Leni Riefenstahl
Germany,
1938
More has been written about Leni Riefenstahl’s OLYMPIA than about any other sports documentary in history. Starting with a long and lyrical overture—evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece—Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in FESTIVAL OF THE NATIONS, culminating with the marathon. Despite the film's fascist origins, OLYMPIA has achieved a certain respectability and endures as a monument of cinema— and of a malevolent ideology.