Olympia

by Taylor Downing

Overview

Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia (1938) is one of the most controversial films ever made. Capitalising on the success of Triumph of the Will (1935), 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.

This revised edition includes new material on Riefenstahl's film-making career before Olympia and her close relationship with Hitler. Taylor Downing also discusses newly-available evidence on the background to the film's production that conclusively proves that the film was directly commissioned by Hitler and funded through Goebbels's Ministry of Propaganda and not, as Riefenstahl later claimed, commissioned independently from the Nazi state by the Olympic authorities. In writing this edition, Taylor Downing has been given access to a magnificent new restoration of the original version of the film by the International Olympic Committee.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838717452
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	07/25/2019
Series:	BFI Film Classics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	1,031,186
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

TAYLOR DOWNING is a television producer who co-founded Flashback Television in 1982 and has run it as a successful independent production company for many years. He has produced well over 200 documentaries on a wide range of subjects over the last twenty years, including many award-winning history programmes and a series about the Olympic movement. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, Spies in the Sky: The Secret Battle for Aerial Intelligence during World War II (2011) and Churchill's War Lab: Code Breakers, Boffins and Innovators: The Mavericks Churchill Led to Victory (2010). He regularly writes and lectures on television and history
TAYLOR DOWNING is a television producer and writer. As managing director of Flashback Television he has produced more than 200 documentaries including many award winning history programmes. In 2008 he won the Grierson Award for Best Historical Documentary for 1983 – The Brink of Apocalypse (Channel 4 and Discovery US co-pro). He won the first ever BFI Award for Archival Achievement in 1985. Taylor is author of Churchill's War Lab (Little, Brown 2010) and Spies in the Sky (Little, Brown 2011), Cold War (1996, with Jeremy Isaacs) and Olympia (a BFI Film Classic). He regularly writes on Television History for History Today magazine and has lectured on Television History at the universities of Cambridge, Lincoln and Queen's, Belfast in the last two years. Taylor began his career at the Imperial War Museum in 1976 soon after the making of The World at War and then at Thames Television in the history unit that was set up following the huge success of The World at War.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements.- Introduction.- The Olympic on Film 1896-1932.- Riefenstahl Before 'Olympia'.- Production and Finance.- Setting Up.- The Prologue and Opening Ceremony.- Track and Field.- Festival of Beauty.- Aftermath.- Notes.- Credits.- Bibliography.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

...it's hard to think of what more a reader would want without straying too far from the film in hand. This is as thorough and detailed an account of a classic as you could hope for.' - The Digital Fix

'...this is a timely updated edition of filmmaker Downing's excellent study of Leni Riefenstahl's controversial documentary about the 1936 Berlin Olympics.' - P.D. Smith, The Guardian

'Taylor Downing's passion for history, his knowledge of film and its pedigree and his empathy for the Olympic Games are all apparent in this very clear, concise and very readable account of Leni Reifenstahl's classic film...I can't recommend this outstanding piece of historical analysis and thoughtful judgement of a film-maker enough.' - Stewart Binns, Archive Zone