Olympic films

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During their history, the Olympic Games have inspired several filmmakers. Since the end of the 1920's almost each edition of the Olympic Games has an official film. It was Leni Riefenstahl with her film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin (Olympia) who inaugurated a series of official films of the Olympic Games made by great directors. More recently, American director Bud Greenspan has specialized in the official films of the Olympic Games, as well as in other movies about the Olympics and sports films in general. Many fictional films too are devoted to different aspects of the Olympics. Among the most successful of them there are Chariots of Fire, Cool Runnings, Miracle and Steven Spielberg's Munich.

Here is a list of the official films of the Olympic Games, of fictional films, documentaries and Tv series which are connected with the Olympic Games.

Contents

[edit] Official films of the Olympic Games

[edit] Summer Olympic Games

  • Paris 1924: Les Jeux Olympiques, Paris 1924 (1925, dir. Jean de Rovera)
  • London 1948: XIVth Olympiad – The glory of sport (1948, dir. Castleton Knight)
  • Melbourne 1956: Melbourne Rendezvous (Rendez-vous à Melbourne) (1957, dir. René Lucot)
  • Rome 1960: The Grand Olympics (La grande Olimpiade) (1961, dir. Romolo Marcellini)
  • Montreal 1976: Games of the XXI Olympiad (film) (Jeux de la XXIème Olympiade) (1977, dir. Jean-Claude Labrecque, Jean Beaudin, Marcel Carrière, Georges Dufaux)

[edit] Winter Olympic Games

  • Grenoble 1968: Les neiges de Grenoble (1968, dir. Jacques Ertaud, Jean-Jacques Languepin)

[edit] Fictional films

  • Nine and Three Fifth Seconds (U.S., 1925, dir. Lloyd B. Carleton): Charlie Paddock plays a young athlete who succeeds in participating in the Olympics.
  • One in a Million (U.S., 1936, dir. Sidney Lanfield): Sonja Henie plays a young skater who is excluded from the Olympics for professionalism, but succeeds in the star system.
  • A Million to One (U.S., 1937, dir. Lynn Shores).
  • Le Olimpiadi dei mariti (Italy, 1960, dir. Giorgio Bianchi).
  • Bokser (Poland, 1967, dir. Julian Dziedzina): the history of a boxer from the jail to the Olympic triumph.
  • Znicz olimpijski (Poland, 1970, dir. Lech Lorentowicz).
  • My Way / The Winners (South Africa, 1973, dir. Emil Nofal, Roy Sargent): a former Olympian tries to make a champion of his son.
  • The 500 Pound Jerk (U.S., 1973, dir. William Kronick): a love story between an American weightlifter and a Soviet gymnast on the background of the Munich Olympics.
  • The All American Boy (U.S., 1973, dir. Charles Eastman): a boxer trains for the Olympics, but he will not succeed, because of his arrogance.
  • Krawatten für Olympia (West Germany, 1976, dir. Stefan Lukschy, Hartmann Schmige): the story of a businessman who won a contract to supply the German Olympic team at the Montreal Olympics with ties.
  • Ice Castles (U.S., 1978, dir. Donald Wrye): the story of a young promise skater who becomes blind due to an accident.
  • The Other Side of the Mountain II (U.S., 1978, dir. Larry Peerce): The sequel of the 1975 movie.
  • Vsyo reshayet mgnoveniye (Soviet Union, 1978, dir. Viktor Sadovsky): the story of a young swimmer who beats many records while training but is afraid of real competitions.
  • Goldengirl (U.S., 1979, dir. Joseph Sargent): a young girl is transformed in a sort of bionic athlete by her father, a former Nazi officer.
  • Running (U.S., 1979, dir. Steven Hilliard Stern): the story of a marathon runner who succeeds in entering the Montreal Olympics.
  • The Jericho Mile (U.S., 1979, dir. Michael Mann): a life prisoner enters the U.S. running Olympic team.
  • Crossbar (Canada, 1979, dir. John Trent): the story of a high jumper who wants to participate in the Olympics in spite of being injured.
  • The Heartbreak Winner (U.S., 1980, Bruce Malmuth): the meeting of an injured would-be Olympic gymnast and a paraplegic man.
  • Swan Song (U.S., 1980, dir. Jerry London): a former Olympic skier goes back to competitions as a professional.
  • Olimpiada 40 (Poland, 1980, dir. Andrzej Kotkowski): the story of a clandestine Olympic Games organized by a Polish prisoner in a POW Camp in Germany during World War II.
  • Winterreise im Olympiastadion (West Germany, 1980, dir. Klaus Michael Gruber).
  • Fatal Games (U.S., 1984, dir. Michael Elliott): a serial killer uses a javelin to murder the members of the U.S. athletics team.
  • Going for the Gold: The Bill Johnson Story (U.S., 1985, dir. Don Taylor): Bill Johnson's biography.
  • Spiker (U.S., 1986, dir. Roger Tilton): the members of a volleyball team dream to enter the Olympic selection.
  • Streets of Gold (U.S., 1986, dir. Joe Roth): a Soviet boxer, who was never selected for the Olympics because he is Jew, emogrates to the United States|U.S. and starts coaching two street boys until the Olympic participation.
  • El complot dels anells (Spain, 1988, dir. Francesc Bellmunt): an American journalist, in Barcelona for the Olympic Games discovers the links with politics and affairs.
  • King of the Olympics: the Life and Loves of Avery Brundage (U.S., 1988, dir. Lee Philips): Avery Brundage's biography.
  • Forbidden Sun (U.S., 1989, dir. Zelda Barron): one member of the U.S. gymnastics team is aggressed while training on the island of Crete.
  • Diving In (U.S., 1990, dir. Strathford Hamilton): a young would-be Olympic diver is afraid of height.
  • Ice Pawn (U.S., 1990, dir. Barry Samson): a former Olympic skater realizes he has been exploited by his entourage.
  • Moy luchshiy drug, general Vasiliy, syn Iosifa (Soviet Union, 1991, dir. Viktor Sadovsky): the story of Soviet footballer and Olympic hockey medallist Vsevolod Bobrov.
  • The Olympic Summer (Der Olympische Sommer, Germany, 1993, dir. Gordian Maugg): a love story on the background of the Berlin Olympics.
  • A Promise Kept: the Oksana Baiul Story (U.S., 1994, dir. Charles Jarrott): Oksana Baiul's biography.
  • A Brother's Promise: the Dan Jansen Story (U.S., 1996, dir. Bill Corcoran): Dan Jansen's biography.
  • Run for the Dream: the Gail Devers Story (U.S., 1996, dir. Neema Barnette): Gail Devers' biography.
  • Dernier stade (France, 2006, dir. Christian Zerbib): a young athlete who has been injured starts making use of drugs.
  • Perfect Body (U.S., 1997, dir. Douglas Barr): a gymnast training for the Olympics falls into anorexia.
  • Breaking the Surface: the Greg Louganis Story (U.S., 1997, dir. Steven Hilliard Stern): Greg Louganis' biography.
  • The Setting Son (U.S., 1997, dir. Lisa C. Satriano): a young athlete must choose between his Olympic dreams and helping his brother to beat leukemia.
  • Olympia (U.S., 1998, dir. Bob Byington): a Mexican soap-operas actress escapes to the USA in order to fulfill her dream of becoming an Olympic javelin thrower.
  • Ice Angel (U.S., 2000, dir. George Erschbamer): an Olympic hockey player dies and is reincarnated as a female figure skater.
  • Thank the War (U.S., 2002, dir. Tina Cesa Ward): after the 1916 Olympics in Berlin have been canceled, a German runner must choose between escaping in Switzerland or fighting for his country in
  • Go Figure (U.S., 2005, dir. Francine McDougall): a young promise of figure skating has to enter a hockey team to train for the Olympics.
  • The Hammer (U.S., 2007-planned, dir. Charles Herman-Wurmfeld): after twenty years a has-been boxer trains for the Olympics again.
  • Asterix at the Olympic Games (Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques, France, 2008-planned, dir. Frédéric Forestier, Thomas Langmann): the filmed version of the comic book.

