White Vertigo

White Vertigo (Vertigine bianca) is one of the unexpected jewels of this Olympic films collection. Assiduously restored, it basks in the chromatic palette of Eastmancolor, with yellows, reds, and blues predominating. The cinematography is by none other than Aldo Scavarda, who would film L’avventura for Michelangelo Antonioni three and a half years later. The music is by the prolific Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, who early in his career had scored Othello for Orson Welles (and would return to the maestro’s side for Chimes at Midnight). His audacious use of jazz piano to accompany the ice hockey matches brings a lyrical mood to a sport that in other Olympic Games documentaries is portrayed in ferocious terms.