One of the very popular German genre in the 1920s of “mountain films,” in which the mountains stand for a kind of noble purity that elevates those who climb the highest peaks as beings beyond common humanity. Very German – the love of nature, the fascistic-religious exaltation of nature. The young Leni Riefenstahl, no slim chick, adds sex to the mix as she plays a dancer who hooks two mountain men in a classic love triangle. One guy winds up dangling by a rope over an abyss on a dark, stormy night on the north face while his buddy and rival for Leni locks into holding that rope. A remarkably lengthy and well shot cross-country ski race is a highlight. We cannot judge silent films of this era by the standards of realism that we bring to contemporary films. This move is a precursor of today’s action films, with the ski race as a chase and those craggy shots of men on mountain peaks standing in for derring-do. Hokey, yes, but also something more. The indelible money shot is the face of the senior mountain guy holding that rope on the ledge all night long as his eyebrows freeze in place and he turns into a kind of god. If nothing else, Fanck understood what visual story telling is all about.
To imagine that this sexy dancer eventually became Hitler's favourite film maker.
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