Added: 5 years ago
From: davidherkt
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  • she does a very good job of making it look like they're falling from the heavens

  • If you're going to steal videos off my website and post them to youtube, the least you can do is give me credit.

  • @psymon23 Unless you are Leni Riefenstahl, you have no right to complain about this. You didn't make this footage and you don't own the copyright.

  • Anyone know a modern day film like this one.

    With slow motion athletes or dancers or whatever.

  • was never the splash that interested Leni, but the dive

  • Like dive-bombing Stukas! Perfect beauty!

  • Nazi vs rest of the world fight is unavoidable even in comments to a movie featuring acrobatic diving, or whatever the sport is called... Sick morons. Nazizm promoted hatred. Reading your posts, it appears free market democracy is no better at all.

  • WOW. this was, undoubtedly, one of the most breath taking sequences. She really captured the stature of being an Olympiad--and the acrobatic nature of diving.

  • For the first 3 minutes I was kind of dozing, but then at 2:56 ZOMG 0_0

  • It gives me a masterrace boner.

  • @Nemesis816 You are a good and healthy man. This is perfectly natural. :)

  • 3:31 interesting turning (point:)

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  • Such a great Olympic sight. Too bad Berlin's Japanese counterpart Tokyo was unable to one-up that in the 1940 games. If only the war had not happened...

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  • This sequence moved me to tears the first time I watched it. Her use of music is absolutely amazing!

  • she is amazing! pure genius!

  • Riefenstahl was a great, great film maker but none of her films ever have humor, let along irony but they're still amazing.

    I often wonder what she could have accomplished with faster film that would have been in color, Panavision and steadi-cam.

  • Consider this done back in 1936, Leni's talent made my jaw drop. She was a genius through and through. Nothing any idiotic comments can tarnish that.

  • mighty aryans

  • @standardissuemale877

    There are also asians in this video

  • @Exverlobter Well, they were there to participate in the Olympics.

    Also, Taiwanese and Korean athletes had to compete under the flag of Japan because Japan had conquered these places from China in a war 1894-95.

  • Bruce Webber must have loved this stuff

  • Aaaand, back on topic, Leni Riefenstahl was truly a cinematic genius. This was such delightfully artistic work, and done with such crude hardware, but she pioneered the use of cranes and dollies in movie-making.

    Much respect to this lady, and may she rest in well-deserved peace.

  • @R3dp055um Amen.

  • @R3dp055um It's amazing that despite, as you put it, that people had such crude, analog hardware back then, they still made what were both more aesthetically and entertaining cinema; here is one very great example of that.

  • stunning, just beautiful

  • Leni did a sublime job w/ this sequence. it's truly mesmerizing and easy on the eye.

  • ah man, those shots at the end, with the exposure set for the sky and the silhouettes.... looks like they're diving out of heaven. Really pretty

  • I cant stand it. its much much better than todays best . sorry but you jews come out second.....

  • @Rapeattack Even if you have chanse after chanse. in 60years after your holocoust.

  • @Rapeattack fkn monkeys

  • @Rapeattack You just threw out all of Hollywood that was contemporary with Riefenstahl and it was Hollywood that essentially set the standard for film-making on this earth; Jews invented the industry; you gentiles didn't have the imagination.

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  • @SatchmoSings is it possible that you explain better this part with lack of imagination? and this 'gentiles' word is so racist. you're insulting me, please stop! thank you

  • @sgerianda Hey, Balkan Shithead;

    The word "Gentile" is not a racist word, you dumb fuck; it merely means "things not of the 'Jewish World;'" there is nothing racist about this.

    Indeed, you dumb, unacculturated ass, the Church Of The Latter Day Saints (that's the Mormon Church, idiot) also uses the word "Gentiles" precisely THE SAME WAY, that is to refer to those things NOT of The Mormon Church.

    GO FUCK YOURSELF, YOU PIECE OF BALKAN SHIT!!!

  • @SatchmoSings look who's talking about acculturation...and btw you need to get laid asap!!!!!this has become too serious

  • @sgerianda Yeah, "this has become too serious."

