La Montagne sacrée

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")

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.

A pioneering 'berg' film from the silent days of German cinema starring Leni Riefenstahl, later made famous or infamous as the documenter of Nazi Germany in 'Triumph of the Will' (the 34 Nuremburg rally) and 'Olympiad' (the 36 Olympics). This was her first acting film and she does a lot of dancing (quite good) and some over-acting, (quite bad) waving her arms in the air and rolling her eyes, taking her cue from Mae Marsh, no doubt.

The eternal triangle story is so simple I still can't believe Fanck took 1¾ hours to tell it. However to give him his due a lot of the film is taken up by scenery shots some of which are quite spectacular. A downhill ski race is also a feature although Fanck clearly plays fast and loose with times and locations so don't expect anything to make a whole lot of sense during this section. If they had had continuity girls at that time this one would have been looking for another job in real short order.

The climax of the film comes when 'The Mountaineer' sees his fiancée (Riefenstahl) being groped by some man. He is furious but in true public school style attempts to sublimate his anger in a daring mountain climb much like Riefenstahl sublimated her excessive emotion in a dance earlier in the film. (Quite clearly at the time violent exercise and a cold shower in the morning was thought to be a cure for everything.) Half way up they have stopped for a rest on a narrow ledge when a chance remark by Vigo, the companion, makes 'the mountaineer; realise that it was the guy he is now roped to who was groping his fiancée. He is so furious that forgetting the floor space is somewhat restricted he makes a threatening gesture towards Vigo who instinctively steps back and …..whoops! (An earlier comment on this site stated that he planned to murder Vigo but Fanck makes it clear that he did not, it was an accident.)

An interesting comparison can be made between Fanck's movie and the recent mountaineering drama documentary 'Touching the Void' in which fact virtually duplicates the fiction of 'Holy Mountain'. Watching the two in close proximity is very illuminating for the ethos of both films. I think the earlier movie has the edge when it comes to cinematography despite the fact that fixed camera position is the rule though I expect in some of the locations even actors' movements must have been a problem. The shooting of the film itself was plagued by weather problems, ice kept melting, snow turned to slush and the whole project was nearly thrown out by UFA. This is not a great movie but, especially with the comparison with 'Touching the Void', it is a fascinating movie from a historical perspective as well as worth watching in its own right if you are a fan of silent movies.

the first thing i have to mention is the transfer of the film. usually physical film quality is not of primary importance to me - but if (as in this case) there are a disturbing number of frames missing, your viewing pleasure is seriously impaired. here barely one minute goes by that the continuity within the same shot doesn't jump. having said that - the transfer is somewhat recent, restored and licensed from the murnau-stiftung, so i guess it has to be the best version available (i own the eureka edition). now ... the film is certainly not a masterpiece, but the sports scenes still can excite. so can the mountain and nature photography, which is rather splendidly done (they didn't even shy away from pointing the camera straight into the sun - something one doesn't see too often in movies). and this was about all the good there is for me. starting with the awful German text plates - in which even the basics of human behavior (of the characters) are displayed as requiring superhuman efforts/emotions ... the subconscious prelude to war i guess. the English subtitles thankfully use much better language - quite elegant in that too. also there is no humor in the film. one might smile about the idiotic script every now and then (nowadays), but this was certainly no intention back when it was filmed. conclusion: if you like silent movies, winter sports and history it might be worth a look, but not much else is there to be found.

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.