La Montagne sacrée

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/

Director/Script: Arnold Fank, Cast: Leni Riefenstahl, Luis Trenker, Ernst Petersen.

Arnold Fank was known for "mountain films" during the German silent era. This is considered to be his most famous. This film is basically a mellow drama. It is the mountaineering, skiing and dancing that make this film so interesting to watch. It centers around this beautiful dancer named Diotima (played by Leni Riefenstahl) and two men that fall for her, a mountain climber named Karl (played by Luis Trenker)and a ski champ named Vigo (played by Ernst Petersen). Karl and Diotima develop a relationship, Karl leaves to go on a mountain climb. During this time she meets Vigo at a ski competition and develops a friendship with him. Karl comes back from his expedition to find Diotima with Vigo and he become very jealous of Vigo. He offers to take him on a climb up the north face of a mountain during the time of the season when it is considered dangerous to do so because he wants to do harm to his friend. Vigo reluctantly offers to go because of the climbing conditions. Anyhow, they climb the mountain together, they get up on a high ledge and Karl pushes him off the ledge but ends up trying to save him because they are roped together. They are stuck up there for a long period of time in harsh conditions. At some point Vigo can't take hanging on the ledge any longer and asks Karl to cut the rope and save himself. Karl refuses to do this. I will not say what happens to them.

This film could be enjoyed by anyone who likes classic cinema and silent films and is a great film to have for anyone who is into skiing or mountaineering. The mountain photography is very good. The film is colour tinted mostly in blue and golden hues. Many of Leni's dancing scenes are shown with her silhouetted as are many of the climbing scenes with the colour tinted background. Their is a ski-jump competition scene that is very cool to watch. The ski race is also impressive and it takes up much of the film.

Leni Riefenstahl become a director in her own right. Evidently Hitler was impressed by her work and asked her to make Nazi propaganda films for him and she did. This all but ruined her career. I do not know if she actually shared those views but I have read that she regretted being associated with those films. She lived a long time, dieing just a few years ago. She made her last film just a year or two before she died.This was her first film in over forty years.

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.

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.