    You mean my answer "wiped the floor with you" so now you'll know to SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!

    PS, asshole; I've had more pussy than you'll ever turn down.

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  • @SatchmoSings probably you're right cause I'm not a lesbian.

  • @sgerianda Yeah, 'cause you're a faggot that would have loved to play with Nazi cock all day.

  • Who said white men can't jump? ;-)

  • Toll.

  • I bet that Himmler must had been beating off while all these wet young me. SS fags.

  • @bearmare

    No, actually, the politically-well-connected homosexuals went into the Gestapo. While Gestapo was also under Himmler, they were not part of the SS.

    Just, you know, in the interests of historical accuracy. And we'll ignore your raging homophobia :)

  • Leni Riefenstahl war eine genial Künstlerin.Was hätte sie noch alles schaffen können wenn ihre fatale Nähe zu den Nazis ihr Karriere und Arbeit  nicht so behindert hätte

  • @bobinobaker True enough; Riefenstahl was already "on her way" even before the Nazis took power and her association with them essentially destroyed what career she could have had after WWII.

  • Leni Riefenstahl's greatest twentieth-century artist who was born and lived for art, died in the twilight of his physical strength but in the fullness of his artistic sensibility and redeem any debt on each image that is able to enter voluntarily or involuntarily with humanity. Cinematographic art would not be what it is today without it. I deeply admire his art. hibrante

  • @hibrante HER...she was a lady...

  • @DidiVavaPele76 I'm sorry, i don't speak english, i use the google traslator

  • @hibrante don't trust translators...they may change your sex! hahahahah

  • @hibrante he, is a she!

  • @hibrante its a woman though

  • Interessante!

  • Amazing footage from a very talented film maker.

  • Actually, this is the usual version one sees of the Diving Sequence, but prints of this sequence from 1940 are about 30-45 seconds longer (if you follow the music, you can hear where a cut it made at around 1:27-1:28).

    Does anyone know if the Riefenstahl Archive has any plans to release the longer version?

  • The music was composed expressly for the film. According to the Riefenstahl archive, the score was lost during World War II.

  • What's that for music in the background?

  • Ich habe das Leben einer außergewöhnlichen Frau vor mir. Jahre Später wird sie Bilder veröffentlichen aus schwar´Afrika, das sind Zeitzeugnisse. Am meisten beeindruck mich das Leni im hohen Alter den Taucherfilm abgemischt hat der ohne Sprache auskommt. Ihre Kunst ist außergewöhnlich aber sehr umstritten.

  • UNA GENIO ESTA MUJER, DEBERIAN PREMIARLA POST MORTEM.

  • did germany win gold in the pool?

  • Exhilirating Film making....I can see why Disney liked it so much.

    Gorgeous looking men as well :-)

  • Best Sports Documentary, EVER...

  • Immer noch der beste Sportfilm aller Zeiten.Ein Meisterwerk der Filmkunst. Zahllose Regisseure haben Leni Riefenstahls Film und Schnittechnik kopiert.

    Was hätten noch für Filme entstehen können wenn man Ihr nach 1945 die Chance dazu gelassen hätte.Kein anderer Filmschaffender der in den Jahren 33-45 arbeitete wurde so abgestraft wie L.R.Selbst Harlan der wirkliche Tendenzfilme macht konnte konnt weitere Filme in Deutschland der 50.Jahre drehen.

  • Back when Olympic sports were actually done outside! It was an exciting sequence.

  • Vertov diga

  • This offers nothing more to cinematography than what Dziga Vertov had already achieved with his sports sequence in "The Man with a Movie Camera" seven years earlier. In fact his editing is much more experimental and breathtaking, while using much less advanced equipment.

  • @filtig You are a silly, silly person. Vertov recorded amateurs. Olympians are the best in the world. Besides, there were no diving sequences in Man with a Movie Camera.

  • @percymate : i am a silly person indeed, but i know cinematography pretty well my friend, it is what i got my PhD on. in fact what you are suggesting supports my argument! : making amateurs look good is much more difficult and worthy than making the most skilled look good.

