900 100 Years of Olympic Films

[zedz]

Hey, your write-up was entertaining, so at least that came out of it. Also, you refer twice to Frankenheimer above, but I assume you mean Schlesinger?

Duh! Of course.

[Lemmy Caution]

Not sure what the phrase "great films about the art of sports" means ...

[swo17]

Kind of like zedz' category of "The Film That Uses the Olympics as Raw Material for Experimental / Artful Purposes." Films that focus on the beauty of the sights and sounds of athletic pursuits

[Lemmy Caution]

Great artistic films about sport. Got it.

Jean Vigo's Taris is the first thing that comes to mind.
A 10 minute swimming film with some elegant camera work and effects.

[colinr0380]

The stories he selects are slanted towards the US, and are artificially pumped up with cheesy drama and hyperbole. Athlete X isn't just competing for a medal, she's competing for her father, who died only six weeks / six months / six years earlier. Athlete Y isn't just battling their opponents, they're battling terminal cancer / a twisted ankle / dyslexia. Every identical event is an epic confrontation that none of us will ever forget, even if our minds were erased with Mind Rubbers. Hand in hand with this is some of the most pretentious narration I've ever heard, larded with ludicrous superlatives. One favourite was a reference to ice as "the most treacherous of all the Alpine elements!" Two different sports are referred to as "the most dangerous of all the Winter Olympic sports!" in different Greenspan films (downhill racing and luge, if I recall correctly). Greenspan's musical choices are relentlessly crappy as well. They really are a case of "seen one, seen 'em all."

As with seemingly everything in life, there's a We Bare Bears sketch that tackles this packaging of athlete's emotive backstories. I found it even more amusing after the go-to discussion point for commentators during the recent Olympics was how difficult it was for all the athletes to have to build their own gyms during the pandemic!

[Zepfanman]

My copy finally arrived and sifting through the book, I noticed a recurring theme: Americans seem to know how to drop the ball when it comes to Olympic films.

The 1904 St. Louis games have no film. I can forgive this because film was still in its infancy, but considering it was staged in conjuction with the 1904 World's Fair of which film footage exists, one might think they may have found something with Olympic coverage.

The 1932 Lake Placid games are not inclued. There was a film made, but all copies were lost and have yet to be recovered.

The 1932 L.A. games have an identical story as Lake Placid and also have no film in the box set.

The 1960 Squaw Valley film is a German production included as the official Olympic film because the American film has also been lost.

The official 1980 Lake Placid film is simply a half hour promotional recap funded by Coca-Cola and featuring a great deal of dated disco music because the organizers didn't sanction a proper feature length film.

It's not till we get to the 1984 L.A. games that a proper American Olympic documentary gets included in the box.

Also regrettable is that the included book totally omits the games for which films are missing, i.e. there is no writing, not even a photo, for the 1932 Lake Placid and LA games to give us a sense of what they were like. There are some interesting things about them, such as the first ever Olympian from China competed in '32 LA.

That is quite pathetic. Where did you find the information about the omitted films being lost, etc?

[flyonthewall2983]

There’s a new documentary series on The Dream Team from the Barcelona ‘92 games on Paramount+. It examines the team much more as a cultural moment, and where it lead their careers individually. In the last episode the focus is on the effect felt internationally and how it opened up the NBA and the Olympics to fresh talent from around the world, and essentially changing the game in America to a style more flexible to how it’s played in other cultures.

[Zepfanman]

There’s a new documentary series on The Dream Team from the Barcelona ‘92 games on Paramount+....

Thanks for the heads up! Paramount+ Original series. Five 41-minute episodes. https://trakt.tv/shows/dream-team-birth ... /seasons/1

And for quick reference, the official film that year was called Marathon (1993), reviewed here: https://criterionforum.org/Review/100-y ... blu-ray/27

[flyonthewall2983]

On Peacock, a new documentary about Kurt Angle simply called Angle is in one act an intense study of his winning the gold medal in 1996 (against stellar competition in what remains some of the most emotional moments in sports as he got closer and closer to the gold with the American crowd firmly behind him in Atlanta), and all the trials and tribulations in life leading up to that point living a very physical life as a young athlete with competitive brothers reflective of the blue-collar upbringing he had.

