There was no doubt about Fancks role as first Pleinair painter, as first luminist of German film. Fanck was a pioneer (and also a fetishist) of open air filming. He opened worlds to locked-in (silent) film, which before him nobody managed to enter.“ (Knapp, 1976)
Filmography (selection):
1924 Der Berg des Schicksals (cinema debut Luis Trenker)
1926 Der heilige Berg (cinema debut Leni Riefenstahl)
1929 Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü (Co-director: G. W. Papst)
Arnold Fanck‘s breathtaking mountain document which was believed mutilated for a long time is thanks to sensational finds now accessible again, in a restored and viraged version from 2013. This „Alp symphony in pictures“ which was shot not far from Saas-Fee documents the ascent of the 4500m Lyskamm with the then very popular skiers Hannes Schneider and Ilse Rohde. Im Kampf mit dem Berge celebrates the mountain world‘s beauty with its amazing cloud formations and mountain panoramas and often dwarves its conquerors in the midst of snow storms or the nightly silence of glacier ridges.
Restoration: Filmarchiv Austria, Wien, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Wiesbaden, Anke Wilkening und Frank Strobel, Hindemith Institut Frankfurt
screening on Fr 18.07.14 21:15 Dorfplatz, Saas-Fee