Picture of the film VISIONS OF EIGHT by Miloš FORMAN, Kon ICHIKAWA, Claude LELOUCH, Youri OZEROV, Arthur PENN, Michael PFLEGHAR, John SCHLESINGER, Mai ZETTERLING © IOC
Visions of Eight, reliving the summer of ’72 with Claude Lelouch
Over and above serving as the official documentary for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Visions of Eight offers up eight perspectives of this sporting event, as seen through the lenses of eight iconic directors. Awarded the Golden Globe for best documentary in 1974, the film(s) by Youri Ozerov, Kon Ichikawa, Michael Pfleghar, and their five fellow filmmakers marked a turning point in how sport went on to be filmed. An interview with Claude Lelouch, who will present the film at Cannes Classics.
How did this project come about? Where did the idea come from to bring together eight directors?
Major directors from different countries were chosen to film the Munich Olympics. For France, I was called and asked to participate in the project. I had already filmed the Winter Olympics in France with François Reichenbach, and of course, when I saw the list of the international directors, there was every reason to say yes.
Most of the directors involved in the project chose to deal with themes linked to the competitions themselves, but you did something different by focusing your narrative on the losers. Why did you make this choice?
Losers are more touching than winners! In sports, the losers are the ones who suffer. The winners have everything at their disposal, whereas the loser goes home alone, unhappy… I found it relevant to make that my focus.
It's often said that Visions of Eight took a step forward in the way that sports was filmed. Did you notice the influence of the film on sports documentaries that came out after 1973?
No, I don't think so. We all had some fun, all the directors tried to film something other than the competition, which was being handled by the live broadcasters. We wanted to film sports through the gaze of filmmakers who were not specialists of the subject. The artistic vision was stronger than the athletic vision.
Was there mutual assistance between the directors?
I remember that Miloš Forman took some of my images. It was a shot of a judge sleeping during the competition. When I showed it to Miloš, he died laughing and asked me if I could give it to him for his film. I gave him the shot, Miloš was a good friend of mine. I was thrilled he used my images in his part.
The film is presented at Cannes Classics this year, almost fifty years later. How does it make you feel?
Neither I nor any of the other directors had final cut. It was more of a producer's film. I had suggested a different edit of my sequence, but given production constraints, they went with a different cut.
Is Visions of Eight still relevant?
Of course. All of the directors involved in the project are very talented directors and we can see their traces, their styles, their ways of filming. I think it's in that way that the film is interesting.
