Der heilige Berg

A remarkable film with beautiful images at times following each other in quick succession. The Blu-ray image and the colour tints help but whether it is the sea, the clouds or the mountains and snow, this is a wondrously poetic experience. The appearance here of Leni Riefenstahl as the dancer and love object for the two male climbers is what brings the film its controversy but there is no doubt her free style dancing is a joy to watch. Here it is likely she was influenced by the Californian born Isadora Duncan but whereas the American stuck to dancing, the young German would, of course, get into her own style of film making. Initially she concentrated on the 'mountain film' genre but, let us say, drifted into more controversial areas. Nevertheless this Arnold Fanck epic (partly, it is said, assisted by Riefenstahl, with he too is said to have become besotted) is a stunning piece of work and particularly impressive when it is considered how difficult it must have been to carry and work with those early cameras at those heights and in that snow. Marvellous and unique experience.

The simple storyline is about Diotima, an inspirational dancer played by Leni Riefenstahl, and her love story with Karl, a tough mountain lover who, in the best German romantic tradition, finds the Absolute climbing the highest peaks. The greatness of the movie is in the winter mountain scenery and in the filming of ski competitions. Some of the filming was done in Upper Engadin, in Sils-Maria, a small Swiss village about 6 miles west of St. Moritz. In one scene it is clearly recognizable the Mount Margna and in a few others, the village of Sils-Maria is visible with the Hotel Alpenrose and the Chesa Zuan (both are still standing and look remarkably similar). Some other filming is probably from the nearby Val Fex, and there is also a beautiful view of the Silsersee with Maloja visible in the distance.

Considering the limited technical support available for winter alpine filming in 1926, it is remarkable that the photography is mostly crisp and engaging, and that it shows the peculiar light quality of Upper Engadin.

Riefenstahl's acting is fantastic but inevitably dated. She is expressive and intense, with a bit of influence from Weimar Expressionism. She outclasses all other actors, who appear unidimensional.

A movie strongly recommended, if only for the incredible quality of alpine photography and for the timeless Riefenstahl performance.

After a scene in Herr Wilhelm Prager's "Wege Zu Kraft Und Schönheit" (1925), "Der Heiliger Berg" was the first film of Dame Leni Riefenstahl as a lead actress. It was a film written exclusively for her by Herr Arnold Fanck according to Dame Riefenstahl memoirs, a book that includes other partial and conceited memories… from a time in the mid-20s when she was a famous dancer.

The film includes a prologue in where we can see Dame Riefenstahl dancing or something like that, well… knowing that Germans, even the aristocrats, had a particular sense of rhythm more suited to military parades with plenty of goose steps, you will be able to understand the reason why Dame Riefenstahl was a famous dancer during the Weimar era.

Herr Arnold Fanck, as a director was noted as the creator of one of the most successful and peculiar German film genres: the mountain films. (Actually, Herr Fanck was a famous director at that time thanks to mountain documentaries; "Der Heilige Berg" was his first film that includes a plot). In these films nature and its consequences are always centred on the lead character of these beautiful films with their superb cinematography and vigorous editing. Men and women have to fight against the savage elements in what it is finally an unequal and difficult battle. That's the most important aspect of the film, those incredible beautiful nature shots because Dame Riefenstahl as a dancer/actress or Herr Trenker (the male lead actor) as an actor are not very impressive, or…in the strict German sense, they are depressive.

"Der Heilige Berg" shows different nature's conditions and contradictions. In the first part of the film, our heroine, Diotima the dancer, is immersed in bucolic, idealized and calm mountain landscapes full of flowers, shepherds, people skiing and all that kind of strange things. In the second part of the film the beautiful mountain landscapes will transform to a dangerous and inaccessible place in which the snowfalls and avalanches will prevent the rescue of two of Diotima's lovers who are isolated at the mountaintops. In many occasions during the film, some scenes are prolonged unnecessarily due to the excessive emphasis on mountain scenery that Herr Fanck wanted; duplicate shots diminish the film's action in a Herr Trenker oeuvre whose inner intention is to be a tribute to nature and the Teutonic mountains.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must to climb the aristocratic ladder.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

