Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Cissy Évelyne It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

JohnHowardReid I was really looking forward to the Kino DVD of The Holy Mountain (1926) which I assumed would feature the original music score by Edmund Meisel. Instead of the grandeur of Meisel, however, Kino treats us to a monotonous, half-baked and often totally inappropriate offering from Aljoscha Zimmerman. Admittedly, even Meisel may have found it difficult to set Leni Reifenstahl's repetitive posturing (you couldn't call it "dancing") to music, but even a dim reflection of the stark, deadly beauty of the Swiss and Bavarian Alps should have been possible. Not so, however. The score manages to undermine the luster of everything it touches. An oft-told noirish tale of a love triangle twisted to the point of dementia, The Holy Mountain serves not only as a scenic backdrop but as a murderous participant. (The Kino DVD rates 10/10 for its superlative preservation of the original's color-tinted photography, but somewhat less for the failure of its music score).

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Der heilige Berg" or "The Holy Mountain" is a German silent film in black-and-white from the year 1926, so this one has its 90th anniversary this year already. It was written and directed by German filmmaker Arnold Fanck, a man who is mostly known for his mountain-themed films from the first half of the 20th century. The cast includes Ernst Petersen, a regular in Fanck's films, Leni Riefenstahl before her days as a propaganda filmmaker, and Luis Trenker, a famous mountain climber who turned to acting. The film runs for 100 minutes approximately, but I have to say that in terms of the story and the plot 50 minutes would have been more than enough. The story is not the greatest strength here about a pair of climbers and a woman who stands between them, but this is a common problem with Fanck's works. However, his biggest strength also keeps this film from being a really boring or disastrous watch. Visually, it is way ahead of its time, no doubt about it. The snowy landscapes are a joy to watch and I can see why this film still appeals to people today. There are some genuinely beautiful shots in here. However, this is not enough to make up for the deficits in terms of story-telling and my overall verdict for this movie from between World Wars I and II is a negative one. Thumbs down and I do not recommend the watch. The good thing for foreign audiences is that this film also exists with English intertitles if they really want to see it. But I cannot really support this decision.

Claudio Carvalho The dancer Diotima (Leni Riefenstahl) meets the engineer and skier Karl (Luis Trenker) in his cottage in the mountains and they fall in love for each other and have a love affair. When Karl's young friend Vigo (Ernst Petersen) meets the dancer after a presentation and she gives her scarf with a smile to him, the infatuated Vigo mistakenly believes she is in love with him. Karl sees Diotima innocently caressing Vigo and he believes that Diotima is betraying him with his friend. Karl decides to commit suicide and invites Vigo to climb the dreadful Santo Mountain North face during the winter thaw with him. His best friend joins Karl in a tragic journey."Der Heilige Berg" is a melodramatic and tragic story of a triangle of love among a dancer that loves the sea; a skilled skier and engineer that loves the rock; and his young friend that loves the dancer. The plot is absolutely naive in 2010, but after all this is a 1926 film when the society had other moral concepts. The infamous Leni Riefenstahl, who directed the Third Reich's propaganda for Hitler one decade later, performs the dancer and pivot of the tragedy. Her dance is weird and clumsy but this is a silent movie and the viewer never knows what she was listening while dancing. If the romance is not interesting in the present days, the cinematography and the camera work are stunning considering the size, weight and technical resources of the equipment in this period. All shots outdoor were actually made in the mountains, including the ski race and the scene on the cliff, in the most beautiful parts of the Alps over the course of one and half years. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Montanha Sagrada" ("The Holy Mountain")

marymorrissey well one reason might be that there isn't a great deal of sense in the troubling behavior of the "magnificent man" - the ski master and engineer Karl - a self pitying son of a gun who (when he realizes that someone has been trying to get into the pants of his clueless lady, who has been innocently leading on 2 men at once, because she is a damn fool and regards one of them as "just a child" when he is most definitely of marriage age) decides to go on a little suicidal mountaineering jaunt and insists that the delightful young Vigo accompany him, even though he has no idea that it's Vigo he saw feeling up Lady Riefenstahl. Then when he does realize he moves towards him, menacingly, so that the young buck falls backwards over the precipice. Then our "hero" strives valiantly to save the young man ("I'd never do anything to harm you!" he declares. Not very convincingly in the wake of what we've just seen.)Karl is about as "magnificent" as one of those people who decide to commit suicide by driving into an oncoming car, their despair being worthy of taking down some totally innocent bystander in the process of doing away with themselves. While the literal cliffhanger goes on for what seems like hours, the only possible happy ending as far as I'm concerned would have been for the boy to be rescued and somehow for this bastard Karl to snuff it himself all the same. Not a very likely scenario - unless the film had been made in Hollywood! For once I wish a German film had been. :( Somehow the filmmaker finds it very noble that Karl goes ahead and goes through with his suicide even though he might have exhibited less "FAITH!" by cutting poor Vigo loose so that he might save himself and make the temptress Diotoma into some kind of respectable hoochie coochie dancer. It was so annoying Diotoma, Leni's character, is only concerned about "him" and the fate of the younger guy is just so much collateral damage...that I ended up despising her so much by the end of the film that I'm afraid I don't even remember what became of her and her Isadoraesque twirling.I really did feel it was a kind of Nazi aesthetic/morality in which this man's "noble" love allowed him to take his little buddy with him just out of sheer megalomania on his little suicide mission into the Föhn. Very demoralizing viewing!Anyway I came to watch this movie cause I went to a performance of Olivier Messiaen's HARAWI for soprano and piano in LA for which a film accompaniment had been commissioned from the artist Lars Jens. Bits of this movie abstracted for the purpose of Messiaen's rather absurdist/romantic lyrics managed to yield more beauty/power without question. The magnificent Lars Jens edited together footage from this film with the very different Jodorowsky version of "The Holy Mountain" and I would have to say that on a purely aesthetic level that concert was far more successful a work than either of these films watched on their own. (Although I haven't made it through all of the Jodorowsky movie yet & so shouldn't really be saying this) The Messiaen score is one of his best. Your chances of seeing this little mash-up are likely close to nil, but if you should have a chance I'd encourage you to take advantage! Oh, it was interesting to note that this film, evidently Leni's first, had ski jumping sequences that had obviously had an influence on her "Olympia"!