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Great Film overall

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is an interesting film in that a sound version (in German with English subtitles) and a silent version on the same disk. Now this might seem weird today, but in the late 1920s and early 30s, many theaters were still not equipped for sound and studios made two parallel versions—one sound and one silent. I've seen this before with some other DVD releases and it's very nice that both versions were included. However, like so many of the films that were made in sound and silent versions, the sound version has mostly the same scenes with only a few sound scenes inserted—so it really plays much like the silent version—especially since the sound system they used seemed primitive and the sound seemed like it was tacked on later.The film stars the infamous Leni Riefenstahl—a woman far more famous the documentaries she directed than for the earlier films in which she starred. This is one of her earlier films when she was seen as one of Germany's preeminent actresses—and a woman whose speciality were films involving mountain climbing! I've seen about a dozen of her films and nearly ALL of them have mountains in them—and often lots and lots of ice and snow! It's an odd sort of genre but somehow Riefenstahl made it her own! Like these other films, the actress risks her life climbing about in the Alps (much of it barefooted or in sandals) and you have to respect her willingness to go all-out for this film.Riefenstahl plays Junta—a strange woman who loves climbing about in the moonlight—a task the men and boys of the alpine village cannot do. When they try, they fall to their deaths—and soon people of the town begin to talk about Junta as if she's bewitched or in league with the Devil. It doesn't help her case any that Junta is a weirdo and behaves in a rather eccentric manner. Later, when an outsider becomes fascinated with her and follows her on one of her mountain treks he learns a secret…a secret that will ultimately destroy the woman he has come to love.This film is clearly not an ordinary film. The plot is rather strange and fantastic—like a modern fairytale. The cinematography is luminous and quite beautiful (and almost like Ansel Adams pictures come to life). And, combined with the music, it's more a piece of art than a traditional film for mass consumption. If you can watch it and appreciate it on this level, then you'll no doubt enjoy this movie. If you aren't, then it will be very tough going—mostly because it is so strange and because it does not have a particularly conventional narrative.By the way, if you get a chance, see the amazing and very long documentary on Riefenstahl ("The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl"). It not only talks about this film at length but gives you a lot of facts that will help you admire AND dislike this highly unusual woman—and put it all in context.

First off, I'd like to point out that the silent and "sound" versions are the same movie (same images from start to end), except that the intertitles have been removed from the "sound" version and voices dubbed in (sorta like what they did with Chaplin's The Gold Rush in 1942, except that here the conversion works fine instead of being hellishly awful). The "sound" version has little background sound being mainly voices here and there - and there is little speaking anyway. More importantly though, on the DVD I rented, the picture quality of the silent version was atrocious while that of the "sound" version pristine. All that said this is a very simple and sweet fable, aspects of which reminded me of Picnic at Hanging Rock as well as some of Gus van Sant's latest movies. One of the best films from the early 30s.

This film was made in a sound and a silent version, as there were some theaters at the time that were still not equipped for sound. Unfortunately, it is the silent version that is being widely sold. This version is vastly inferior. The sound version is a hauntingly beautiful film. I have a sound version, but it is of poor quality and many subtitles are difficult to read. This film should be remastered. There are superb quality short excerpts from the film in The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl.

Further to my previous comment, I have now purchased and watched the video and would like to say how disappointed I was to find that so much of the original film has been lost, e.g. the shot in which the moonlight catches the crystals in the cave and the blue light shines out from Monte Cristallo. Also much of the material seems to have faded. In one scene only the body and collar of Martha Mair are visible - she appears totally headless. As for the music now underlaid, I can only comment on the first few minutes which are totally unsuitable material. After that, I turned the sound down and watched in silence. What a shame.