Mit dem Motorrad über die Wolken

Quite a whimsical title, translated as "A Motorcycle Trip Among the Clouds," for what amounts to a feature-length travelogue for the Dolomites of the Alps mountain range and a motorbike advertisement. Despite some rough, off-road terrain in its later parts, there's nary a dramatic obstacle to be seen here. It was photographer and sport enthusiast Lothar Rübelt's only film, and I wonder how much it could've been improved had he not only dedicated it to his late brother, who died in a motorcycle accident, but narratively made the picture about honoring him, too. As is, the closest thing to tension here is the mystery of what happens to the woman who was riding on the back of one of Rübelt or the other's guy's bike. One night she's there, but the next day, after an animated demonstration of the rougher roads to come, she's gone. Where'd she go? Was there an explanation in the film that is now lost? I don't know. Also, no helmets.

On the other hand, this is gorgeous. If you like watching people driving along cloudy mountains and sometimes watching them stop to also gawk at those cloudy mountains, then this is your film. There's some lovely tinting and nighttime photography, as well. Were there an Academy Awards in 1926 and had they given them to foreign films back then instead of focusing on the original mission of union busting, then this film, with a Franz Sochor--yeah, I've never heard of him, either--behind the camera, very well might've deserved a nomination, and where upon I would imagine its reliance on natural scenery would lose out to the same year's "Faust," "Flesh and the Devil," or something.