  • Now adays , scores , 5 , 6 , 6 1/2 , 4 1/2 ,

  • Yes, indeed, the editing and cinematography are brilliant. The filmmaker manages to highlight the human form without distracting from its endeavor. A real testament to Riefenstahl's genius.

  • does anybody know whose music is the soundtrack?

  • @gitaclick The composer credited for the soundtrack is Herbert Windt, who also did the score for "Triumph of the Will."

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  • OLYMPIA - Oh immortal spirit of antiquity!

    watch?v=v8kW1SgDevI

  • Reifenstahl turns diving into a sensuous ballet. Breathtaking.

  • @coralarch

    It was not her.

    She only had the rights for this movie, but she neither directed nor filmed or cut it.

    Others like Willy Zielke did the work, but were even sent to madhouses when they wanted to have their rights back.

  • kalo mina...k prosoxi stis vouties

  • alot of splash! these divers aint any good

  • mdmdmfd 3:30

  • zersrf 3:30

  • 3:30

  • what is this song called?

  • This has nothing to do with homosexualitx, but with aesthetics of the human body.

    I feel sorry for you, if you can´t understand it.

  • @Rothberath Cult of the Body you mean?

  • Yes. That's why the Nazi's set out to kill all homoesexuals. Rothberath already told you the true purpose of the video.

  • I love it more with a different soundtrack. Rammstein song Stripped. check it out. they used for their music video the ending part of this video and some other probably from Olympia too.

  • Simply amazing. Yes, she was a willful & functioning pawn, but the quality of the work is simply stunning.

  • Her films were controversial, yet brilliant. I had a cinema professor at SC in the 70's who worked for the German movie industry in the40's. He escaped with copies of Olympia and Triumph, and showed them as a final exam at night. Incredible experience I will never forget. The exilaration I felt at the end of both films. Breathtaking.

  • I fuckin love how this was used in the video of "Stripped" by Rammstein

  • amazing.i had never seen this until i watched a rammstein music video..the diving sequence was so awesome i had to watch the entirety..thanks for posting.

  • Beautiful work, utterly superb. Cinematedman is quite correct in pointing out that this was done with the crude technology of 70 years ago, and represents superb skill, almost totally unaided by technology.

    Did you notice the one dive on which she cut to an underwater camera? I believe Leni Riefenstahl was the first to use that technique.

    LR was a brilliant cinematographer, and the fact that she was hounded all her life by political accusers is nothing short of tragedy.

  • Sublime. Far too many people today have no idea how difficult this was to film, let alone in the artistic way she captured the events.

    This was done without reflex lenses, zooms, silent cameras, auto focus, nothing really, except a very crude apparatus by today's standards and tons and tons of skill.

  • Lovely! It is very well captured...as if in flight!

  • Un chef d'oeuvre pour l'epoque !

  • Brutal!!!

  • Thanks for this beautifull video...

    LONG LIFE FOR GERMANY.

    Deutschland,Vaterland

  • Amazingly shot

  • This, in my opinion, is quite possibly the four most spectacular minutes in film history.

  • can you explain why? To me it is a bunch of uninteresting shots of divers in slow motion. Anyone with a 16mm camera can do this. I'm not accusing, just curious.

  • The power is not in any individual shot but in the rhythm and the movement of the whole. The entire thing is built out of repetition that slowly evolves. It moves from, at the start, shots that simply document the event (from afar, crowd shown) to, finally, shots cut so that the divers seem to almost fly. From 3:35 on you never even see the water. The crowd is gone. There is only the figure and the sky. For me, there is almost the feeling that the world has been transcended. A little goofy, yes.

  • cool thanks. I can dig it a little more now.

  • Also, remember that when this was made, no one had done anything like it. So it is original and groundbreaking. That you were unimpressed by it shows how big an impact on cinematography it has made! :)

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  • Air, eau, corps, tout se mélange, nous ne faisons tous plus qu'un dans ta perfection jusqu'au crépuscule

    clarté d el'air pureté de l'eau, perfection des corps "Il" ne vouait le bonheur de personne toi, tu voulais le bonheur de nos yeux, c'est certain et c'est bien !

