Criterion Collection has put together a definitive collection of Olympic films to release on Blu-ray and DVD. The collection brings a century’s worth of Olympic films with fifty-three movies and forty-one editions of the Olympic Summer and Winter Games, containing dozens of new 4k restorations overseen by the International Olympic Committee.
On Blu-ray, 100 Years of Olympic Films consists of thirty-two discs in a beautifully packaged box set with a 216-page hardcover book with photographs, a short history of the restoration project, and notes on the films from historian Peter Cowie. The DVD collection contains forty-three discs along with the collectible book.
As well as landmark 4k restorations of films such as Tokyo Olympiad (1965) and Visions of Eight (1973), the collection features new music scores written specifically for the included silent films.
On Blu-ray, 100 Years of Olympic Films is priced $189 (List: $399) while the DVD edition is priced $263.84 (List: $399). Buy on Amazon
Features
- 53 newly restored films from 41 editions of the Olympic Games, presented together for the first time
- Landmark 4K restorations of Olympia, Tokyo Olympiad, and Visions of Eight, among other titles
- New scores for the silent films, composed by Maud Nelissen, Donald Sosin, and Frido ter Beek
- A lavishly illustrated, 216-page hardcover book, featuring notes on the films by cinema historian Peter Cowie; a foreword by Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee; a short history of the restoration project by restoration producer Adrian Wood; and hundreds of photographs from a century of Olympic Games
The Films
- Stockholm 1912 – The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm, 1912 (dir. Adrian Wood)
- Chamonix 1924 – The Olympic Games Held at Chamonix in 1924 (dir. Jean de Rovera)
- Paris 1924 – The Olympic Games as They Were Practiced in Ancient Greece (dir. Jean de Rovera) The Olympic Games in Paris 1924 (dir. Jean de Rovera)
- St. Moritz 1928 – The White Stadium (dirs. Arnold Fanck, Othmar Gurtner)
- Amsterdam 1928 – The IX Olympiad in Amsterdam (dir. unknown) The Olympic Games, Amsterdam 1928 (dir. Wilhelm Prager; supervisor Jules Perel)
- Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 – Youth of the World (dir. Carl Junghans)
- Berlin 1936 – Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (dir. Leni Riefenstahl) Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty (dir. Leni Riefenstahl)
- St. Moritz 1948 – Fight Without Hate (dir. Andre Michel)
- London 1948 – XIVth Olympiad: The Glory of Sport (dir. Castleton Knight)
- Oslo 1952 – The VI Olympic Winter Games, Oslo 1952 (dir. Tancred Ibsen)
- Helsinki 1952 – Where the World Meets (dir. Hannu Leminen) Gold and Glory (dir. Hannu Leminen) Memories of the Olympic Summer of 1952 (dir. unknown)
- Cortina d Ampezzo 1956 – White Vertigo (dir. Giorgio Ferroni)
- Melbourne/Stockholm 1956 – Olympic Games, 1956 (dir. Peter Whitchurch) The Melbourne Rendez-vous (dir. Rene Lucot) Alain Mimoun (dir. Louis Gueguen) The Horse in Focus (dir. unknown)
- Squaw Valley 1960 – People, Hopes, Medals (dir. Heribert Meisel)
- Rome 1960 – The Grand Olympics (dir. Romolo Marcellini)
- Innsbruck 1964 – IX Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1964
(dir. Theo Hormann) - Tokyo 1964 – Tokyo Olympiad (dir. Kon Ichikawa) Sensation of the Century (prod. Taguchi Suketaro, supervisor Nobumasa Kawamoto)
- Grenoble 1968 -13 Days in France (dirs. Claude Lelouch, François Reichenbach) Snows of Grenoble (dirs. Jacques Ertaud, Jean-Jacques Languepin)
- Mexico City 1968 – The Olympics in Mexico (dir. Alberto Isaac)
- Sapporo 1972 – Sapporo Winter Olympics (dir. Masahiro Shinoda)
- Munich 1972 – Visions of Eight (dirs. Milo Forman, Kon Ichikawa, Claude Lelouch, Yuri Ozerov, Arthur Penn, Michael Pfleghar, John Schlesinger, Mai Zetterling)
- Innsbruck 1976 – White Rock (dir. Tony Maylam)
- Montreal 1976 – Games of the XXI Olympiad (dirs. Jean-Claude Labrecque, Jean Beaudin, Marcel Carrière, Georges Dufaux)
- Lake Placid 1980 – Olympic Spirit (dirs. Drummond Challis, Tony Maylam)
- Moscow 1980 – O Sport, You Are Peace! (dir. Yuri Ozerov)
- Sarajevo 1984 – A Turning Point (dir. Kim Takal)
- Los Angeles 1984 – 16 Days of Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan)
- Calgary 1988 – Calgary 88: 16 Days of Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan)
- Seoul 1988 – Seoul 1988 (dir. Lee Kwang-soo) Hand in Hand (dir. Im Kwon-taek) Beyond All Barriers (dir. Lee Ji-won)
- Albertville 1992 – One Light, One World (dirs. Joe Jay Jalbert, R. Douglas Copsey)
- Barcelona 1992 – Marathon (dir. Carlos Saura)
- Lillehammer 1994 – Lillehammer 94: 16 Days of Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan)
- Atlanta 1996 – Atlanta s Olympic Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan)
- Nagano 1998 – Nagano 98 Olympics: Stories of Honor and Glory
(dir. Bud Greenspan) Olympic Glory (dir. Kieth Merrill) - Sydney 2000 – Sydney 2000: Stories of Olympic Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan)
- Salt Lake City 2002 – Salt Lake City 2002: Bud Greenspan’s Stories of Olympic Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan)
- Athens 2004 – Bud Greenspan’s Athens 2004: Stories of Olympic Glory
(dir. Bud Greenspan) - Turin 2006 – Bud Greenspan’s Torino 2006: Stories of Olympic Glory
(dir. Bud Greenspan) - Beijing 2008 – The Everlasting Flame (dir. Gu Jun)
- Vancouver 2010 – Bud Greenspan Presents Vancouver 2010: Stories of Olympic Glory (prods. Bud Greenspan, Nancy Beffa)
- London 2012 – First (dir. Caroline Rowland)
