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Editor’s Note:

This is the fourth and final part (for now) of Derek Hawthorne’s series on the German “mountain films” of the 1920s and 30s. See the author’s review of North Face for an overview of this genre, its principal characteristics, and why it should interest readers of Counter-Currents.

1. Introduction: From Vertical to Horizontal

S.O.S. Iceberg is not a mountain film. (more…)

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…)

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Part 3 of 4

7. Ascending and Descending

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

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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…)

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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…)

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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…)

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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…)

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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…)

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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…)

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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…)