    Tu es belle leni quel talent ! un bras serait bien peu pour te saluer je te tends les deux !!

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  • la vitesse des images est au ralenti, mais le rythme des plongeons est accéléré Il n'y a plus que plongeur(s) ciel et eau

    plongeurs, plongeons nous "plongeons" avec toi, lenii, nous plongeons avec eux

    Nous volons et nous plongeons comme des oiseaux de mer des fous de bassan des "fous de bassins" bas, haut ? endroit, envers ? fin des repères la tête nous tourne, comme malaxés par l'océan

  • Quel étonnant crescendo pour l'image comme pour la musique le film commence comme un reportage J.o qu'on voit de nos jours, c.à.d, "très mal" (il ne manque qu'un tableau d'affichage avec des scores)

    On a l'impression que Leni nous dit ; "regardez ce qu'i ne faut pas faire voyez cette foule omniprésente qui bouche mon horizon

     ce public perturbant pour la concentration de l'athlète et pour la beauté de mes images, ?!"

  • "comment me débarrasser de ces présences ces regards anxieux qui font peser sur l'épaule du plongeur, le poids de la performance à réaliser ?!"

    Sur les premiers plongeons tout va très vite, le plongeur est confondu avec le public la confusion est extrême

    c'est le bordel visuel, on ne comprends rien puis, doucement, au fil des plongeons, le rythme ralenti, la foule obscène s'estompe, puis disparait la tension aussi

  • does anybody know if there is an entire vrsion uploaded? or else, where can I get it?

  • Beautiful. Especially, when the music gets more dramatical and the editing faster, the slow motion longer and the the contrasts deeper. Magnificent. Thanks for sharing. André :-)

  • Took a film appreciation class in Junior College back in 1979 and was fortunate enough to see Olympia in it's entirety.

    Instructor never mentioned Leni Riefenstahl and her wonderful movie Triumph of the will. ( not really surprising is it?)

    I knew of the movie but never saw it until YouTube came along and made the connection for me.

    I wonder if Olympia is for sale on DVD?

  • na ja, was daran genial ist?

    durch die blickwinkel, die schnitte, den wechsel der geschwindigkeit, das einspielen von rückwärts laufenden szenen ergibt sich eine ganz eigene filmische choreographie -- filmisch inszeniertes turmspringer-ballett, wenn man so will

  • Gripping stuff...........

  • ehrlich gesagt, ziemlich langweilig und langatmig!

  • Naja, wo er Recht hat, hat er Recht. Brutal langweilig....

  • Ja! Über die Kameraführung kann ich jetzt wenig sagen, die kann genial sein, ich bin da kein Fachmann, aber sonst sehr langweilig, ganz zu schweigen von der Nazipropaganda die durch den Film verbreitet wurde...

  • its like some of those guys are about to hit the diving board wen they dive

  • I know!! It gives me chills everytime I watch it....Leni Riefenstahl was a genius.

  • Wahrhaftig lächerlich, wie du jetzt versuchst, den Niveauvollen heraushängen zu lassen, nachdem du deine wahre asoziale Fratze gezeigt hast.

    Du bist leider, wie viele Youtubenutzer, psychisch nicht gerade sauber und ehrlich gesagt, ist es mir nach einigen Tagen Abstinenz von diesem virtuellen Irrenhaus ganz ehrlich unter jeglichem Stolz, mit irgendwelchen hässlichen Psychopathen, die keine abkriegen und in einer gekauften Scheinwelt leben, weiterzudiskutieren. Get a life, Abschaum.

  • Ästhetik Pur!!!Da können sich die Filmemacher von Heute ein Beispiel dran nehmen!

  • Compare Tanita Tikaram "Cathedral song"!

