Of The Will") for the greatest propoganda film ever made.

[Mighty Favog]

When asked for the most frightening movie he's ever seen, my brother replied "Triumph of the Will, because The Exorcism was fiction."

[bambam]

From one of the great stories I ever read in Sports Illustrated, by Frank Deford (my favorite sportswriter), he describes Riefenstahl's life since her ostracism, and a time when she was allowed to attend an appearance in Berlin by Jesse Owens, "When she got to the front of the room, Owens kissed her, and all of a sudden it was 1936 again. ... And the people in the room kept cheering, calling her name. It was very nearly like a fairy tale. That was one of the few times in the last 40 years that Leni Riefenstahl was allowed to be a person, like the rest of us. It was one of the better of her days that had been left over from the six she had given to Adolf Hitler." (The Ghost of Berlin, Sports Illustrated, 4 Aug 1986 - Deford)

Haunting.