Part two of Leni Riefenstahl's monumental examination of the 1938 Olympic Games, the cameras leave the main stadium and venture into the many halls and fields deployed for such sports as fencing, polo, cycling, and the modern pentathlon, which was won by American Glenn Morris.
Cinematography
Riefenstahl invented sports photography — still unmatched.
Editing
The diving sequence: pure visual music.
Direction
Evil genius at work, unfortunately.
Director
Leni Riefenstahl
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Riefenstahl pioneered the underwater camera housing specifically for this film — the diving footage required technology that didn't exist.
Every modern sports broadcast owes debt to Olympia's techniques: slow-motion, extreme close-ups, dramatic scoring. The fascist origin story nobody mentions.
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