Olympia is a 1938
German documentary film written, directed and produced by
Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the
1936 Summer Olympics, held in the
Olympic Stadium in
Berlin,
Germany. The film was released in two parts:
Olympia 1. Teil — Fest der Völker (Festival of Nations) and
Olympia 2. Teil — Fest der Schönheit (Festival of Beauty). It was the first documentary feature film of the Olympic Games ever made. Many advanced
motion picture techniques, which later became industry standards but which were groundbreaking at the time, were employed —including unusual camera angles,
smash cuts, extreme
close-ups, placing
tracking shot rails within the bleachers, and the like. The techniques employed are almost universally admired, but the film is controversial due to its political context. Nevertheless, the film appears on many lists of the greatest films of all-time, including
Time magazine's "All-Time 100 Movies."