Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/08/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Sorry, I've deleted the e-mail that said that Olympia was commissioned by the IOC, but that doesn't appear to be accurate. "The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has added to its cinema archive by "purchasing the [film] rights" of the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin . Reportedly? the purchase was of Leni Riefenstahl's? documentary film Olympia (1938). The terms and price for this significant acquisition by the IOC from the German government remains unclear, though they include the commercial rights. Current IOC president Jacques Rogge describes the famous two-part documentary as "...the pearl of our collection... the most eminent film in the history of the Olympic Games." (Source: AP) - http://www.dasblauelicht.net/das_blaue_licht_news_wire2.htm "The Wonderful, Horrible Life" also deals with "Olympia," Riefenstahl's other famous film. A government-commissioned, multi-camera document of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, it has influenced the way sports has been covered (right through ABC's "Wide World of Sports") ever since." - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/ thewonderfulhorriblelifeofleniriefenstahlnrhowe_a0b052.htm "These films were probably commissioned by Carl Diem (1882-1962), the General Secretary of the German National Olympics Committee, a sports educator and an official in the government athletic bureaucracies of the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the Federal Republic. Diem's choice of Riefenstahl may have been backed up by Hitler himself; the films were funded indirectly by the regime." - http://www.uchicago.edu/research/jnl-crit-inq/issues/v29/ v29n2.mackenzie.html The only sources I find citing the IOC as the commissioning party seem to be based on Riefenstahl's own words. Much like her claims of never having been a Nazi, and there being no political content in Triumph of the Will, I have little problem discounting her version of the events, given her vested interest in not being the biggest living Nazi (prior to kicking off). If the IOC was the commissioner, then it wouldn't need to purchase the film from the German government, no?