Hotel 'Zum verunglückten Alpinisten'

I have to say "Hotel of Dead Mountaineer" is ahead of its time. OK, script was pretty anachronistic in 1978, because the basic book was written 1970, after social turmoils and "revolutions" in USA and Europe and some moments weren't so obvious in late 70s anymore. But after 9/11 is pretty sure that questions like "terrorist or freedom-fighter?" isn't so stupid at all. So the idea of naive alien helping terrorists doesn't look weird anymore.

Movie's special ultramodern design, cold style and dark atmosphere looked maybe a bit over the top in late 70s but became mainstream in 80s, especially in sci-fi and A- category horror movies. "The Hunger" for example has very similar visual style but was filmed 5 years later. The Grünberg's music isn't typical 70s movie soundtrack, the cold and synthesized soundscape became popular also in 80s and later. Theatralic, unnatural, openly strange acting became popular also years later. I like "HUH" ("HODM") because it works, it looks cool and timeless and the movie is overall unforgettable. Like its one its influence, "Zabriskie Point", "HUH" is panned by critics from premiere but has remained cult classic anyway.

'Dead Mountaineer's Hotel' still remains basically only Estonian science fiction film in the truest sense. Police inspector arrives into remote mountain hotel to investigate anonymous tip where he discovers that it was false alarm. After the avalanche cuts the hotel, and all it's inhabitants from the outer world, the strange things start to occur. Doppelgangers, terrorists, aliens, androids, and flirtatious sultry women.

Wonderful cinematography of snowy mountains under bright sun against dark interior of the hotel that leaves feeling that it's as cold inside the hotel as it is outside, and intensifies the claustrophobic atmosphere of the hotel. Inspector Glebsky grows more and more desperate and paranoid when he tries to solve the crimes only relying on his common sense, logic and skepticism that lead to unfortunate tragic events leaving audience falter who was the real villain. The name of the hotel 'Dead Mountaineer' is explained briefly (and quite satisfactory), but it also leaves nice eerie mystery floating around - who was that enigmatic 'dead mountaineer' whose dog still sleeps under his bleak portrait hanging on the wall. Sven Grünberg's fantastic synthesizer score adds another layer of mystery and anticipation. The song 'Ball' has a lyrics, but they don't make sense because it's only gibberish - and when we see aliens dance to this song hypnotically it's almost like they understand it (although real reason why the song didn't had any proper words was the Soviet regulation of the time demanding the lyrics of the song to be translated into Russian when released in Russia - Grünberg didn't like the idea of translating his lyrics so he invented the gibberish for the song.).

I basically hate sci-fi, but I was still fascinated by the design of lighting and shadows in this film. The high-key, high-contrast exterior of the snowy mountains acts obviously opposite to the low-key, low-contrast interior of the hotel. The lighting of the interior scenes can be described as "dazzling," not dazzling brightness, but dazzling colour and weirdness. The director seemed to deliberately avoid any establishing shots; thus, the audience would still be confused about the internal structure of the hotel until the end of the film.

There are the typical blinds of film noir, but they don't cast the classic shadow of the blinds onto the characters, despite the shadows from other frames and obstacles being abundant in this film. Also, there is a noir-style narration of the protagonist throughout the film. The narration begins in the past tense of memories, while slowly turning into the immersive present tense. After arriving at the hotel, the protagonist enters his room for the first time, and there are several typical splitting reflections of him in mirrors, which craftily foreshadow that he would be the one who will eventually encounter a dilemma, morally.

The film ends with the protagonist questioning himself against the fourth wall - should individuals within the institution and authorities carry out duties diligently, or should they hold their sympathy high for the objects?

Second viewing. An important sci-fi film written by the authors of Tarkovsky's "Stalker" with Juri Jarvet, who starred in Tarkovsky's "Solaris" soon after his superb performance in Kozintsev's "King Lear." But in this film, it is actor Uldis Pucitis who is most impressive as the Police inspector. Important film for fans of Jarvet, the Strugatsky brothers' writings and sci-fi films

Film is based on the novel by Strugatsky brothers. Police inspector is called to a mountain hotel, but there's no crime. When snow avalanche blocks hotel from the rest of the world, strange things start to happen.. Brilliant soundtrack from Sven Grünberg.