  • Oder hast du deswegen Komplexe, weil deine Oma und deine Schlampenmutter bekannte Russenmatratzen waren, die zur Besatzungszeit ehrlos verkauft wurden? Ab in den Gulag, du deutscher Schlampensohn, damit wir deine Abschäumigkeit in was Produktives umwandeln, die reinste Therapie für dich syphilitische Missgeburt ;))

  • Calvarienberg is like you can see a retarded guy from Germany who suffers from a persecution mania and has no real life, arguing the whole day on youtube and insulting other users to get along with his deep complexes. These complexes are also visible in his nazistic phrases laughing about the murders of the third reich. This swine is to find in Constance Germany so get him ;)

  • Oho, es wird ja immer härter, besonders, da du vorige Aussprüche kopierst und sie durch kindischen Primitivismus ergänzt. Woher die Komplexe? Füttert dein Schweinevater dich abschäumige bastardische Mätrassenhurenausgeburt etwa nur durch, damit die Schande nicht publik wird?

    Du willst den Hahn aufdrehen? Hahahahaha du würdest dir beim Anblick meiner Faust bereits in die Hosen machen du hässlicher verschwuchtelter Loser, los, geh zurück in deine Scheinwelt, du retardierte Missgeburt ;))

  • Yes, mr Calvarienberg treats this film with much respect, the reason are his national socialist beliefs. This is nothing new, his grandfather was a major nazi swine and responsible for several deportations and he considers himself to follow this part although he's deeply retarded, having a life which is just bought by his father's money. He lives in Constance/Germany and seems to be named Hanno Buddenbrook, but sure fact is that he studies there dentristry so get this son of a bitch ;)

  • Habe ich dich etwa verletzt, Calvarienschwuchtel oder wie ist sonst so viel kindisches Herumbeleidige zu erklären? Hahahaha, zu schwach für's Argumentieren, dann bleiben halt nur noch die Ausdrücke, du durchkomplexiertes hässliches Opfer ;) Gruß an deinen Schweinevater, der Ursache deiner Abschäumigkeit, an deine alte Flittchenmutter, die sich mit jedem Kerl als Liebhaber einlässt, wobei man noch immer nicht weiß, ob du nicht Ausgeburt einer Edelnutte bist. Gekauftes Leben eben ;)

  • Och, fast schon herzwerwärmend, wie du jetzt versuchst, den harten Macker raushängen zu lassen, und kindisch die beleidigenden Worte deines Gegenübers zu kopieren versuchst. Aber lass es sein, Abschaum wie du wird in normalen Kreisen eh nie Gehör finden, höchstens in seiner zusammengekauften Scheinwelt.... Und komm dir ja nicht als Intelektueller vor, dass muss aus dem Kopf kommen und nicht aus der Geldbörse... Und jetzt schau lieber, ob dein Vater nicht wieder in irgendeinem Puff weilt ;)

  • Hahahahaha, etwa Probleme, die Beherrschung aufrechtzuerhalten? Treibt sich etwa Papa zu oft bei Edelhuren herum? Dein Leben ist höchstwahrscheinlich auf des Vaters Kontakten und Finanzen aufgebaut, daher schweig aufgrund deiner Erbärmlichkeit, nichts selbst erreicht zu haben, wobei deine rassistische Abwertung nur noch mehr zeigt, zu welchem Abfall solche wie du verkommen sind.

    Ich bin Gewalt zwar abgeneigt, aber in deinem Fall wäre eine gepflegte Politur des frenulum linguae nötig.

  • Na sieh einer an, wenn das nicht der Calvarienschwuchtel ist, der nationalsozialistischem Filmgut huldigt. Aber vorsicht, die Nazis waren große Gegner kleiner dümmlicher Bonzenkinder, die sich ins Studium einkauften und sich "asozial" über die restl. "Volksgemeinschaft" erhoben ;)

  • human civilization will advance to the next level when these boring, third rate films of hers are no longer admired

  • The jump of the angel

  • I don't fault her. She did what she had to do to survive. And her work is extraordinary.

  • Sorry, I don't speak english. Esto sí es cine. Los cuerpos llegan a parecer aviones. A veces parece que salieran del agua. Y cuando caen como heridos tienen mucho valor expresivo. No he visto nada igual. ¿De quién es, por cierto, la música?

