Olympia 1936 - Documetary of excellence

[patriaomuerte]

Olympia
Fest der Völker
Erster Film von den olympischen Spielen Berlin 1936
(Germany)

Directed by
Leni Riefenstahl

Writing credits
Leni Riefenstahl

Olympia Part 1:
"The Festival of the Nation" includes the lighting of the torch ceremony, and the track and field events in which Jessie Owens won four Gold Medals. Riefenstahl's groundbreaking documentary of Munich's 1936 Olympics was made specifically at Hitler's request.

Olympia Part 2:
"The Festival of Beauty" includes field hockey, polo, soccer, aquatics, bicycling, sailing, rowing, the marathon race, and the decathlon. This groundbreaking documentary was made at Hitler's request to show the world how far Germany had come.

Note by Patriaomuerte:
I saw this documetnary years back on telepiu grigio. It was excellent, i never saw such artisitc excellence in a documentary. If you see it you will never imagine that it was done in the 1930's.

Maybe settecento and imperium can comment on this!


Also:
Download some of the clips from http://www.riefenstahl.org/downloads...efenstahl.html

Original site to read about the documentary
http://www.riefenstahl.org

Source:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com

[Marco Polo]

that was the last olympics in which polo was played. I will post some info later.

[DVX_Jo]

I have this Documentary on DVD - two DVDs actually.

Who wants a copy ?

Regards

Jo

[Marco Polo]

i would like a copy.

[patriaomuerte]

hi jo

i would like a copy. how much would it cost me if you do a copy and send it by post to the uk? I will pay you in advance of course.

Can you pm me with your email address i cannot pm you or email you because you are under moderation.

Originally Posted by DVX_Jo

I have this Documentary on DVD - two DVDs actually.

Who wants a copy ?

Regards

Jo

[ogenoct]

Originally Posted by patriaomuerte

how much would it cost me if you do a copy and send it by post to the uk?

You can order it in England directly at www.amazon.co.uk.

C.

[DVX_Jo]

Originally Posted by patriaomuerte

... cannot pm you or email you because you are under moderation.

NO divinity or a mere moral can put me under moderation, I am tollerating this moderation for the sake of an old friend of mine - Camarata Normanno.

Ave Norman !

Regarding the DVD, it is in Italian. will make a copy and will tell you when I can send it to you.

My general email is josephmmeli@hotmail.com

Regards

Jo

[patriaomuerte]

Olympia: Nazi Propaganda?

Although virtually every artist and filmmaker dreams of "making history" with their creations, naturally Leni Riefenstahl had no intention that her films would one day become infamous. While there is no disputing the importance and ultimate propaganda value that Triumph des Willens had (as with the other two films done for the NSDAP), unfortunately most descriptions of Olympia class it as well as yet another "Nazi propaganda film".

While there are certainly various shots of Hitler and other top Nazi officials in this film, apart from Hitler's opening of the Olympic Games these amount to little more than reaction shots as the various athletic competitions take place. What the majority of reviewers fail to point out, however, is the truly Multi-National nature of Leni's film, depicting not only the successes of German athletes (who did indeed do extremely well at that year's Olympic Games) but those of all nations and all races of people, giving genuinely prominent notice to "non-Aryan" peoples as much as Germany's own. This failure of modern reviewers to point this out (at the time of Olympia's release, even her opponents acknowledged that the film held no propagandistic value) is not only an injustice to Leni and to her film, but is indeed an injustice to themselves. In making such statements, they effectively betray the fact that clearly they have either never even bothered to view the film at all, or they have failed to view it without jumping to conclusions about its intentions to be a piece of Nazi propaganda (and completely ignoring what they can see with their very own eyes), or else they have only selectively remembered the really fairly innocuous depictions of Hitler and/or other Nazi officials, and wholly forgotten the very positive way in which all nations, all peoples, and all races are depicted with genuine Equality.


With shots taken from interesting perspectives, along with skillful editing techniques such as the selective use of Slow-Motion, the hammer throw competition is an interesting example from Olympia for these reasons alone. However, it is perhaps more significant in a historical perspective because it also depicts the most notable and prominent reaction shots of Hitler and other Nazi officials that we see in the film. In fact, apart from the opening ceremony of the games (which Hitler presided over, as head of state), there are virtually no other prominent shots of Nazi officials.

Questions:

• Do reaction shots of Hitler and other top Nazi officers such us those shown here really constitute "propaganda"? If a documentary is made of any Olympic Games from any other year, held at any other place in the world, and if the heads of state of the hosting country attend, is it not perfectly appropriate, in fact, that some reaction shots from them be included in the film (along with various other reaction shots from audience members, athletes, etc.)?

