Visions of Eight (1973) [The Criterion Collection]

Director: Milos Forman (segment The Decathlon), Kon Ichikawa (segment The Fastest), Claude Lelouch (segment The Losers)
Writer: David Hughes (segment The Strongest), Deliara OzerowaShuntarô Tanikawa (segment The Fastest)
Stars: Vasiliy Alekseev, Nikolay Avilov, Valery Borzov

In Munich in 1972, eight renowned filmmakers each brought their singular artistry to the spectacle of the Olympic Games, capturing the joy and pain of competition and the kinetic thrill of bodies in motion for an aesthetically adventurous sports film unlike any other. Made to document the Olympic Summer Games—an event that was ultimately overshadowed by the tragedy of a terrorist attack—Visions of Eight features contributions from Miloš Forman, Kon Ichikawa, Claude Lelouch, Juri Ozerov, Arthur Penn, Michael Pfleghar, John Schlesinger, and Mai Zetterling, each given carte blanche to create a short film focusing on any aspect of the Games that captured his or her imagination. The resulting films—ranging from the arresting abstraction of Penn’s pure cinema study of pole-vaulters to the playful irreverence of Forman’s musical take on the decathlon to Schlesinger’s haunting portrait of the single-minded solitude of a marathon runner—are triumphs of personal, poetic vision applied to one of the pinnacles of human achievement.

Extras:
- New audio commentary by podcasters Amanda Dobbins, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan of the website the Ringer