Click on this text to watch a short video of film critic - IRENE BIGNARDI - introducing the evening. The video includes English sub-titles.
The 58th Trento Filmfestival opens with a treat for all film and music lovers: a screening of Der Heilige Berg plus a live performance of the film’s original score by the Hayden Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, conducted by Helmut Imih
Der heilige Berg (1926) is widely considered to be the first Bergfilm as it contains all of the typical features of a mountain film; it is a whirlwind story of love, friendship and death, a majestic portrait of unforgiving, cloudy peaks, jagged rocks, grand massifs, glaciers and crevices, snowstorms and avalanches, evocatively captured at great risk amidst desolate snowy landscapes.
Diotima (Leni Riefenstahl) is a young woman born by the ocean who imitates its power and vitality in a ritual dance. Her heart, however, yearns for the mountains and a man who can conquer them. On a trip to the Alps, she does her “dance of the sea” before a well-to-do audience, among which are two young mountain-climbers who watch her awestruck.
Karl (Luis Trenker), the most famous climber in the region, flees to the mountains for the night in order to calm the anxiety that has overcome him. Vigo, a fearless young skier, offers the beautiful dancer edelweiss, and in return receives a silk scarf. Against his mother’s advice, Karl tells Diotima of his feelings for her, but when she returns his affections, he leaves for the mountains to find an altar, sculpted by nature, where they can wed. In the meantime, Diotima cheers Vigo to victory in a skiing race, rushing to congratulate him. By chance, Karl witnesses the scene, but he does not recognise his friend, believing he has lost the young woman’s love to another man. In a moment of desperation, he asks Vigo to join him on a climb of the most treacherous peak in the area. During their ascent, Karl realises that his friend is also in love with Diotima. As Karl advances towards his rival in a jealous rage, Vigo steps backwards, falls off the ledge, and is left dangling by the rope that joins them. As a storm rages about them, Vigo begs his friend to cut the rope and save himself, but Karl, filled with regret, refuses. Delirious with fatigue, Karl dreams that he is leading Diotima to the altar in an ice cathedral. He then plunges to his death with his friend.