• Does the raising of the Nazi flags and the playing of the German anthem at the end of this clip constitute "propaganda"? If so, if we are to deem this to be "propaganda" in both nature and intent, then how does one reconcile that perspective and judgement with the playing of the American anthem (as in the Jesse Owens clip, below) or any of the many other anthems we hear and flags we see — not to mention all the different races whose successes are celebrated with Equality and without prejudice — in Leni's film?

Without doubt one of the most memorable sequences in Olympia features the African-American runner, Jesse Owens. The significance of this is naturally not only because of his acheivements as an athlete in his own right (regardless of race), but the "slap in the face" that his successes at the 1936 Berlin Olympics were to the Nazi ideals of Aryan superiority. Among numerous other portrayals of "non-Aryan" successes during the competitions that year, this makes Leni's Olympia historic not only as an extraordinary, truly unparalleled film record of that year's — or any year's — Olympic Games, but it could even be seen to be a personal statement of Leni's own convictions, as what is ultimately perhaps the most outstanding piece of Anti-Nazi Propaganda.


The closing shots of Olympia, which feature the famous "cathedral of light", is another beautiful example of Leni's skill at direction and editing, making exquisite use of Light, Shadow and Contrast, all synchronized beautifully with the Music of Herbert Windt. This display, however, has been a controversial one ever since its inception in relation to its association with the Nazis.

In terms of propaganda, the 1936 Berlin Games were seen overall by the Nazis as an opportunity for them to promote themselves — and it is only natural that they would see it as such, of course, just as every country does with each Olympic Games — and the "cathedral of light" which climaxed the closing of the Games was a creation of the Nazi's chief architect, Albert Speer, becoming what he himself later in life said would perhaps ultimately be the creation that he would be most remembered for. With regard to Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia, however, one must remember that it was Speer who was responsible for having created that aspect of the closing ceremonies, not Leni (indeed, Leni could hardly be said to be personally responsible for organizing any of the events which took place at the Olympic Games).

Questions:

• Regardless of how the Nazis themselves saw propagandistic value in the Games being held in Berlin at that time, should Leni's film be judged as having purposely promoted the Nazis because she included this visual spectacle which took place at this Multi-National event? Perhaps we might ask the converse, instead: wouldn't it have been inappropriate for her to have ignored this closing light show, which only naturally begs to be immortalized on film?

• What is it about something as objectively innocuous as a light show — even Speer's "cathedral of light" with its origins in Germany during the Nazi period — which makes it seem so definitively "Nazi" to us? Speer might have been the first to do it in that fashion, but similar displays have been done at other events and by other countries for all sorts of celebratory and commemmorative reasons since that time. Indeed, one can easily envision a group of Boy Scouts out on a camping trip all shining their flashlights in unison up at the night sky — and should we then admonish them for "behaving like Hitlerjugend"? Is it only "Nazi imagery" when it is designed by a Nazi, but innocent and beautiful, with no "evil" overtones at all, when done by others? If we judge Leni Riefenstahl (and her film) in some negative fashion because of this light show, then does that passing of judgement actually not say something more about us than it does about her?

Some Final Thoughts

Leni's hypothetical "propagandistic" intentions with Olympia might well be summarized in this last clip, showing the final sequence from the film. When viewing this clip, take special note of when the flags are shown being lowered — where is the Nazi flag? It can indeed be seen, but we get only the briefest glimpse of it, and the flags of other nations are, in fact, given much more prominence. If Nazi propaganda had been Leni's intention, then there is no question that the Nazi flag in these closing shots — let alone other Nazi imagery and the promotion of other Nazi ideals throughout the film — would have been given more frequency and importance. None of these latter things are depicted in Leni's Olympia, and as we can see even from the few clips presented here on this site (and which can easily be confirmed with a viewing of the entire film), it is actually quite the opposite which is true. Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia is definitively a Multi-National film, where all nations and all races are treated with genuine Equality, and we might emphasize once again that if propagandistic value is to be found in this film at all, it is only Anti-Nazi Propaganda that will actually be discovered. Yes, this was a film which was created within Nazi Germany, about an event which was largely used (independently of Leni's film) for propaganda purposes, but the ultimate result we find here is the personal creation (as clearly seen in the closing copyright card) of a woman who had the strength and courage to advocate beliefs and ideals which flew right in the face of everything the Nazis espoused — and at a time, no less, when doing so could actually have been dangerous to both herself and those people in her life that she loved.