  • La música es de Herbert Windt...algún día llegará la reivindicación de este compositor :)

  • wow, you quoted demetri martin! you're so original! i mean really, because diving is so easy and all. any one can do a 205b or 105b. kudos man, kudos,

  • they jump over and over again... so?

  • inward 1 1/2? front 1 1/2? back 1 1/2?

    wow diving really changed over the years!

  • I know seriously! Now front 3 1/2 and inward 2 1/2 and back 2 1/2 and reverse 2 1/2. haha

  • Riefenstahl is second only to Hitchcock when it comes to directing

  • q hermosas tomas,una gran cineasta sin duda alguna

  • I never was a hollywoodfan.. I hate TV and the nazis

    but somehow I am still fascinated by Leni Riefenstahl ... and still dont know why

  • She was neither TV nor Hollywood. She was an artist without equal, despite her Nazi affiliation.

  • Nazi affiliation? She wasn't a Party member.

  • No, but Hitler appointed her to the be the Film Expert for the Nazis. She was his greatest propaganda filmmaker. Check out "Triumph of the Will".

  • Der Olympiafilm ist toll gemacht,eben typisch L.Riefenstahl

  • Just think, most of these folks were slaughtered in the War. Burned up like chaff. All this pompous display of the flesh, all the egotistical Aryan- supreme- race nonsense. Look what it got them. These Krauts should have heeded the Jewish proverb, "Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall."

  • If wonder woman could be any woman in the world, Leni would be a great candidate! I admire her so much!!!!!!

  • Gosh, sooooo beautiful, so full of dignity! A man is even not like a bird but flying and it's real so well filmed and the music!.. Even from youtube, sitting at work, provokes so many emotions!..

    having a cult of a healthy strong body is not being Nazi, so this video is worth admiring

  • Incredible! It is sad that she is only known for her past. "It was the biggest catastrophe of my life. Until the day I die people will keep saying, 'Leni is a Nazi', and I'll keep saying, 'But what did she do?'" Everyone must stop judging one another. Yes she did make some bad decisions in her lifetime, but who hasn't? If she truly was a Nazi then she wouldn't have had an interest in Africa (Nuba). Understanding of cultures is most important in this world. All cultures have their good and bad.

  • While Riefenstahl certainly isn't a racist, she does appropriate a fascist aesthetic in her works. Although the Nuba are black, not Aryan, Riefenstahl's portrait of them evokes some of the larger themes of Nazi ideology: the contrast between the clean and the impure, the incorruptible and the defiled, the physical and the mental, the joyful and the critical. I also think it's absurd and offensive to dismiss Nazism as merely a forgettable bad decision. Read Susan Sontag's Fascinating Fascism.

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  • ahaha speedos gets me every time

  • one of the greatest filmmakers of 20th C..

  • Way ahead of her time.

  • shots round the 2.40 onwards mark are AMAZING.

  • the disorientating movement at 3:15 gets me every time, you loose track of up and down and it looks beautiful

  • Turk, get over it. Politics are temporary but art lasts forever.

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  • This is just beautiful art. What a celebration of the magnificent human body. God bless Leni. May she rest in peace.

  • Nazis are fucked, but that really was amazing film making.

  • The Chinese divers of the Beijing Olympics wale on these lame ass krauts. Additionally, Zhang Yi Mou is a better propagandist than Riefenstahl and Speer put together.

  • Well, I know nothing about film but I know most old films do have crappy, far away angles, so I can believe that what she's done here was cutting edge, even if it doesn't look that way now. (And even if she was commissioned by one of the most evil people to ever live to create propaganda.) But watching this, I can't help but think most of these divers are really, really bad. One guy entered the water on his back. Yikes.

  • It looks so normal to us, but the way it was shot , it was extremely modern approach.

  • here we can see the Beauty

    here we can find the Poetry

    thank you, Leni

  • Absolutely fantastic - beautiful bodies seem to fly into the sky.

    Thanks for uploading this clip. Unbelievable that these pictures are more than 50 years old.

    Danke schön.

  • Fabulous shooting! (Ideologies and genociders apart).

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  • It's almost the most magnificent celebration of humanity I've seen.