Author: Derek Hawthorne

5,229 words

Part 4 of 4

11. Death on Mont Blanc

Act III of Storm over Mont Blanc begins in the aftermath of the death of Hella Armstrong’s father. Hella and Prof. Armstrong had come to visit Hannes, the lonely Wetterwart, atop Mont Blanc. (more…)

3,750 words

Part 3 of 4

7. Ascending and Descending

Storm over Mont Blanc divides neatly into three acts. (more…)

2,421 words

Part 2 of 4

3. Above the Clouds

Storm over Mont Blanc opens, appropriately, with shots of the mountain itself and of Hannes’s cabin, situated high above the clouds. (Fanck’s working title for the film was Über den Wolken, Above the Clouds.) (more…)

2,154 words

Part 1 of 4

1. Introduction

Stürme über dem Mont Blanc (1930; literally, Storms over Mont Blanc) is my favorite of the Arnold Fanck mountain films. (more…)

5,257 words

Part 2 of 2

“It was only a narrow crevasse in the Palü Glacier,” Johannes Krafft says, “but it reached far down into the darkness.” In a flashback, we see Maria Krafft at the bottom of the crevasse. Is she unconscious, or dead? “There — an urgent cry for help came out from the icy depths — Maria was still alive!” We see Krafft peer over edge, but he can see nothing. He ties his rope to his pick, sticks it deep in the snow, and climbs down into the crevasse. (more…)

4,097 words

Part 1 of 2

1. Introduction

The White Hell of Piz Palü (Die weisse Hölle vom Piz Palü, 1929) is considered by many to be the finest of Arnold Fanck’s mountain films. As pure cinema, this may well be the case. Though the film does not have quite the philosophical richness of Fanck’s The Holy Mountain, there is definitely more here than meets the eye. (more…)

5,169 words

Part 2 of 2

4. “Diotima’s journey into the mountains”

Due to the film’s many delays and mishaps, UFA called Arnold Fanck back to Berlin at a certain point and informed him that The Holy Mountain was canceled. (more…)

4,959 words

Part 1 of 2

1. Introduction: “A Lofty Humanity and Eternal Blondeness”

The Holy Mountain (Der Heilige Berg, 1926) is the greatest of the German “mountain films” and the prototype for all the rest. (more…)

6,841 words

North Face is the English title of the film Nordwand, originally released to theaters in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 2008. It is based on the true story of two German mountain climbers, Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser, who in 1936 braved the dreaded north face of the Eiger. The only one of the film’s stars who may be familiar to American audiences is Benno Fürmann, who appeared in The Princess and the Warrior (Der Krieger und die Kaiserin, 2000). (more…)

2,777 words

Pentti Linkola
Can Life Prevail? A Radical Approach to the Environmental Crisis
Trans. Eetu Rautio and Olli S.
London: Arktos, 2009

Years ago, “deep ecologist” Andrew McLaughlin (a follower of Arne Naess) produced an essay titled “For a Radical Ecocentrism.” It’s an explicitly political piece, arguing for how the principles of deep ecology are compatible with left wing progressivism. (more…)

Salvador Dalí, "Allegory of an American Christmas," 1934

2,403 words

Part 2 of 2

When a people loses a sense of blood-relatedness, what basis is there for community? American community is not based on blood ties, shared history, shared religion, or shared culture: it is based on ideology. He who professes the American creed is an American—he who does not is an outcast.

(more…)

José Clemente Orozco, "The Gods of the Modern World"

1,841 words

Part 1 of 2

I have contributed several essays to Counter-Currents dealing with D. H. Lawrence’s critique of modernity. Those essays might lead the reader to believe that Lawrence treats modernity as a universal ideology or worldview that could be found anywhere.

(more…)