Olympia by Taylor Downing

First published in 1992, this is a timely updated edition of film-maker Downing's excellent study of Leni Riefenstahl's controversial documentary about the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Downing has himself filmed at two Olympic Games and it's clear he admires the artistic achievement of Olympia. Since the first edition, the notoriously litigious Riefenstahl has died, allowing for a more balanced assessment of her life and work. Riefenstahl claimed she was politically naive and was asked to make the film by the IOC. The latter is a "fabrication". Hitler personally asked her to make Olympia and approved generous funding. Throughout the making of it she had a "hot line" to Hitler, although she never got on with Goebbels who said she was a "wild woman". The premiere was on Hitler's 49th birthday, 20 April 1938. Downing concludes that although she was not trying to promote the values of the Nazis, Olympia remains "an intensely political film". Nevertheless, it transcends the politics to become "one of the best, if not the best, sports film ever made".