North face (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | North face |
| Country of production | Germany , Austria , Switzerland |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2008 |
| length | 121 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 12 JMK 10 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Philipp Stölzl |
| script |
Benedikt Röskau , Rupert Henning , Christoph Silber , Johannes Naber , Philipp Stölzl |
| production |
Danny Krausz , Benjamin Herrmann , Boris Schönfelder , Rudolf Santschi |
| music | Christian Kolonovits |
| camera | Kolja Brandt |
| cut | Sven Budelmann |
| occupation | |
| |
Nordwand is a feature film by the German director Philipp Stölzl from 2008. The mountaineering drama is based on the true events of the dramatic first attempt to climb the Eiger north face in 1936 .
The premiere took place on August 9, 2008 as part of the 61st Locarno International Film Festival .
action
To be the first to conquer the notorious north face of the Eiger - in the summer of 1936 that is the dream of many mountaineers from all over Europe. The thoughts of the two climbers Toni Kurz from Berchtesgaden and Andreas Hinterstoißer from Bad Reichenhall also revolve around nothing else - with Hinterstoißer being the driving force. The two are convinced that they can do it, even if numerous attempts on the 1800 m high "Murder Wall" have already ended fatally. And with the first ascent not only beckons the desired social advancement, but also Olympic gold in the form of the Prix olympique d'alpinisme mountaineering award .
During the preparations at the foot of the north face, Toni and Andi surprisingly meet Luise, who is supposed to report on the first ascent as a photo reporter at the side of the capital journalist Arau , who is faithful to the Nazis . Toni and Luise have known each other since childhood, now a love affair is emerging between the two. But also the sensational journalist Arau, a dandy and bon vivant , makes her advances, while the rope team Toni and Andi is in the wall. Right behind the two people from Berchtesgaden there is an Austrian rope team: Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer.
At first everything is going great and both teams are making rapid progress. On the Kleine Scheidegg mountain pass , what is going on is observed from the terrace of the Grand Hotel with telescopes by numerous onlookers and the world press - including Luise, who increasingly realizes that Toni is her true love. But already in the lower third of the wall, the Austrian Willy is seriously injured by a rock fall on his head. Willy insists on climbing again and after the bleeding wound has been poorly bandaged, the men continue climbing.
The disaster takes its course as the weather changes. Temperatures drop below zero, a snowstorm is raging in the upper section of the wall, avalanches go down and hit the four-man rope team. Nobody has crampons with them. Already in the upper third of the wall, Willy falls into the rope and breaks an open leg.
A further ascent is impossible with the seriously injured man. The four alpinists are forced to turn back. Willy has to be roped down in the storm. In the end, everyone loses the fight for survival, most recently Toni Kurz. Luise had set out to save her lover. A rescue team is supposed to reach Toni from the 3.8 tunnel in the middle of the wall (located at 3.8 km of the Jungfrau Railway). They come up to around 40 meters below its location.
The weakened Toni, who can no longer use one hand because of frostbite, also no longer has a rope that would be long enough to reach the rescuers below him. So he now makes a thin cord from his ropes, which he lets down to the rescuers. They tie their rope to it, which Toni pulls up to him. The rescuers notice that their rope is not long enough either, and knot an extension rope that reaches down to a few meters. When Toni abseils with one hand, he cannot get past the knot of the extension rope because his abseiling carabiner is jammed . Toni dies hanging on a rope in front of the helpless rescuers.
Reviews
- The daily newspaper Die Welt wrote of the premiere of the film: “Over 8,000 spectators held their breath on the Piazza Grande. A grand triumph ”.