Leni Riefenstahl has been condemned, in part, for her Olympia film, but for this beautiful, truly remarkable creation of hers, she could instead be commended and admired — and why shouldn't she be? From the center of the cyclone, she did what no one else in the entire world would — perhaps even could — do in painting an innocent, honourable, even noble portrait of not just this one German woman's heart, but perhaps ultimately of the German people's heart, beyond the hatred and insanity of the Nazi regime and the obvious mass hysteria and delusion of those times. Leni's Olympia showed that there was an eye to that storm, that beyond — and within — that Blitzkrieg there was peace, justice, truth and, indeed, something truly beautiful. Just as the darkness of the Nazis is a reflection of our collective potential inhumanity as human beings toward one another, within that and beyond that we can also see something that is genuinely overpowering in the totally opposite, positive, filled-with-light way.

When viewing this last, truly definitive clip, strive to view it with objectivity as a work of art created on celluloid — not only as justice to Leni Riefenstahl, but in a larger sense as justice to ourselves. However, in a similar sense, as belated justice to both Leni and to ourselves, when the bells toll in this clip let them also ring as a requiem to the injustice thrust upon Leni Riefenstahl for more than sixty years after this film was made, and for the injustice — and the loss — that we have effectively brought upon ourselves in doing so. Don't just hear the music, too, but feel it, and see the meaning — as surely Leni saw and felt it — that was really meant to be conveyed with that Light.

Source: http://www.riefenstahl.org/downloads...efenstahl.html

[Neverwinter]

Originally Posted by patriaomuerte

Without doubt one of the most memorable sequences in Olympia features the African-American runner, Jesse Owens. The significance of this is naturally not only because of his acheivements as an athlete in his own right (regardless of race), but the "slap in the face" that his successes at the 1936 Berlin Olympics were to the Nazi ideals of Aryan superiority.

Source: http://www.riefenstahl.org/downloads...efenstahl.html

The Big Lie about the Berlin Olympics
Dr. William L. Pierce

In its broadest scope, the Holocaust myth involves much more than the supposed gassing of the famous "six million." It includes every related lie which the Jewish propagandists have invented about Germany and the Germans in the period 1933-1945. One of the most brazen of these lies concerns the Olympic games of 1936, which were held in Berlin.

1936 Olympics PosterAccording to the story, which is being given renewed currency by the controlled media as the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles draw nearer, Adolf Hitler intended for the 1936 games to prove to the world his "master-race theory" of Aryan superiority. But the theory was shattered, the story goes, when U.S. Negro sprinter and jumper Jesse Owens defeated the Nazi athletes. Humiliated and enraged, Hitler then showed his lack of sportsmanship by snubbing the Black champion.

The truth of what happened at the 1936 Olympic games was witnessed by 4.5 million spectators from all over the world, and it has been related numerous times since then -- but never by the controlled news media in the United States, which unvaryingly parrot the same old lie whenever the occasion arises. And it is that lie which the average American, whose greatest single source of information is Jew-controlled television, believes.

Checking out the story of the "gas ovens" and the "six million" may be too much for anyone but a scholar experienced in historical research, but any sports fan willing to spend two or three hours in a library reading unbiased accounts of the 1936 Berlin games can convince himself that today's Jewish version of what happened there and then is almost exactly contrary in every particular to the truth.

He can learn that the behavior of Hitler and his government exemplified the ideals not only of sportsmanship, but also of hospitality, in the view of nearly everyone who was there; that if anyone behaved in an unsportsmanlike way, it was the U.S. team, which was under orders not to extend the customary courtesy of the Olympic salute to the Tribune of Honor, where Hitler sat; that Hitler did not snub Owens, and the Black athlete himself later said, "When I passed the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him. I think the writers showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany"; and that, far from being humiliated by the results of the games, Hitler was elated, because the Germans won more gold, more silver, and more bronze medals (89 altogether, compared to 56 for the Americans) than anyone else. (In the words of historian John Toland, "The games had been an almost unqualified Nazi triumph.")

It would require more study to learn that the National Socialists never theorized that Aryans are inherently better in every type of athletic endeavor than non-Aryans; that instead they recognized that each race's peculiarities give it certain advantages and certain disadvantages in competing against other races; and that the particular form of the "master-race theory" attributed to Hitler is a Jewish invention.

But what really should be learned from the lie about the 1936 Olympics is just how credible is the Holocaust myth of which it is part and parcel.

http://library.flawlesslogic.com/owens.htm

[DVX_Jo]

have this Documentary on DVD - two DVDs actually.

Who wants a copy ?

Regards

Jo