I finally had the stamina to get past the first ten minutes of "The Holy Mountain" (original title: "Der Heilige Berg") (1926), whose first ten minutes were, for me, so artsyphartsy (with the exception of the exceptional photography which was mesmerizing!) that it took the third try over a four day period to progress. The first ten minutes or so actually is entitled "Prologue". Starring Leni Riefenstahl, Luis Trenker, Ernst Petersen, and three other minor characters, plus a lot of participants in village scenes and ski race scenes, though these are the actors, the humans who make the story go - - - the genuine star of this film is the incredible photography of cinematographers Sepp Algeier, Albert Benitz, Helmar Lerski, and Hans Schneeberger. The story is wrapped in a literary framework exploring the supremacy of Nature, the nature of Supreme Beauty, and the fact that some humans, though they might embrace one of those two as supreme beliefs, nevertheless are wired as all humans to have nearly incomprehensible, inexorable, and overwhelming emotional reactions to human love. In other words, by the end, forget philosophy, all humans are animals that behave with instincts, emotions, and desires difficult to overcome and channel into one simple philosophical way of living. The two men, Trenker and Petersen, both fall for the same girl, Riefenstahl - who, not conveniently at all, falls for both men, though in one scene near the end we see her say, "Vigo (Petersen) is just a child", the implication being that she'll settle for Trenker...and we as viewers are going, "Really?"

The story gets going after the first ten minutes. It develops very nicely; but after a half hour or so, it revs up in skiing scenes to a hot point. THEN, it really gets moving. The ski scenes are wonderfully done, but, again, it's the cinematography that is riveting, not necessarily the story. THEN, THEN...the story for about just short of an hour till end is heart-racing and a thriller. Extremely well done at this point, the human story is ever as gripping as the photography. Finally, the direction under Arnold Fanck and Leni Riefenstahl herself has immersed itself in its job of storytelling, still wrapped in beautiful photography, but minus the artsyphartsy goo that's been cramping the film's style.

This is the first of Riefenstahl and Fanck's supposed "mountain" films. In its own way it's a masterpiece, but I must tell you - for me, it was a challenge to get into this thing. I'm very glad I did, because the ensuing tragedy is Shakespearean, if not Sophoclean - with a caveat... The very ending - a small group of intertitles - is a great let-down, in my opinion, because the fact that Fanck makes the story suddenly ONLY about loyalty sounds a good deal like a call to personal nature needing to be politically sacrosanct to all things in life - a loyalty to what all humans must believe, in loyalty. Well, loyalty to what? I believe the film in its overall telling ends on a vague note about the issue. We've seen a sort of loyalty suddenly unleashed in trying to save the life of the best friend Trenker has, where just beforehand he'd betrayed him by taking that best friend up the dangerous face of a mountain during a horrific storm - this, to see if he'll make it or not - jealousy being the motive. But the intertitles at the end aren't referencing that segment of the film necessarily, but seem to imply a bigger, perhaps, political message. I saw a very ambiguous take-away when I finished watching.

The "friends" and their love, Leni, may have to answer to a higher power when they get past the veil - based on story in the film.

This is a Kino Video release from 2002.

The dancer Diotima (Leni Riefenstahl) meets the engineer and skier Karl (Luis Trenker) in his cottage in the mountains and they fall in love for each other and have a love affair. When Karl's young friend Vigo (Ernst Petersen) meets the dancer after a presentation and she gives her scarf with a smile to him, the infatuated Vigo mistakenly believes she is in love with him. Karl sees Diotima innocently caressing Vigo and he believes that Diotima is betraying him with his friend. Karl decides to commit suicide and invites Vigo to climb the dreadful Santo Mountain North face during the winter thaw with him. His best friend joins Karl in a tragic journey.

"Der Heilige Berg" is a melodramatic and tragic story of a triangle of love among a dancer that loves the sea; a skilled skier and engineer that loves the rock; and his young friend that loves the dancer. The plot is absolutely naive in 2010, but after all this is a 1926 film when the society had other moral concepts. The infamous Leni Riefenstahl, who directed the Third Reich's propaganda for Hitler one decade later, performs the dancer and pivot of the tragedy. Her dance is weird and clumsy but this is a silent movie and the viewer never knows what she was listening while dancing. If the romance is not interesting in the present days, the cinematography and the camera work are stunning considering the size, weight and technical resources of the equipment in this period. All shots outdoor were actually made in the mountains, including the ski race and the scene on the cliff, in the most beautiful parts of the Alps over the course of one and half years. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Montanha Sagrada" ("The Holy Mountain")