Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsNot What I Expected.
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2005
Having seen and enjoyed THE HOLY MOUNTAIN some time back, I was really looking forward to seeing this film which is considered by many to be the summit of the mountain film genre. Much has been made of the fact that the renowned director G.W. Pabst (PANDORA'S BOX, DIARY OF A LOST GIRL) was brought in to co-direct along with Arnold Fanck who created the genre. It's been said that this was done at Leni Riefenstahl's insistence to try and give the film and its characters more depth. Whoever was responsible for it made a big mistake. What emerges in WHITE HELL OF PITZ PAULU is a film with an agonizingly slow first half that stops dead in its tracks whenever it tries to focus on the three principal players, a mountain guide who has lost his wife and a young couple there for a holiday. The dramatic scenes directed by Pabst are totally out of sync with the Fanck's outdoor scenes giving the impression that you're watching two different movies. The mountain footage is breathtaking as usual with the seemingly impossible camerawork bolstered by a number of airplane shots. Some of the scenes such as the recovery of bodies in an ice grotto and the rescue of the couple from a frozen ledge linger in the memory long afterwards and in fact have shown up in a number of documentaries from time to time.
The rest of the film however is a real mess and is not at all what I expected. The performances by Riefenstahl and Ernst Petersen as the young couple are suprisingly flat which I attribute to Pabst's direction as they were much more full of life in HOLY MOUNTAIN. Gustav Diesel as the mountain climber gives the type of performance that the film needs but it isn't enough. Another big problem with this version of PITZ PALU which was restored in 1998 is the score provided for it by Ashley Irwin. A lot of it sounds like bad Soviet military music that just doesn't complement the action at all like Aljoscha Zimmerman's score did for HOLY MOUNTAIN. Silent movies were never silent and the musical accompaniment can really make or break the film and this time around unfortunately it's the latter. I don't think a good score could have saved this movie but it certainly would have helped it. THE WHITE HELL OF PITZ PAULU is worth seeing especially if you are interested in Leni Riefenstahl or the mountain film in general but of those available on DVD HOLY MOUNTAIN is definitely the one to see. Hopefully Riefenstahl's 1932 opus THE BLUE LIGHT will come out soon in a restored version for that is where the mountain film truly reached its peak.
