Vertigine bianca

There are a few Olympics documentaries that are the gold standard for the genre (notably Olympiad and Tokyo Olympiad.) And there are some that are just adequate, being nothing more than just filmed recordings of the events. White Vertigo, the documentary about the 1956 Winter Olympics held in Cortina d'Ampezzo Italy, falls solidly between those two camps. The color cinematography is flat out gorgeous and the movie takes some interesting looks behind the scenes. But the coverage itself is fairly rote with little suspense generated--with the exception of the downhill ski racing event near the end of the movie, which is expertly handled. In short, there is little reason to seek this movie out, but if it presented to you, there is no reason not to watch it either.

Turner Classic Movies has recently broadcast a dozen of the documentaries about the individual Olympics, and I have been going through them. This is not among my favorites. I don't like the way the Eastmancolor prints have aged towards brown, lending everything a faded, dingy appearance. I despise the voice over, with its overblown phrases, its commenting about everything; he only shuts up briefly for the figure skaters. I understand his Italian nationalism, but it seems out of place for the spirit of universality and good sportsmanship that the Olympics is supposed to promote. And I personally despise the bobsledding and luge, which strikes me as strapping yourself into a tin can and careening through a tunnel of ice at high speed, hoping that you don't break your neck. If that's a sport, so is going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

Well, at least the final shot of the setting sun tinting a peak of the Dolemites a brilliant gold is pretty.