- The film service, on the other hand, criticized the lack of distance to German history and the political-propagandistic dimension of the genre on the north face :
“Director Stölzl didn’t really do anything wrong when he turned to mountain films and thus took up an original German film subject. [...] He is not tempted to direct a Heimatfilm , but presents a flawless mountain film in the tradition of Arnold Fanck , Leni Riefenstahl and Luis Trenker - and this is exactly where the problem lies. 'Nordwand' is in a peculiar way and completely unbroken to its cinematic narrative time; the film celebrates manhood and German heroism, willingness to make sacrifices and assertiveness. Here an overpowering opponent is to be defeated against all reason. Such a plot is harmless in itself, but when the staging emphasizes everything down-to-earth and stylizes the two protagonists as Alpine 'ambassadors for Germany', then a reference to that ' blood and soil ' mentality that was long believed to be overcome is inevitable . "
- Rüdiger Suchsland expresses himself even more critically in the film magazine artechock :
“In any case, this 'mountain film' suffers from a double burden: On the one hand, it is a type of film that, to put it carefully, is ideologically burdened, in Stölzl's own words 'a contaminated genre'. Stölzl: 'For me, a visual red thread leads from Fanck's mountain films to Riefenstahl's' Triumph of Will ' ( propaganda film about the Nazi party rally ). It must be mentioned here with great caution [...] that Stölzl has a certain fascination for fascist aesthetics , which is also remarkable at second glance . This can be seen, for example, in his music videos, for example You have from the also relevant band Rammstein and especially in Stripped , also for Rammstein, in which he used material from Leni Riefenstahl's Olympic film . [...] The Nazi ideals of strength, joy and German heroism, of willingness to make sacrifices and the will to assert themselves against all reason against [...] blood, sweat and tears , original German hardship on the mountain and heroic death, down-to-earthness and blasmus are combined completely uncritically to a 21st century variant of Heimatfilm, to a postmodern variant of 'blood and soil' cinema. "
- The online film review publication critic.de emphasizes another aspect:
“Otherwise, most of the time, the north face paints a completely different picture of nature. It is wild, unpredictable and hostile to life. The ascent over the ice fields and steep rocky outcrops of the Eiger north face soon demands everything from the climbers. After the weather suddenly changes and a member of the initially opposing Austrian rope team is seriously injured in the head by a rockfall, the drama takes its course. From now on everything revolves around the unequal struggle between humans and nature, which consequently only allows one outcome. Kolja Brandt's camera always stays very close to the actors, who can be seen to be the hardships of the shoot. Stölzl's film is rough and naturalistic, which makes it stand out from comparable Hollywood representatives overloaded with effects such as Vertical Limit (2000). "
backgrounds
Shooting began on April 17, 2007 and ended on June 4, 2007. The shooting took place at various original locations, for example in the Bräustüberl of the Hofbrauhaus Berchtesgaden , in the Gebirgsjäger barracks in the Bischofswiesen district of Strub , in Switzerland and Austria (including on the Dachstein ). In addition, some close-ups of the actors were taken in a warehouse for frozen goods in Graz that was converted into a film studio . The freezing temperatures in the hall ensured a realistic representation in front of a recreated piece of rock wall in combination with wind and snow machines. The close-up shots in the studio were skillfully cut together with real film recordings on the mountain, and some green screen recordings were also used, as well as set extensions, additions and weather effects with computer-generated imagery .
The filmmakers watched numerous mountaineering films in advance, and they found the film Fall into the Void to be particularly realistic. So it was decided to contact director Kevin Macdonald and ask him how he could achieve this realism without seriously endangering actors. Kevin Macdonald then gave her the idea of filming in a freezer.
It was released in theaters in Switzerland on October 9, 2008, in Germany on October 23, 2008 and in Austria on October 24, 2008.
