Search - OLYMPIA -The LENI RIEFENSTAHL Archival Collection on DVD

Classic Film / Horrible transfer

Orson Swelles | Portland, OR USA | 07/06/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I have been waiting for Criterion to release this for 4 years now. With the technology of restoration of older films vastly improving I must say this is the worst transfer that I have seen of an older film released in the last two years. Don't spend your money on this edition and hope that Criterion will release this in our lifetime!"

The Wonderful (cinematography) Horrible (transfer) of Olympi

D. C. Hociota | Sibiu, Romania | 07/02/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Olympia is a piece of sport history coated in a magnificent art form. The superlatives aren't enough to describe this documentary; a veritable time machine traveling to an amazing and Orwellian future Valhalla called Nazi Germany.
1936 Olympiad was also well renown for the first to be broadcast on a form of television. This DVD sadly has an image quality comparable to what the citizens of Berlin saw on those twenty five large screens scattered along the City's main boulevards 70 years ago. Having seen some excerpts from "Olympia" in the documentary `The Wonderful Horrible life of Leni Riefenstahl" on DVD, I had great expectations concerning the image quality of this new release. What a disappointment! No one bothered to digitally remove the annoying scratches not mentioning the total absence of any timid tentative of restoration of a decent audio sound. Everything seems like a low resolution transfer from a cheap VHS . Let's hope that some day Criterion Collection will do this film the justice it deserves.
"

Be Honest

Baron von Munchhausen | Washington, DC | 12/01/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The original, as I viewed it on public television perhaps twenty years ago, was spectacular.

But the problems in this version are not just superficial and are not simply ones that some hyper-purist would notice. They include tiling, caused by extreme compression; scratches and blips galore; grey tonal quality converging on nil, and sometimes making it seem like one is looking through a duststorm; ridiculous cropping of the image, often even cutting off the heads of the subjects. The audio's flaky, too, especially noticeable in the sometimes lurching, but always tinny rendition of the orchestral scoring.

Weirdly, the package seems to have been conceived well, with nice features included. How is it possible, then, to have messed up the technical execution so badly?"

Don't waste your money

Danny Leopard | Los Angeles, CA United States | 01/25/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This disk is terrible. It is obviously cheaply digitized from a poor master tape. Don't purchase products by Pathfinder Home Entertainment, if this is an example of their business practice."