Visions of Eight

Director: Multiple Dirs

1973 / 110min / Digital

Per the title, this superlative omnibus work brings together eight segments by eight different international directors, each focusing on one aspect of the tragedy-marred 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. Ichikawa, seven years after his Tokyo Olympiad, offers an existential study on the 100-meter dash filmed in extreme slow motion; Mai Zetterling, an essay on the isolation of the weightlifter; Miloš Forman, a comic look at the terrible toll taken on decathlon competitors; Claude Lelouch, a rare focus on the contest’s also-rans, recording wrestlers, boxers, and swimmers as they wallow in the agony of defeat.

Part of Art Cinema, Olympiad, and the World