10,030 words

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…)

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…)