Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
|
Reviews
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Difficult film to review,
By
This review is from: The Holy Mountain - Masters of Cinema series [DVD] (DVD)
I have to confess, this is an extraordinarily difficult film and DVD combination to review and rate. In the first place, it is undoubtedly a classic of the silent cinema, and warrants five stars on that basis. Director Arnold Fanck made an early name for himself promoting the healthy and invigorating life of mountaineering and skiing. He pioneered new techniques, not simply in overcoming the technological difficulties of filming at altitude, in intense cold, and in the white of thick snow, but he also filmed dynamically - he doesn't offer static calendar shots of mountains, he fills each frame with movement, plays with lighting and slow motion, makes the picture come alive with rushing water, cascading snow, and the vitality of the human actors climbing and skiing.In "The Holy Mountain" ("Der heilige Berg"), Fanck introduces Leni Riefenstahl in her first starring role. She had been a successful dancer until a knee injury ended that career. Fanck, here, uses her dancing as the opening and the theme for his film - two mountaineers fall in love with her and compete for her hand. Riefenstahl, of course, would go on to become famous for her own film making, celebrating the early triumphs of the Nazi regime, and winning many directorial plaudits. "The Holy Mountain", indeed, is highly stylised in its presentation of characters and action. There is much which could be described as National Socialist Realism in its portrayal of its characters - proud, Aryan actors, posing heroically, caught in roles which emphasise their strength, health, courage, and vitality. The picturing of the countryside and nature again offers up this sort of symbolism, glorifying the role of Germanic peoples. Stylistically, it's very dated. Technically, the filming is superb. Fanck does not appear to have been a supporter of the Nazis - he was a geologist by training, he climbed, he skied, and he made films about his passion. His early filming of ski jumping and downhill racing is a singular technical and artistic achievement. "The Holy Mountain" is beautifully shot - for its time the mountain and ice scenes are outstanding - with the camera flirting with 'natural' images of sea, mountain torrents, sheep in the fields, wild flowers blossoming, etc. But it gets a bit tedious. The narrative romance is, frankly, boring - it is melodramatic, and it shows its age. The subtitles, meanwhile, are a bit twee, the music grates - twenty minutes in and you do want to shot the piano player. There are excellent extras - not least a film looking at the highs and lows of Leni Riefenstahl's career. It's a substantial package, and for anyone interested in the history of film-making, particularly in silent movies or the German cinema of the inter-war years, this is essential viewing. "The Silent Mountain" is undoubtedly a classic, and this is an excellent transfer of the film to DVD, the black and white images appearing crisp and the vitality of the original production being captured faithfully. But it's not a film which is going to hold the attention of anything but a very specialised audience. Very interesting, definitely worth watching if you're a keen cinema fan, but!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Its world premier on December 17, 1926,
By
This review is from: Holy Mountain [DVD] [2026] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] (DVD)
Two Nitrate Copies Served as the basis for this reconstruction: one color tinted elements for the Bundesarchive/Filmarchive, Berlin, and one in black and white from Fondazion Ceneteca Italiana, Milan.
All the shots taken outdoors were actually made in the Alps over the course of six years. This is the story of a girl dancer from the Grand Hôtel Diotima (Leni Riefenstahl) loves nature and the sea "she seems almost holy!" She is lured to the mountains by Karl (Luis Trenker) and his young buddy Vigo (Ernst Petersen). Karl plans to marry Diotima and is shocked to find her stroking the head of a stranger. How could this happen? The there is a strange turn of events as Karl invites Vigo the do a little climbing on a dangerous mountain in bad weather. He has to get her out of his system somehow. Karl" You're my best friend. Come with me. We'll be mad together." Meantime Mother (Frida Richard) knows it all. Will Karl suspect it was Vigo that was being stroked? If so what will happen up there just the tow of them in isolation? Mother confronts Diotima, "Was one man not enough for you?" This is one of Lini's mountain series of films. Notice that the mountains and the clouds (shot in elapse time) are not filler or backdrop, but the main character in the film. Storm Over Mont Blanc
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Awakening of Genius?,
By Doris (Leeds, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Holy Mountain - Masters of Cinema series [DVD] (DVD)
An interesting starting point (excluding her long denied bare-breasted very minor part in an earlier film) for an exploration of LR's career in films/filming. Certain sections seem to foreshadow those found in her own later productions. e.g. dream sequence with "olympic" bowl & torchlight skiers' procession. Are these just co-incidence?
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
