Das blaue Licht (1932)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Directors:

Béla Balázs
Leni Riefenstahl

Writers:

Béla Balázs (writer)
Leni Riefenstahl (story)

Release Date:

8 May 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Mystery

Plot:

Junta is hated by the people in the village where she lives, especially by the women, who suspect her of being a witch...

Plot Keywords:

Mountain | Mythological | Rock Climbing | Climbing | Expressionism

Cast

Leni Riefenstahl	...	Junta
Mathias Wieman	...	Vigo
Beni Führer	...	Tonio
Max Holzboer	...	Innkeeper
Martha Mair	...	Lucia
Franz Maldacea	...	Guzzi

Also Known As:

The Blue Light (USA)

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German | Italian

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Foroglio, Val Maggia, Canton Ticino, Switzerland

Company:

Leni Riefenstahl-Produktion

Trivia:

This was a groundbreaking film at the time. It was a sound film shot all on location high in the mountains. Real mountain people were used as supporting players.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

Simple and sweet

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.