Der heilige Berg (1926)

Director:

Arnold Fanck

Writer:

Arnold Fanck (writer)

Release Date:

November 1926 (Austria)

Genre:

Drama

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Leni Riefenstahl	...	Diotima
Luis Trenker	...	Karl
Ernst Petersen	...	Vigo
Frida Richard	...	Mother
Friedrich Schneider	...	Colli
Hannes Schneider	...	Mountain Guide

Also Known As:

The Holy Mountain
The Sacred Mountain

Runtime:

Denmark:100 min | 106 min (2001 restored version)

Country:

Germany

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Atelier Staaken, Berlin, Germany

Company:

Berg- und Sportfilm

Trivia:

The Ice Palace was 16 meters high and it took 4 weeks to build. Because the shootings where delayed and the temperature increased, it started melting and it had to be rebuilt again when the weather was cold enough to maintain it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

A Tribute To Nature And The Teutonic Mountains

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/