Olympics
theartsdesk Olympics: Athletes at the operaTuesday, 24 July 2012
Triumph, despair, glory and struggle: the Olympic Games might technically be a sporting event, but in spirit and essence they are pure drama. Film-makers may have shouted loudest about this discovery, generating hit after Olympic-themed hit... Read more... |
theartsdesk Olympics: Walk, Don't RunMonday, 23 July 2012
Though this 1966 comedy was a light and fluffy thing, it was gazed upon benignly by the critics, mostly because it was a late vehicle for the well-oiled Cary Grant charm machine. It proved to be his last film, in fact. Others viewed it equally... Read more... |
theartsdesk Olympics: Going back to Spielberg's MunichSunday, 22 July 2012
When we think of the 1972 Olympics in Munich, we do not think of US swimmer Mark Spitz’s record-breaking seven gold medals, or Finland’s Lasse Virén making his extraordinary comeback from a fall in the 10,000 metres to a record-breaking win. No, the... Read more... |
theartsdesk Olympics: Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia!Saturday, 21 July 2012
It was Lenin who realised early in the Russian Revolution that “of all the arts, film is for us the most important” and Hitler and Goebbels perceived the immense propaganda potential of the Olympics through the medium of film. The 1936 Olympic Games... Read more... |
theartsdesk Olympics: Love all tennis movies?Friday, 20 July 2012
Making fictional movies about sport is the devil's own job. They generally don't appeal to non fans while those who follow the game in question spend their time mocking the action scenes as actors pretending to be sportsmen and women usually fail to... Read more... |
theartsdesk Olympics: The Golden AgeThursday, 19 July 2012
Rio Ferdinand did four years' ballet training as a child, England manager Graham Taylor sent the national squad to dance classes, while the Royal Ballet once ran an active football team. Ballet and football have long been secret lovers backstage.... Read more... |
theartsdesk Olympics: Graeco-Roman-Thespian wrestlingWednesday, 18 July 2012
In the original Games featuring Athenians and Spartans and the like, they would of course have done it all in the buff. The sporting costume – the thin end of the wedge that is the singlet - was a tawdry Olympic neologism foisted on the pure ideals... Read more... |
Usain Bolt: The Fastest Man Alive, BBC OneTuesday, 17 July 2012
"What caused him to be so fast? Is he here for a purpose?" wondered Usain Bolt's father, Wellesley, in a mystical tone. Usain's mother, Jennifer, also seems to detect the workings of a higher power in her son's blindingly rapid progress around the... Read more... |
theartsdesk Olympics: Marathon ManTuesday, 17 July 2012
Rather unjustly, this underrated 1976 thriller is best remembered for the dental torture scenes in which Laurence Olivier’s shiny-headed, shiny-spectacled Nazi, Dr Christian Szell, repeatedly asks Dustin Hoffman’s petrified and pain-crazed Levy if... Read more... |
theartsdesk Olympics: Robin Hood aims trueMonday, 16 July 2012
Reason dictates that Britain should win the four archery competitions at the Olympics, although we have accrued only two gold medals (both in 1908), two silvers, and five bronzes in the 14 Olympiads in which the sport has hitherto been included. So... Read more... |
theartsdesk Olympics: Let The Games BeginSunday, 15 July 2012
Even in this year of years, it has to be accepted that not everyone has a soft spot for sport. Anyone answering to that description may well attempt to sprint, jump or pedal away from the coming onslaught, but if you are anywhere near a television,... Read more... |
The Gods of Grace: When Sport is BeautifulThursday, 12 July 2012
Faster, higher, stronger - and more graceful. There is a handful of top athletes and sportspeople who are the beautiful people, who have some divine extra dimension to their movement that makes you smile to see them. They're winners, but they're... Read more... |
