The Eternal Dream

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Movie
Original title The Eternal Dream
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1934
length 96 (85 when re-released) minutes
Rod
Director Arnold Fanck
script Arnold Fanck using the novel Paccard against Balmat
by Karl Ziak (1930)
production Gregor Rabinowitsch
Arnold Pressburger
for Cine-Allianz Tonfilm GmbH, Berlin
music Giuseppe Becce under the musical direction of
Willy Schmidt-Gentner
camera Richard Angst
Kurt Neubert
cut Alice Ludwig-Rasch
occupation

The Eternal Dream (reference title: The King of Mont-Blanc , also The King of Mont Blanc ) is a German mountaineering drama from 1934 about the first ascent of Mont Blanc . Directed by Arnold Fanck , Sepp Rist and Brigitte Horney play the leading roles. The script is based on the historical novel Paccard against Balmat by Karl Ziak .

action

In the Western Alps in 1786. The young farmer's son Balmat has spent his entire life in a village at the foot of Mont Blanc. The mighty mountain has always had a magical attraction for him; a magic that is reinforced by the myths and legends of the father that there is a lot of gold on the mountain top. But there is a catch: Mighty mountain spirits would guard the treasure up there with eagle eyes. When Balmat grew up, he finally wanted to climb the summit. A French scholar named Saussure, who arrived on site, caused great unrest in the village: he offered 1000 gold pieces to anyone who took him up there. A real rush to the summit begins, but nobody gets to the top; the climbing conditions are too difficult and the equipment carried along is insufficient.

Only Balmat, laughed at by most of the villagers - with the exception of the young Maria, who loves him - for his obsession with the mountains, holds on. He is accompanied by the alpinist and doctor Dr. Paccard, a friend. When Balmat strays from the path, he also gets into a snow storm and has to look for emergency quarters in an ice cave. A violent mountain thunderstorm is raging. When Paccard locates him in his emergency shelter, Balmat has become snow-blind . His friend then takes him back down to the village, where Balmat marries his Maria. He doesn't want to think about Mont Blanc anymore, but still can't get away from it. Balmat now works as a farmer. One day Professor Saussure returns, intending to make another attempt to climb the summit together with some Englishmen. He wants Balmat to show him up there. An extraordinarily generous payment beckons. Now Balmat is seized by ambition, he wants to finally conquer Mont Blanc before Saussure and its strangers.

His friend Paccard agrees to accompany him on this daring venture. This time the ascent succeeds, and Paccard, who is more driven by science than ambition, lets his friend take priority. Then they hear the death knell from the village; an unmistakable sign that someone has died. Both men quickly rush back into the valley. Balmat rushes to his Maria in the hut and has to find out that his wife has immediately lost both of them. This traumatic event leads to the fact that he is finally cured of his obsession.

Production notes

The Eternal Dream was the last mountain film by the director Fanck, who became famous through this genre. Subsequently, he was no longer given the opportunity to regularly direct feature films in Germany. The shooting time extended from mid-December 1933 to mid-January 1934, the location was the area around Chamonix and the Mont Blanc massif. Before the official premiere on November 20, 1934 in Berlin's Ufa-Palast am Zoo , the film had its actual premiere on March 31, 1934 in Munich's Ufa-Palast and was also shown in other southern German cities.

Fritz Klotzsch served the Jewish owners of the Cine Alliance, Gregor Rabinowitsch and Arnold Pressburger , who were largely excluded from production as a result of the first aryanization measures . Werner Schlichting and Robert Herlth created the film structures, Walter Rühland provided the sound. Willy Clever and Herbert B. Fredersdorf served Fanck as his assistant director, Fritz von Friedl assisted the cameramen Richard Angst and Kurt Neubert .

The actors Friedrich Kayßler , who played the village pastor, and Helene Fehdmer , who played Brigitte Horney's film mother, were married to each other in real life.

At the same time, a French version of the film was also made under the title Rêve éternel . The most important actors in the original version also played in this version.

