Customer Reviews

The Blue Light [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Leni Riefensthal's beauty is only surpassed by the beautiful use of set and locations (the Italian/Austrian Dolomites eastern region of the alps).
The script is perhaps too complex for the average modern audience, but only if you are forcing them to go back to their Freudian schooling. Otherwise it is the story of a beautiful, if not altogether timeless legend of young men being attracted to their doom (The Blue Light of the title) on full moon nights - when it seems only the outcast Junta (Leni) can achieve it unharmed.
This is one of those 'mountain films' that Germany specialized in. Being shot in 1932 (1 year before the Nazi's ascension to political power) it is also the genre at its purest form. Leni Riefenstahl shines at too many levels to be described at length here. But the whole aura of myth about the outcast does not seem to make of her an ideological artist(not a Nazi one at that in 1932, certainly), it does seem to make her a mastermind in dominating light and shadow.
It is only a pity that this film's superlative cinematography has been so poorly translated into the VHS edition. Hope I'm not being sacrilegious if I recommend the german VHS edition available also at amazon.de
In any case I'm awaiting the DVD possibilities in all countries interested in bringing to Amazing Light this early 1930s exquisite piece of cinema

I have been a fan of this film since I first saw it as a young girl in Germany in 1949. Much of its magic lies in the black-and-white medium and the fascinating use of "Gegenlichtaufnahmen" (shots taken against the light). This gives the film a mysterious quality. The film was shot entirely on location and contrary to a lot of stories none of the climbing scenes were staged in a studio nor were any doubles used. Leni Riefenstahl, originally a dancer, was forced to take a break in her career due to injury, and during this spell of inactivity she visited a cinema in Berlin which showed a film by and starring Luis Trenker, a wellknown German mountaineer and film actor. She fell instantly in love with the mountains she had never before visited and on the spur of the moment bought a ticket and went to see Trenker. Subsequently she learned to climb, and all scenes in this film have been climbed by her personally without any climbing aids of any sort. This information is contained in her book "Kampf in Schnee und Eis" which gives her early life story and which I have in my possession.

This copy is terrible, I have seen the excellent copies of this film and you can glimpse it on some film history tapes of Europe and on the wonderful terrible life.... Documentary video that is available. Don't buy this it will make you mad because of what has been done to it by timeless video at times the brightness blooms allows you to see nothing! