MartinHafer
This is an interesting film in that a sound version (in German with English subtitles) and a silent version on the same disk. Now this might seem weird today, but in the late 1920s and early 30s, many theaters were still not equipped for sound and studios made two parallel versions—one sound and one silent. I've seen this before with some other DVD releases and it's very nice that both versions were included. However, like so many of the films that were made in sound and silent versions, the sound version has mostly the same scenes with only a few sound scenes inserted—so it really plays much like the silent version—especially since the sound system they used seemed primitive and the sound seemed like it was tacked on later.The film stars the infamous Leni Riefenstahl—a woman far more famous the documentaries she directed than for the earlier films in which she starred. This is one of her earlier films when she was seen as one of Germany's preeminent actresses—and a woman whose speciality were films involving mountain climbing! I've seen about a dozen of her films and nearly ALL of them have mountains in them—and often lots and lots of ice and snow! It's an odd sort of genre but somehow Riefenstahl made it her own! Like these other films, the actress risks her life climbing about in the Alps (much of it barefooted or in sandals) and you have to respect her willingness to go all-out for this film.Riefenstahl plays Junta—a strange woman who loves climbing about in the moonlight—a task the men and boys of the alpine village cannot do. When they try, they fall to their deaths—and soon people of the town begin to talk about Junta as if she's bewitched or in league with the Devil. It doesn't help her case any that Junta is a weirdo and behaves in a rather eccentric manner. Later, when an outsider becomes fascinated with her and follows her on one of her mountain treks he learns a secret…a secret that will ultimately destroy the woman he has come to love.This film is clearly not an ordinary film. The plot is rather strange and fantastic—like a modern fairytale. The cinematography is luminous and quite beautiful (and almost like Ansel Adams pictures come to life). And, combined with the music, it's more a piece of art than a traditional film for mass consumption. If you can watch it and appreciate it on this level, then you'll no doubt enjoy this movie. If you aren't, then it will be very tough going—mostly because it is so strange and because it does not have a particularly conventional narrative.By the way, if you get a chance, see the amazing and very long documentary on Riefenstahl ("The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl"). It not only talks about this film at length but gives you a lot of facts that will help you admire AND dislike this highly unusual woman—and put it all in context.
RResende
How astonishing can it be to see how a fictional story can metaphorically translate the life of someone? Even more when it is that very person the one who invents the story of her destiny? This film has to be the answer.Here we have a genius of composition and visual rhythm, in her first attempt, which guesses everything that would come.What would this goddess (in several meanings) be thinking, when she embraced this adventure? Lenni was a student of the human body, and therefore, of her own. Student of the Hellenic harmonic dynamics, who understood the power of movement, applied to cinema. She understood it so well she would pay for her whole life for that. In this film she is, simultaneously, observer and observed object. She, the body, is one of the reasons for this film to be. At the same time, we have a story about a "special" woman. She is special because she has access to a secret, she knows a path. That secret has a geographical identity, there is a division between sacred and mundane, mountain and city. The preciousness, surrounded by an aura of inaccessibility, to reach it is a privilege of beauty, of commitment and in the end, of love. And Lenni is at the centre of that sacredness, and there at the moment when it breaks. And she is doomed to be rejected forever for keeping such a secret. That's Junta, as it is Lenni. That's the prophecy, this story, written by Riefenstahl, which is a story even inside the film, a book with her photo on the cover! This woman changed more than the history of cinema, she did more than to enlarge the possibilities of visual contemplation and, consequently, beauty concepts. In her coursed work (coursed because it is good!) she helped to change the face of the world, having her as the ambiguous element, always. In this film we have her, linking the sacred mountain and the city, linking two worlds. Now check the geography of the place. The mountain, the power of its various sequences, the strength of that geographical object. The woman, climbing the mountain, the power of contrast. Junta, under the effect of the full moon, exhales sensuality, which works still today (when we are totally addicted to images that aim at sensuality). It works because it's genuine, a woman who is more that it seems. Note how the sweater reveals the shoulder, a provocation no doubt, a desire to place the body at the centre, and to enhance Man in relation with Nature.In this metaphorical mythology, Germanic and Nordic, see how the symbols are materialized, and shot. The composition of the shots of mountain climbing and specially, of Vigo getting into the sacred crystal area is genius, the set of a potential Valhala, and the expression of Junta as she finds out about the intrusion reveals everything.This film still obeys too much to the codes of silent film. I saw the sound version, but apparently there is a silent one, since in those days the transition was still being made. Anyway, the sound in this film is uncomfortably placed, and dialogue does little more than directly replace the inter titles of the silent. And the montage still doesn't exist with the supreme sense that Lenni would give it, years later, and that affects rhythm, because the work of the montage masters (Eisenstein, Kalatzov, Vertov...) totally depends on the rhythm images themselves can give, for what happens inside every shot, and for the cut between shots. That dynamic does not exist here, and the codes are dated, and i suppose they might already be dated than. But Riefenstahl is body, face, she is expression. She is movement, dynamic, rhythm. But is all that both as an observer, sensitive and visual, and as an interpreter, sensual (sexual!) and intense. That's her genius, here.My opinion: 4/5 see this, several times.http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com
