As the world gets ready for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, the BFI is delighted to announce the release today of a collection on BFI Player of 100 films which have been newly digitised and made available to the UK public, exploring the fascinating and inspiring history of Olympian endeavour from 1900 to 2012. The films are drawn from the collections of the BFI National Archive and regional and national archives across the UK and include footage of the Athens Olympics 1906, the original runners who inspired Chariots of Fire in The Olympic Games in Paris (1924) and England winning a football tournament in Stockholm Olympic Games (1912).
In addition to being available online at http://player.bfi.org.uk/collections/olympics-on-film/a selection of key Olympics and historic sports films will be available to view at key big screens located across the UK in August. See full list of venues below.
The modern Olympics was born in 1896, barely a year after the Lumière brothers unveiled their cinématographe. Neither the Lumières nor anyone else thought to send cameras to Athens 1896 - which leaves something of an enigma surrounding a film that identifies itself as Athens 1896. In fact, it was shot 10 years later, also in Athens, at the Intercalated Olympics of 1906 (outside the official four-yearly sequence) and features the Standing High Jump (now discontinued as an Olympic event).
There are newsreels, amateur films, official reports and television programmes representing over a century of British sporting achievement. Two films from the 1912 games - Stockholm – The Olympic Games and Olympics Games 1912 – between them offer rare footage of an England team actually winning a football tournament, and some excellent demonstrations of rope climbing and group gymnastics. The longest film in the collection is the 90 minutes of The Olympic Games in Paris 1924, which includes runners Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, whose story was told in the film Chariots of Fire. The same film has footage of the first ever Winter Olympics at Chamonix and a memorably brutal rugby final in which Olympic values seem in short supply, with stars of the French team stretchered off, leaving the field open for a USA victory. At the end (but alas not in the film), French supporters invaded the pitch but the French team sportingly defended the American victors from their fans’ wrath.
Also included is an entertaining and often surprising array of games and sports that for one reason or another never quite won official Olympic status. In our LOLympics collection, we salute the champions of cheese rolling, pipe smoking and uphill beer barrel racing, among other unjustly underrated pursuits.
Other highlights of the Olympics on film include: (credit: BFI National Archive unless otherwise indicated)
Women's Olympiad (1924) Great (and patronising) look at women's sporting competition when the official Olympics competition was still for men only
Olympic Flame (1932) An intriguing Ovaltine advert which manages to weave in a report on the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics
Berlin and the Olympics (1936) Rare home movie footage capturing the atmosphere inside the main stadium replete with giant swastikas and a Zeppelin hovering over the crowds at the opening ceremony
My Stoke Mandeville Story, A nurse at Stoke Mandeville (1960-61) captures the life of a nurse in a large hospital with a rare record of the Stoke Mandeville Games, where disabled competitors participate in a variety of sports including wheelchair basketball, archery and weight lifting. Sir Ludwig Guttman, who inspired the modern Paralympic movement, is seen as well as the USA wheelchair basketball team. The 1st Paralympics took place in Rome in 1960 so this is a local, but similarly inspired, event.
(Credit – Wessex Film and Sound Archive)
Olympiad 1948 (Credit – Screen Archive South East) offers a view from the stands of the London Olympics’ Opening and Closing ceremonies at Wembley in 1948
Home from Melbourne: Well Done British Boxers (1956) British boxing champs land at Heathrow, including winner of 'most stylish boxer of the Games'
What Makes Johnnie Run? (1968) The Rediffusion Sports unit joined 40 British athletes in their training camp in the Pyrenees, in preparation for the Mexico City Olympic Games, and tries to discover what motivates them and who might be the medal winners in Mexico
Wenlock Olympics (1980) (Credit – Media Archive Central England) Brief but delightfully kitsch look at the history behind the Olympics
See Olympics and historic sporting films on big screens across the UK
· Belfast - Belfast City Hall, Donegall Square, Belfast, BT1 5GS Dates TBC
· Bradford – Centenary Square, Bradford, BD1 1SD – 6 - 21 AUGUST
· Bristol – Millennium Square, Waterfront, Bristol, BS1 5DB – 6 - 21 AUGUST
· Coventry - Millennium Place, Hales Street, Coventry, CV1 1JD – 6 - 21 AUGUST
· Glasgow - Merchant Square, 71 Albion Street, Glasgow, G1 1NY – 8 - 21 AUGUST
· Leeds - Millennium Square, Leeds, LS1 3DP –13 - 21 AUGUST
· London - At BeachEast, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, E20 2ST – 6 - 21 AUGUST
· London – London Bridge City, More London Riverside, Southwark, SE1 2DB – 6 - 21 AUGUST
· Manchester - MediaCityUK, Salford, M50 2EQ – 6 - 21 AUGUST
· Plymouth - Armada Way, Plymouth, PL1 IHH – 6 - 21 AUGUST
· Swansea - Castle Square, Swansea, SA1 1JF – 6 - 21 AUGUST