[edit] Documentaries (selection)

  • Olympic Events (U.S., 1932, dir. Ray McCarey).
  • Bearing the Torch: Politics and the Olympics (U.S., 1996, dir. Jeff Scheftel).
  • Fists of Freedom: the Story of the ’68 Summer Games (U.S., 1999, dir. George Roy).
  • Hitler’s Pawn: the Margaret Lambert Story (U.S., 2004, dir. George Roy): the story of Margaret Lambert, a German athlete who wasn’t allowed to compete at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin because she was Jew.
  • Lake Placid: An Olympic History (U.S., 2006, dir. Marc E. Nathanson).

[edit] References to the Olympic Games in other films

  • In Wunschkonzert (Germany, 1940, dir. Eduard von Borsody) a young lady and a German air force officer fall in love in Berlin during the Olympics.
  • In False Movement (Falsche Bewegung, West Germany, 1974, dir. Wim Wenders), among the people Wilhelm Mister meets in his trip through Germany there is Laertes, a former athlete who competed at the 1936 Olympics.
  • The hero of The Boy from Calabria (Un ragazzo di Calabria, Italy, 1987, dir. Luigi Comencini) wants to become a runner following his hero Abebe Bikila, whom he saw at the Rome Olympics.
  • In The End of the Golden Weather (New Zealand, 1990, dir. Ian Mune) the hero meets Firpo, a mentally disturbed man, who dreams of becoming an Olympic champion.
  • The heroin of The Princess and the Barrio Boy (U.S., 1997, dir. Tony Plana) dreams of becoming an Olympic swimmer.
  • In Via Satellite (New Zealand, 1998, dir. Anthony McCarten) a woman gathers with her family to watch her twin sister swimming at the Olympics.
  • One of the two heroes of The Goal (U.S., 2005, dir. Darla Rae) is a would-be Olympic sprinter.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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