ABSTRACT
This essay reviews critical opinion on the social, cultural and aesthetic context of Leni Riefenstahl’s cinematic representation of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, Olympia. It argues that, in art terms, the film (and her earlier film of Nazi pageantry, Triumph of the Will) can only be truly understood if they are contextualized in the political culture of Nazi Germany. Blending textual analysis, aesthetic theory and cultural history, the article concludes that despite the aesthetic qualities of Riefenstahl’s film-making, the film bolstered and promoted an elitist physicality which fuelled the flames of German Fascism.