It speaks also and obviously about his career in “sports entertainment” (only really said in one clip of Vince McMahon in 1997 explaining to his audience why they were shifting in attitude), but as an overall piece it doesn’t seem at all produced by WWE (even though they purchased it from A&E). As a portrait of modern American life and the highs and lows of which seen when he talks openly and frankly about his addiction to opioids that it transcends the form of the sports film into something more confessional and uncomfortable, most when he talks about his sister.

[Zepfanman]

Any idea if post-2012 films will be streaming on the Criterion Channel sometime soon? I'm currently unable to stream any of the films on the official website - it appears to be broken. e.g. https://olympics.com/en/original-series ... ing-beyond

[TechnicolorAcid]

Unfortunately no, they stop at the 2012 games and it looks like you can only get highlights if you go the official Olympics YouTube channel for the later games.

[tanders1]

After completing the entire Criterion set, my husband and I sought out the official films made after 2012. We managed to watch them all, then hit a stumbling block with the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games. Looks like it was a two-part movie, but doesn't seem to be available anywhere to watch. Does anyone have any insider info on where to find it or when it might be released to the public? I know it showed up at Film Festivals last year.

[kuzine]

White Vertigo, the official film of the 1956 Cortina winter games, though, is a welcome break! It's the first chronological color film and it is magnificent! The colors are vibrant and the visuals are stunning! The narrator doesn't remove the viewer much from the action and the filmmaker spends a good amount of time showing what happens off the course. In fact I found the scenes of preparation and the athletes' rest & relaxation between events almost more interesting than the actual events. The use of sound and intentional juxtaposition of different sporting events, as diverse as the people of the world who competed in them, is terrific. I would say White Vertigo stands up with Olympia, Tokyo Olympiad and Visions of Eight as one of premier Olympic films in this box set. It's quite a remarkable restoration.

I've been slowly making my way through this set and another vote for White Vertigo as one of the highlights so far (working chronologically). Especially liked the coverage of the skiing events and some contrast with the 21st century version of the sport. Nice color photography but the background color of that Olympic logo at the start made me think my system was off (turns out tenia includes it in his Ritrovata'd list).

On another note, anyone else noticed something very off in the London '48 film snow segments (color footage from the St Moritz games)? Overall this looked very pristine (I see Chris rated the video 9/10 in his review), but at points it felt to me I was looking at one of those infamous watercolor transfers that have been brought up here. It was also only in certain shots, or sometimes areas of shot (mostly wider shots, closeups all looked fine) so not sure what was going on (source materials / encoding ...). First thought it was also my system but on the pc it looks the same. Not generally a pixelhunter and often don't notice anything wrong with stuff that people complain about here but was surprised to not find any mention of this one (although this mammoth set has few in depth reviews of course).

2 screenshots included here

Spoiler

[Zepfanman]

On another note, anyone else noticed something very off in the London '48 film snow segments (color footage from the St Moritz games)? Overall this looked very pristine (I see Chris rated the video 9/10 in his review), but at points it felt to me I was looking at one of those infamous watercolor transfers that have been brought up here.

I see your screenshots, but can you elaborate on the "watercolor transfers"? Could you point me to the previous discussions?

Thanks,
J. J.

[kuzine]

I see your screenshots, but can you elaborate on the "watercolor transfers"? Could you point me to the previous discussions?

Thanks,
J. J.

Others probably have a better memory for these, but the first one that came to mind was the first (?) Le Samurai blu-ray back when, see posts starting here. The first Don't Look Now release is also mentioned there as an example.