Reviews

Numerous important contemporaries have already dealt with this film and Fanck's aesthetic shown there. Lotte Eisner, for example, wrote: “These visions of mountain masses, of snow slopes that blow away in a storm, which, in the force of their assembly, are, as it were, tremendously roaring joints of a gigantic orchestration”, and Béla Balázs added: “There is nothing more fantastic than nature in that we are not at home ”.

In Oskar Kalbus ' book Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst , the fundamental problematic of Fanck's nature and mountain film productions was addressed, namely that the visual splendor of nature always pushes the artistic-acting component into the background. He writes:

“This mountain film also has the same flaw as 'SOS Eisberg'. He falls apart in his human terms. The mountains are apparently too powerful performers who do not allow competition to arise. Sepp Rist, the hero from 'SOS Eisberg' and great skier and mountaineer, plays the gold prospector Balmat. His game makes believable that in the end a person has to win over the elements if he only believes that he is stronger than them. Brigitte Horney's play as Maria, who prays in the valley and who finally manages to free him from his mountain madness and greed for gold, is also wonderfully tender. "

- On the development of German film art . Part 2: The sound film. : Berlin 1935, p. 38

The Wiener Zeitung wrote about the film, which ran in Austria from December 1934 under the title The King of Mont Blanc : “The highest mountain in Europe has been hired for the main role. It shows itself in imposing, ice-crowned beauty and from the side where it has neither a path nor a path and no accommodation huts. [...] Needless to say, the nature photos all make a strong impression. This cannot consistently be said of the plot itself. The alpine master director Dr. Arnold Fanck's inclination towards nebulous mysticism, the symbol of which is the cloud of fog that is common in mountain films and rushing away at high speed, found a welcome opportunity in the story of Balmat, the Mont Blanc-obsessed farmer from Chamonix, to once again show a proud mountain giant in demonic lighting. Not a new, but a securely fitting effect. [...] The film [...] is extremely worth seeing from a purely visual point of view. "

In a preliminary discussion in the Austrian Film Newspaper in the edition of December 1, 1934, on page 6: “The difficulty of bringing a mountain ascent in the old style, so to speak, with old-fashioned costumes and inadequate equipment on the screen, is from Dr. . Fanck was brilliantly overcome. The images of the high Alps are full of life and magic. "

The author and critic Karlheinz Wendtland spoke of a "culturally and historically interesting film that shows the conquest of Mont-Blanc, which was climbed in 1786". It was also said that Dr. Fanck offers "majestic images of crevasses and avalanches, of snowstorms and grandiose mountain backdrops". It was criticized that Fanck "let the reins dragged" during the game scenes. Brigitte Horney was confirmed to have “beautiful, human moments”.

The lexicon of international films reads: "The old master of mountain films, Arnold Fanck, describes the first ascent of Mont Blanc by the mountain farmer Jacques Balmat in a romantic way."

The Protestant film observer judges 35 years after the creation of the work: “Above all, crammed with 'forces of nature' and hopelessly outdated in terms of taste. Despite the good pictures, it is no longer worth watching the film today. "

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The King of Mont-Blanc full film, see opening credits
  2. ↑ The King of Mont Blanc , Wiener Illustrierter Film-Kurier No. 966 (cover picture: Sepp Rist)
  3. ↑ cit. after CineGraph: Arnold Fanck, delivery 4 v. July 15, 1985 (editorial deadline), E 1, essay by Thomas Brandlmeier
  4. ↑ "The King of Mont Blanc". In:  Wiener Zeitung , December 11, 1934, p. 10 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz
  5. ↑ "The Eternal Dream". In:  Österreichische Film-Zeitung , December 1, 1934, p. 6 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / fil
  6. ^ Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929–1945 with numerous artist biographies born in 1933 and 1934, edited by the author Karlheinz Wendtland, Berlin, Chapter: Films 1934, Film No. 121.
  7. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films, Volume 2, S. 934. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.
  8. ↑ Evangelical Press Association Munich, Review No. 113/1969