Der Heilige Berg (1926)
Directed by Arnold Fanck

Film Review

Der Heilige Berg is one of the most visually alluring films made in Germany in the 1920s.  It was directed by Arnold Fanck, a significant creative force in the film industry at the time, responsible for some of Germany's most memorable cinematic achievements.  Like most German filmmakers of the period, Fanck was influenced by expressionism, an all-pervasive stylistic approach inspired by societal upheavals that was having a profound effect on much of German art at the time, be it music, painting, literature, theatre and film.   The expressionism in Der Heilige Berg comes through most potently in the shots where the surroundings dominate the characters, in some sequences reducing them to the size of mere specs of dust in a vast natural panorama.  The intention presumably is to show the utter insignificance of man when set aside the awesome power of nature - not just external physical forces like the sea and the wind, but also internal desires such as love and jealousy.

Arnold Fanck was persuaded to make the film by aspiring actress Leni Riefenstahl, who took the female lead role in the film.  These days, Riefenstahl is remembered less for her acting and more for her directing work.  An acquaintance and supporter of Adolf Hitler, she famously directed a number of Nazi propaganda films, including the 1938 film Olympia.  As Der Heilige Berg shows, Riefenstahl was also a capable actress, her exaggerated performance suiting this kind of stylised expressionistic melodrama, giving the impression of a helpless creature in tune with yet at the mercy of the raw elements that govern our lives.

The plot may be pretty mundane  - it's essentially a bog standard love triangle with a predictable outcome - but the realisation is nothing less than inspired.  From the opening prologue, in which Diotima dances like a nymph to the rhythms and moods of a stormy sea, Fanck plunges us into a dreamlike world in which the immutable beauty and relentless power of Nature consume our senses.  Few films of this period - or indeed any period since - have shown the artistry and a sense a scale which Fanck and his camera team achieved in this film with their extraordinary exterior photography in the Swiss Alps.  Without the benefit of special effects which future generations of filmmakers would take for granted, the cast and crew involved in this production were literally risking their lives in the most hazardous conditions - just for a piece of art.

Two parts of the film stand out as particularly brilliant, even by Fanck's high standards.   First there is the winter sports sequence, which magnificently conveys the excitement and daring of the event, complete with death-defying ski jumps and dizzying downhill races which have an almost balletic composition.  Then there is the hauntingly beautiful night time rescue sequence, in which a procession of torch-carrying skiers cross the mountains in search of the two missing men.   This latter scene is reputed to have been directed by Leni Riefenstahl herself, under Fanck's tutelage.

As a piece of melodrama, Der Heilige Berg is a satisfying but not all that special example of its kind.  The dramatic ending, in which a man is forced to choose between love of his woman and the loyalty of his friend, is a poignant touch to an otherwise conventional love story.  What makes the film so great is its unique artistic sense, the way in which the natural location is captured so vividly and is used so imaginatively to convey the helplessness and smallness of human beings in such a vast, unforgiving world.   It is a great visual poem - as essential a piece of expressionistic cinema as F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) and Robert Wiene's Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari (1920).

Film Synopsis

An engineer living in the Swiss Alps falls under the spell of a young dancer, Diotima.  A love affair ensues, but Diotima's beauty attracts another admirer, the engineer's younger friend, Vigo.   The latter decides to participate in a skiing competition; encouraged by Diotima, he is the winner.  When the engineer next sees Diotima, she is embracing Vigo.  Unsure how to react to his lover's apparent infidelity, the engineer sets out on a perilous mountain climbing expedition, having persuaded his rival to accompany him…