Stürme über dem Mont Blanc

A few years before Leni Riefenstahl became a card-carrying member of the 'I Love Hiter Fan Club', this German actress, aviatrix and director carved out a bizarre little niche for herself. Although she only acted in less than a dozen films, I can easily think of four in which the film was set in the frozen wilds! "SOS Iceberg", "The White Hell of Pitz Palu", "White Ecstasy" and "Avalanche" all starred Riefenstahl--and she made them one after the other!

"Avalanche" (also known "Storm Over Mont Blanc") begins in the Alps with some lovely shots. However, some of the footage also looks like it's stock footage and shot using silent stock, as the speed is too fast (a common problem in the early sound era, as silent film is projected at a speed slightly slower than sound--and when the two are combined, the silent shots appear to be moving too quickly). Despite this problem, the film is quite lovely a few of the shots are amazing--and you have to admire the film crew's persistence in getting these difficult shots in the snow on top of a mountain! There is another problem with this footage, however, and it's much more serious. It seemed as if the film makers were on holiday and filmed a lot of unimportant stuff that didn't further the story at all. Wanting to get the most of their holiday snaps, they decided to put ALL of it in the film. It made the film look padded and cheap--which is a shame, as SOME of the footage was great. It also didn't seem to have any plot for the longest time--and what plot it had was quite tenuous! Plus, some of the sound (in particular the engine of the airplane) sounded bizarre and dominated the shots in which it appeared. It was very obviously and clumsily added later. You'd think the folks at AAFA-Film would have done better, as the German film industry was among the world's best during the silent era. Here, they clearly were making a second-rate film.

Overall, the film is hardly worth your time--and I rarely say things like this. It just isn't well made and has little traditional narrative. Plus, some of Riefenstahl's later snow films were very, very good...but not this one. In so many ways this film IS "SOS Iceberg" when it comes to the plot--though this latter film is so much better. You can, however, admire some of the camera work--as some of the shots are amazingly artistic. At least in this sense the film is a success.

Really wanted to like 'Storm Over Mont Blanc'. While Arnold Fanck is not one of my favourite directors, when it comes to films set in the mountains and his capturing of alpine scenery he was one of the best at the time. Have liked some of Leni Riefenstahl's other work, both as actress and director, her personal life makes no difference to me and have always judged the person and the artist separately. 'Storm Over Mont Blanc' did sound quite interesting.

Quite a lot more interesting in the concept than the actual execution of the overall film. Which had its moments/good things, but struck me as rather lacklustre which was somewhat disappointing. Fanck did do much better ('White Hell of Pitz Palu' for instance, although that did have GW Pabst's involvement too) than 'Storm Over Mont Blanc', and so did Riefenstahl (not one of her worst performances, but one of her worst films in my view).

'Storm Over Mont Blanc' is not all bad. The best things about it are the photography and scenery. The photography is stylish and atmospheric, quite artistic in places too without being too indulgent. The long lingering shots of mountain peaks were eye-catching. Although some might find the use of it on the stock side, the alpine scenery is still quite stunning and has a lot of character.

Also thought that Riefenstahl came over quite well. She is luminous and her performance is committed and doesn't hold back while resisting any temptation to go camp. The aerial sequences are beautifully shot and have the wonder that wasn't there in the drama of the story.

Much of the story to me was very bland and to call it thin as ice is being kind. A lot of the film felt plotless and doesn't really go anywhere and almost like a series of travelogue scenes. The pace is dull and what would have helped it was if the extraneous fat (and there is a lot of it here) was trimmed and if any overlong scenes (some of those too) were tightened up.

Fanck succeeds visually and technically when it comes to the direction but dramatically he fails to give the drama any tension or emotional impact. Aside from Riefenstahl, the acting is nothing special and the character writing is basically of the "just there but not much more than that with not enough development" sort. Inexperience in sound does show at times, with some oddly placed sound effects and while mostly the film looks fine the editing at times lacks finesse and has a slapped together look.

Concluding, semi-watchable but left me rather lukewarm at best. 4/10

Sturme uber dem Mont Blanc

Hella Armstrong (Leni Riefenstahl) is introduced to a rugged recluse meteorologist, Hannes (Sepp Rist), who lives alone at the top of a mountain. Both Hannes and his friend, pilot Ernst Udet (as himself), are vying for Hella. Hannes who thinks he has lost, unknown to Hella, forgoes his vacation form the cabin to find himself caught in a storm without gloves. Moreover, things are about to get worse. Will Hella find out in time to save him? Is Ernst still his friend and be able to fly to his aid? Or will this end with a Hannes-cycle?

At first, I thought that this film was not too sophisticated even for the time with its stilted dialog and frivolous story. Later in the film, the story started to come together to be more intriguing. And when the storm struck it became downright fascinating.

The stars of the film are the mountains and the clouds (shot in elapsed time.) This is one of the earliest of the series of German Mountain Movies. While Leni Riefenstahl was acting in this film, she learned the fundamentals of filming techniques that she expanded on in the films that she directed.

The version I watched has the option of English subtitles, which helped when Leni mumbled. However, occasionally you could hear the words, and the subtitles were a very loose paraphrase.

Now get the skinny on Leni in Die Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl (1993).

A few years before Leni Riefenstahl infamously filmed "Triumph of the Will", she starred in this early action flick, portraying a woman going up Mont Blanc to rescue a friend trapped by a snowstorm. When you look at how people hiked over those mountains, it starts looking like they were crazy or something; I mean, what kind of person walks that close to a crevasse?! But no matter, "Sturme uber dem Mont Blanc" is still a pretty interesting movie. I seem to recall that I heard something about Hitler seeing Ms. Riefenstahl in these sorts of movies and growing to admire her, and thus he decided that she would be the perfect person to film his propaganda documentary. Weird how these things work out.