Under the spell of Monte Miracolo
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Under the spell of Monte Miracolo Monte Miracolo |
| Country of production |
Austria Italy |
| original language |
German Italian |
| Publishing year | 1948 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Luis Trenker |
| script | Luis Trenker |
| production | Luis Trenker for Tirol-Film, Innsbruck and Rome |
| music | Giuseppe Becce |
| camera |
Albert Benitz Umberto della Valle Ernst Elsigan |
| cut | Herma Sandtner |
| occupation | |
| |
Under the spell of Monte Miracolo is an Austrian-Italian mountain film drama by and with Luis Trenker , filmed between 1943 and 1945 , which, due to the war, did not premiere until 1948.
action
The Monte Miracolo, the “mountain of wonders”, is also called the “cursed mountain” by the locals, as it has cost the lives of many who wanted to climb it. In the shadow of the previously unclimbed Monte Miracolo, a mountain service is to be held in memory of the mountain guide Croux, who has not returned from a climbing tour on this giant stone. His little daughter Graziella, who became an orphan as a result, has been taken into her care by the local teacher, Maria Macugna. Maria has close ties with the engineer Robert Rey, a recognized master in his field. The ingenious technician is also an experienced athlete and is very popular in the village. Now he is planning to build a large dam at the foot of Monte Miracolo, and he is still looking for an investor to build it. The President of Fortis-Werke is a good choice. His wife Gianna had a close relationship with the Fortis engineer Corrado Conti, who Rey is put to the side.
Corrado, with Fortis as a powerful sponsor, soon tries to take the reins of the construction project into his own hands, but Rey is not so easy to get out of the boat. When old Fortis dies unexpectedly, his widow Gianna arrives immediately to be as close as possible to her Conti. But she likes Rey's open and easy-going manner even more, and soon she hardly leaves Robert's side - much to Corrado Conti's displeasure. In order to elegantly get rid of the rival, Conti persuades Robert to give it a try and be the first to climb Monte Miracolo; after all, he is a proven athlete and mountain climber. Corrado even offers to accompany him. As the tour becomes more and more demanding and dangerous, Conti urges Rey to abandon the climb and turn around. Finally, on an icy rock face, misfortune occurs. Robert falls when a hook comes loose from the wall, but is held in place by the safety rope.
Now Corrado Conti's real face is showing. While Robert yells for help, the Italian calmly returns to the village. Rey, on the other hand, cuts the rope and with the last of his strength manages to find shelter in an ice cave. In the meantime, the mountain guides of the village have set out to look for Robert's whereabouts and, if he is still alive, to rescue him. With the exception of two men, the search party returned to the village at nightfall. The remaining two men actually track Rey down the following morning. Since Robert is reasonably fit despite the exertion, the three men now decide to continue climbing the "cursed mountain", and they actually succeed. On his return home, Maria welcomed Robert with open arms overjoyed. After Corrado's role in the accident becomes public and Gianna also learns that her lover was only interested in becoming the successor of the dead Fortis in his company, she breaks away from him. Instead, she hands over the reins to Robert Rey and wishes him and Maria the best of luck in their future together.
Production notes and trivia
This Trenker film, the last by the South Tyrolean filmmaker before the end of the Second World War, has an interesting and eventful history. After Trenker was de facto sidelined in the German Reich in 1942, he went to Rome to explore the possibility of film production with Italian donors. He founded his own small production company on site and began filming The Disreputable Mountain , the title of which was later changed to Under the Spell of Monte Miracolo , in the studios of Cinecittà .
The nature and mountain photos were taken in Tyrol and in the far northwest of Italy. The filming locations were the area around Innsbruck and the Arlberg as well as the Aosta Valley, Mont Blanc and the area south of the Matterhorn. Due to the course of the war in Italy in 1943/44 (advance of the US troops, skirmishes and battles with the German Wehrmacht), Trenker had to interrupt filming for a longer period of time in 1944/45. Shortly after the end of the war, the film could be finished in 1945. The world premiere took place on November 19, 1948 in Innsbruck, the Vienna premiere on Christmas Day of the same year. The German premiere was over a year later, on November 24, 1949 in Stuttgart.
The orchestra of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra will play and the Vienna Boys' Choir will sing the song “The Star of Bethlehem”.
In her early twenties, Herma Sandtner got her first job as a film editor from Trenker.
In 2004 the film was released on DVD.
Reviews
Paimann's film lists found that Trenker's film was “not comparable with his great epics of yore”, but that it was “worked quite effectively” thanks to its great nature shots. On the other hand, the “poorness of the plot” and the “mediocre presentation” were criticized.
The lexicon of the international film found that the "naivety of the plot and the alpine pathos ... are almost outweighed by the South Tyrolean mountain landscape impressively explored by the camera".
Film.at sums it up: "Although this film was started before 1945, it clearly shows concessions to post-war tastes."
Web links
- Under the spell of Monte Miracolo in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Under the spell of Monte Miracolo at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ The IMDb gives the date February 1945 in Italy, which seems highly unlikely in view of the fact that the film, at least in the present version, was not yet finished.
- ↑ Under the spell of Monte Miraclo in Paimann's film lists ( memento of the original from January 2, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Under the spell of Monte Miracolo. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 1, 2018 .
- ↑ Under the spell of Monte Miracolo on film.at