Differences between film and reality
| No. | Movie | reality |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toni and Andi arrive at the material store they had set up the day before and find the material bag torn open, the crampons missing. | The “retelling” writes: “There he is! First his feet appear on the outside of the overhang, then the legs, the body, the head. Icicles hang on the crampons. “ Toni also has crampons with Joe Simpson . |
| 2 | In the film, Andi struggles with the avalanche in the waterfall chimney, after which she cannot cross the Hinterstoisser traverse. | In fact, the waterfall chimney is not next to the cross passage, but more than 500 meters higher. (see image); The making-of of kinokino explains that it was not possible to shoot in the original position due to the weather. |
| 3 | After the avalanche and the subsequent fall of Andi and the injured or dead Willy, Andi hung under Willy and rose again to Willy. Rainer was pulled to the rope hook by the rope with the falling people and hit his head against the rock, which killed him. Then Andi cut himself and the (strangled) dead Willy himself from the rope so as not to endanger Toni (the safety hook loosened in the film and would have torn Toni into her death as well). | Instead Toni and Willy fell. Andi had probably fallen to her death before and was not hanging on the rope. |
| 4th | Toni stands leaning on a small ledge all night and waits for the rescuers. | Toni hung on the rope with dead Willy below him all night. Because of rain or meltwater, his rope and clothing were covered with an "ice film". Icicles hung from the crampons. The rescue team advised Toni to cut off Willy and climb up to the only hook (on which the dead Rainer was hanging) in order to untie the rope. |
| 5 | The rescue team knotted a 30 m rope and a remaining piece of rope that was too short on Toni's lifeline. (Film text: "[...] then he just has to jump the last few meters.") Each of the film rescuers had a long spare rope hanging over their shoulders. | In fact, it was two 30m ropes. “ He shakes it, the knot must somehow go through. Pointless. Glatthard ties a knife to the rope. 'Pull the knife towards you, Toni, and cut the rope over the knot!' Toni will fall a few meters deep in the snow, but the guides have him safely on the rope, the knot in the carabiner will hold. " |
| 6th | Toni's friend Luise is there at the Stollenloch. | Her name was Luise Brüller, came from Koenigssee and was not on the mountain. According to Philipp Stölzl, Luise Fellner was deliberately invented. |
| 7th | The film shows the full moon (on July 19, 1936). | In fact, there was a new moon on July 18, 1936. |
Awards
- German Film Award 2009 : The film won an award in the categories of best camera / image design and best sound design and was also nominated in the category of best production design.
- When the German Film Critics' Prize was awarded in 2008 , the film won an award in the categories Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography .
literature
- Rainer Lunau: North Face: a true story . Novel for the film by Philipp Stölzl based on the script by Benedikt Röskau, Christoph Silber, Rupert Henning, Philipp Stölzl, Johannes Naber. Structure of the Taschenbuchverlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-7466-2431-0 .
- Heinz von Arx (ed.): The drama of Toni Kurz on the Eiger . AS Verlag, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-909111-57-2 .
- Struggle for survival in the snow . In: Berliner Morgenpost , August 11, 2008; Review; paid access
- Stubborn Eiger . In: Berliner Zeitung , August 11, 2008; review
Web links
- North face at Dor-Film
- North face in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- North face at filmportal.de (with trailer and photo gallery)
- North Face in the Lexicon of International Films
- Official page for the film
- Review ( memento of October 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) in film-dienst 22/2008
- Review in the Alps 9/2008 ( Memento of April 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 569 kB)
- Review in the taz, October 22, 2008
- Roman Giesen: North Face. A critical résumé of a 'neo mountain film'. (PDF; 130 kB) In: Medienobservationen, August 30, 2009
Individual evidence
- ↑ Approval certificate for the north face . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , August 2008 (PDF; test number: 114 907 K).
- ↑ Age rating for the north face . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ film service 22/2008. Quoted from film-dienst.kim-info.de ( Memento from October 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Rüdiger Suchsland: Review at artechock.de
- ↑ Review at critic.de
- ↑ see bonus material on the DVD or lugundtrug.net
- ↑ Audio commentary on the DVD
- ↑ According to source: Joe Simpson
- ↑ here too
- ↑ December 22nd - from the article by Curt Schneider: Drama in the North Face - 60 years ago an ascent of the Eiger kept the world in suspense ( memento of the original from September 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ So Rainer Rettner in: Eiger - Triumphe und Tragödien 1932–1938 , p. 136. --HDC
- ↑ The Munich Astro Archive; Moon phases anno 1936 ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Archive of the German Film Prize
- ↑ vdfk.de ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
