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Simply Perfect

One of my all time favorites.

Absolutely Fantastic

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Some superb cinematography is the only thing that saves this fairly turgid melodrama from being completely ordinary. Given the stunning scenery featured here it would be difficult for even the most workmanlike of cinematographers to come away without some spectacular shots, but in the hands of a veritable army of credited cinematographers we are left with a succession of images that will remain in the memory long after other details of the film have been forgotten.Leni Riefenstahl, who would later become notorious for directing Nazi propaganda films for Hitler, plays the heroine, a dancer who falls in love with a dashing skier. The skier's young friend, also dashing but in a less mature way, also falls for her and both men mistakenly believe the young man's love is reciprocated – a misunderstanding that leads to tragedy.When she's called upon to emote, Riefenstahl overacts horrendously, flinging her arms into the air, half-swooning against any nearby piece of furniture or wall, and hysterically biting her hands when she's not throwing her head into them. She really is shocking and, given everyone else's more naturalistic style, she ends up coming across as a highly-strung diva who's misplaced her happy pills, which I don't believe is what the director is looking for.Anyway, it's nature, and not Riefenstahl, who is the real star. The film heavily symbolises the links her character (the sea) and her lover (the stone) share with nature, scenes of which the camera seems to gorge itself on, suggesting a reverence that lends the most natural of phenomenon an almost mythical quality. The director juxtaposes the vast open spaces of the mountains and the sea with extreme close-ups of the principal's faces to offer an insight into their emotions and emphasise the disparities that will drive them apart.And if you happen to catch this film, bear in mind – as the film beseeches you to – that there is no trick photography in use here: that man really is peering over the edge of a sheer cliff with the front of his skis in mid-air, and the cameraman really is hurtling down the ski-slopes with his subjects as he captures how it feels to take part in a rugged ski race. Forget the dreary romance, these scenes – and the breathtaking shots in which we see climbers pinned to mountains at the far left of the picture and silhouetted against a vast sky - are the moments that breathe life into this film.

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.

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.

German filmmaker Arnold Fanck single-handedly invented an entire movie genre: the mountain film. This refers not to mountain-climbing movies in general, but to a specific type of movie in an Alpine setting. A 'mountain film' depicts the experiences of an athletic young Aryan man, high in the mountains, where he communes with nature and meets a beautiful blonde woman who somehow embodies both the Aryan physical ideal and the German countryside itself. Their relationship is erotic, yet has semi-mystical aspects bordering on a religious epiphany. The man learns much about himself. Sometimes (as happens here in 'Der Heilige Berg') a mountain film has two male protagonists, both athletic, who develop a rivalry over the blonde fraulein.Although Fanck invented and embodied the mountain-film genre, in the same way that Alfred Hitchcock defined the suspense film and Busby Berkeley defined the Depression-era musical, Fanck was by no means the only 'mountain-film' director. Movies in this genre have been made by directors as disparate as Hitchcock ('The Mountain Eagle') and Fred Zinnemann ('Five Days One Summer').'Der Heilige Berg' ('The Holy Mountain') features Louis Trenker as Karl, a downhill skier who loves a beautiful dancer named Diotina. (Played by Leni Riefenstahl, who is so sexy here that I can well believe that Hitler had the hots for her.) Alles ist wunderbar for Karl and his little schnitzel, until along comes the slightly younger and handsomer Vigo, played by Ernst Petersen. A triangle develops between these three. Karl decides to eliminate his rival, so with German cunning he invites Vigo to join him in a climb up the nearest Alp. At the top of the Alp, Karl pushes Vigo over a precipice... then he suddenly remembers that he and Vigo are roped together. Oops! This scene reminded me of the climax of Erich von Stroheim's 'Greed', in which one man kills another man in the middle of Death Valley, then discovers that he's handcuffed to the corpse. The difference is that in 'Greed' the two men became shackled together at the last moment, whereas (in this piece of krautwurst) Karl and Vigo were roped together before Karl gave Vigo the heave-ho, so his actions are extremely ludicrous.Anyway, in order to save himself, Karl must rescue the dangling Vigo, and the dangling plotline ... and in the process he makes a few self-discoveries.As is typical of an Arnold Fanck film, there are some exciting skiing sequences, and some splendid footage of a skiing competition. Leni Riefenstahl is photographed to excellent advantage, with some fine backlighting in her blonde hair while she flexes her gorgeous physique, but she overacts very badly here. I'll rate this movie 6 out of 10.