Directed by Leni Riefenstahl • 1938 • Germany
More has been written about Leni Riefenstahl's OLYMPIA than about any other sports documentary in history. Starting with a long and lyrical overture, evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in FESTIVAL OF THE NATIONS, culminating with the marathon. Despite the film's fascist origins, OLYMPIA has achieved a certain respectability and endures as a monument of cinema, and of a malevolent ideology.
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Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty
Directed by Leni Riefenstahl • 1938 • Germany
More has been written about Leni Riefenstahl's OLYMPIA than about any other sports documentary in history. In part two of OLYMPIA, the cameras leave the main stadium and venture into the many halls and fields deployed for such sports as fencing, polo...
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Dance, Girl, Dance
Directed by Dorothy Arzner • 1940 • United States
Starring Maureen O’Hara, Lucille Ball, Louis HaywardJudy (Maureen O’Hara) and Bubbles (Lucille Ball) move to New York City with dreams of ballet success, but Bubbles soon falls into a career in burlesque. And when Judy’s ballet company fails, sh...
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Meshes of the Afternoon
Directed by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid • 1943 • United States
Starring Maya Deren, Alexander HammidCinematic trance-maker Maya Deren and her husband Alexander Hammid launched an underground revolution with this avant-garde landmark—shot in their Hollywood home, but a world away from the co...
