Olympia 52
F.: Chris Marker, R. Cartier, J. Sabatier, J. Dumazedier. M.: Suzy Benguigui. Int.: Joffre Dumazedier (voce narrante), Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zátopek, Alain Mimoun (se stessi). Prod.: Peuple et Culture. Digibeta. D.: 104’. Bn.
Film Notes
The first part of the film is in Helsinki during the Olympics: the stadium, the city, the athletes’ accommodation, etc. It is here, in particular, that the director experiments with his taste for an unexpected approach and his fondness for meaningful details. The second, longer, part of the film is a documentary about the most important sporting events. For someone who is not sporty it can be annoying, but the dwindling interest is often revived by the human aspect of the event, the sportsmen and women stop being machines and become human beings. The commentary pauses briefly to bid farewell to an athlete who is leaving, to remind us that a career is ending; a real tribute to human effort replaces the impersonal report. Elsewhere there is a poetic atmosphere to celebrate the Zátopek’s feats, but it is done to emphasise the ethical value of the great athlete’s effort, to try and soften the legend which suggests that this man is a machine. Finally, the athletes are not always shown fully exerting themselves: we also see them in training, a closer look that achieves the humanity that the scenery of the great stadium, the crowd and the impeccably marked lanes at times tends to conceal. All of this presents, albeit timidly, the deep human character of the film by Chris Marker, who points the camera at the faces rather than at the anonymous crowd. Finally, the commentary previews the following films by Chris Marker, whose forehead at times appears in the shooting. Nothing is missing, the humour and quotes (for example the young Barbara’s attempt to suddenly intervene at the microphone “dripping with water, radiant in the rain” to preach, against any common sense, the brotherhood among populations), a certain poetry (the young black athlete who becomes ever more “the most beautiful girl in the world”), a deep union between images and words.
Georges Guy, “Image et Son”, n. 161-162, April-May 1963