Yes, very interesting. I was actually going to mention Riefenstahl as soon as I saw the title of your post, before I read the whole thing. I'm a little surprised, though, that you mention her in terms of Triumph of the Will, rather than Olympia.

If you're not familiar with that, it's Riefenstahl's other "great" film. It's almost 4 hours long and of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but designed to demonstrate to that the Nazis were a great civilization, following in the tradition of the classical Greeks. The film is technically very good, with some excellent examples of film editing, such as the diving sequence:http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=KwmYFz01MxA

Actually, if I'm not mistaken, a lot of the current Olympic traditions were either begun, or elaborated upon in the 1936 games, and I think Riefenstahl may have had a fair amount of influence on what happened in the ceremonies...but don't quote me on that.

Olympia is not explicitly a fascist film, since it was designed for an international audience, partly to mitigate negative views of the regime (for instance, the black American Jesse Owens figures somewhat prominently--definitely not the Arian ideal). But it's also hard to watch, for instance, the diving sequence (which is also notable for its excellence as an edited sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K...wmYFz01MxA) ,and not think that Riefenstahl is trying to claim that the bodily perfection of the athletes enables them to do impossible things--a distinctly fascist idea.

Anyway, that's all to say that I agree that the current Olympics often look pretty fascist, and may well have come from the 1936 Olympics.

Of course, like you said, there is no fuhrer (at least as far as I can tell), which makes them considerably more benign. But then, what's the use?
The Olympics definitely seem to be a lot about glorying in the body, not just entertainment. And how much do we really want to promote that?
Anne | 04.08.08 - 2:40 pm | #