canada, 1977, frenchA mixed bag, but one that I ultimately found enough in to enjoy. There are sections here that are absolutely perfect, it’s a shame the entire thing didn’t come together.
JEAN-CLAUDE LABRECQUE, JEAN BEAUDIN, MARCEL CARRIÈRE, GEORGES DUFAUX
Games of the XXI Olympiad
There is a natural deadline for writing these thoughts about a particular film. I don’t know exactly how long I have, but certainly beyond a week or so and I’ve lost a lot of the details that I’m trying to capture. That’s a large part of why I write this in the first place, so that I can remember how I felt when I look back at a later date. Unfortunately, the circumstances of life have contributed to me not having found the time to write this for quite a bit longer than a week.
So I’m going to try to muddle through anyway. I know that I liked, but didn’t love, this entry in the series. It’s breathtakingly cinematic at times. Unfortunately, that’s not always a positive. The authors seem to have been swept away by their desire for interesting camera work, while forgetting that the point of a documentary like this is to convey meaning.
Some of the most beautiful shots are so abstract that it’s impossible to tell what’s actually happening. For a document of an event that’s a problem. The parts they got right, they got very right. This has some of the most thrilling moments, and does a remarkable job of capturing the tension and interest of live sporting events.
It’s helpful that I have absolutely no idea who won most of these events, but even when I do, like in the decathlon, it’s exciting to watch Caitlyn Jenner go for gold. An Olympics film, no matter how long it is, cannot possibly hope to capture everything that happened, and this film does a good job of deciding what to focus on.