From my personal perspective of the film Olympia, Leni Riefenstahl's focus is mainly on the beauty of human bodies, instead of the competition itself. There is undeniably an emphasis on National Socialism. Similar to Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the will, the great use of mass ornament, a term puts forward by Siegfried Kracauer, showcases the “absolute superiority” and power of Hitler and the Third Reich. Indicated by Kaja Silverman in The Threshold of the Visible World, the camera serves as social apparatus, meaning “the camera/gaze here manifestly ‘apprehend’ what the human eyes cannot”. (Silverman 144) But Olympia stresses more on a aesthetic aspect than a hard political propaganda.
It is a feast of lights and shadow using cinematic language at the beginning of the film. Riefenstahl uses the light as a tool to create depth and motions. Her adeptly use of travelling came…
