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Interpretations of the Filmed Body: An Analysis of the Japanese Version of Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia

Masumoto, Naofumi. “Interpretations of the Filmed Body: An Analysis of the Japanese Version of Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia.” Critical Reflections on Olympic Ideology. Centre for Olympic Studies, 1994. 146-158. 31 Mar. 2008 <http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/ISOR/ISOR1994t.pdf>.

This article analyzes the Japanese version of Olympia and explores its relationship to contemporary Olympic events. While it touches on a wide variety of questions such as the film’s political implications, its focus is on the aestheticization of the human body, particularly of the strong and victorious. It suggests that Olympia was not so much a document of the 1936 Olympics as it was a unified body of art. While the article acknowledges the historical context of the film and its influence, it affirms Riefenstahl’s commitment to producing an artistically free and independent picture. For example, it notes that Riefenstahl beautified the bodies of not just Aryan athletes, but also blacks and Asians, against the wishes of Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. Additionally, it argues that Riefenstahl’s use of retakes and overdubs serves to discredit the film as a historical documentary but instead supports it as an artistically united statement. It connects the film to today’s Olympics by contrasting its emphasis on beauty with mass commercialization yet also notes the film represents universal and unchanging Olympic ideals.

The article raises several points in the question of the extent that Olympia is propagandistic. Aside from noting the film’s beautification of the human body irrespective of race, the article suggests the film was not propaganda in and of itself, but rather a record of a propagandistic event. On the other hand, the article also spends some time on the introductory sequence in which an Olympic torch is carried from Greece to Berlin, suggesting the Germans as the true descendents of the culturally advanced Greeks. Additionally, it argues that the film’s depiction of Hitler as a typical sports spectator humanized him and was inherently positive.

Brad Sucks B; Coke's Sentimental Journey

Blog post compares an incredible jack white coke commercial with a very similar japanese music video.

Film genre reader III / edited by Barry Keith Grant.

Film genre reader III / edited by Barry Keith Grant. [0292701845 ] Austin, Tex. : University of Texas Press, 2003.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1995 .F45793 2003

Crowded prairie : American national identity in the Hollywood western / Micheal Coyne.

Coyne, Michael, film historian.. Crowded prairie : American national identity in the Hollywood western / Micheal Coyne. [1860640400] London ; New York : I.B. Tauris ; New York : Distributed by St. Martin's Press, c1997.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1995.9.W4 C663 1977

Seven samurai / Joan Mellen.

Mellen, Joan.. Seven samurai / Joan Mellen. [085170915X(pbk.) :] London : British Film Institute, 2002.
Call#: Van Pelt Library Rosengarten Reserve PN1997.K84 M466 2002

Emperor and the wolf : the lives and films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune / Stuart Galbraith IV.

Galbraith, Stuart, 1965-. Emperor and the wolf : the lives and films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune / Stuart Galbraith IV. [0571199828 (alk. paper)] New York : Faber and Faber, 2002, c2001.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1998.3.K87 G35 2002

Useless beauty : Ecclesiastes through the lens of contemporary film / Robert K. Johnston.

Johnston, Robert K., 1945- . Useless beauty : Ecclesiastes through the lens of contemporary film / Robert K. Johnston. [0801027853 ] Grand Rapids, Mich. : Baker Academic, c2004.
Call#: Van Pelt Library BS1475.52 .J64 2004

Kurosawa : film studies and Japanese cinema / Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto.

Yoshimoto, Mitsuhiro, 1961-. Kurosawa : film studies and Japanese cinema / Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto. [0822324830 (cloth : alk. paper)] Durham, NC : Duke University Press, 2000.
Call#: Van Pelt Library Rosengarten Reserve PN1998.3.K87 Y67 2000

Seven samurai = Shichinin no samurai : director, Akira Kurosawa / note by Roy Stafford.

Stafford, Roy. . Seven samurai = Shichinin no samurai : director, Akira Kurosawa / note by Roy Stafford. [0582452562 ] Harlow : Longman ; London : York Press, 2001.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1997.S4726 S83 2001

Magnificent seven [videorecording] / Metro Goldwyn Mayer ; the Mirisch Company ; a Mirisch-Alpha production ; screenplay by William Roberts ; produced and directed by John Sturges.

Magnificent seven [videorecording] / Metro Goldwyn Mayer ; the Mirisch Company ; a Mirisch-Alpha production ; screenplay by William Roberts ; produced and directed by John Sturges. [0792849574 ] New York : MGM Home Entertainment Inc., p2001.
Call#: Van Pelt Library Rosengarten Reserve Desk DVD PN1995.9.W4 M256 2001

Negotiation of identity and power in a Japanese online discourse community - Paul Kei Matsuda

PDF/Text Available via Elsevier.

I became interested in Matsuda's analysis because, even though it has nothing directly related to gender, it shows a clear picture of how linguistic markers used in verbal speech are carried over into an internet context to delineate identity and power relations. Matsuda analysed the written communications in Japanese of Japanese ESL teachers on the online community TESOL Link for verbal markers such as formal verb endings, address terms, and honorifics that are used to signify deference and vertical social relations. Interestingly enough, he found that there was more horizontal than vertical social relationships on the list, and that when hierarchical distinctions were shown, they were created from a perception of knowledge as power more than seniority or social status. To this, Matsuda cites the teacher vs. learner role as invoked frequently on the list. While he notes that hierarchical relations were found to come into play in a theoretically hierarchy-free environment, Matsuda points out that the power relations were able to be re-negotiated by the members online in a way that might never have been possible in real face-to-face communication given social and linguistic norms in Japan.