"Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü" or "White Hell of Pitz Palu" is a German 2.5-hour movie although i must say the version I saw "only" ran for 2 hours and 15 minutes. It is a silent movie, unless you go for the reworked version that only runs for 90 minutes roughly. That one has sound, but I could find it nowhere. It is also massively cut, so it's probably not wort seeing anyway. For this film, Georg Wilhelm Pabst and Arnold Fanck united, two of the most renowned pre-Nazi filmmakers from Germany. Fanck was mostly in charge of the recordings from the mountains, while Pabst dealt with the indoor scenes. Fanck shot several other mountain-located films, so this was certainly his area of expertise. These were really famous back then. Even if they are not always about being the first that reach the top, like this one here, which is also about a lost love, it was still a temptation to go where nobody has gone before, back then certainly a lot more than today. Then again we have been everywhere by now, including Mount Everest, so maybe that's why the drive is mostly gone. And maybe we humans also do not belong on certain places.
The cast includes Leni Riefenstahl during her acting days and famous pilot and World War I hero Ernst Udet, who also starred in several of Fanck's mountain movies before his untimely death. Well.. what can i say about this film. It certainly is way way too long in terms of the story and it definitely could have needed more subtitles. I lost interest in this at some point. More text may have made this a better film. The setting is outstanding of course and the film's biggest strength is the cinematography. I only wish the plot would have been half as good and smooth as the visual aspects of this film. You can basically also watch a documentary set in the same region. Or any other mountain area and you get at least the same quality. I cannot recommend watching this film. Thumbs down.
The cast includes Leni Riefenstahl during her acting days and famous pilot and World War I hero Ernst Udet, who also starred in several of Fanck's mountain movies before his untimely death. Well.. what can i say about this film. It certainly is way way too long in terms of the story and it definitely could have needed more subtitles. I lost interest in this at some point. More text may have made this a better film. The setting is outstanding of course and the film's biggest strength is the cinematography. I only wish the plot would have been half as good and smooth as the visual aspects of this film. You can basically also watch a documentary set in the same region. Or any other mountain area and you get at least the same quality. I cannot recommend watching this film. Thumbs down.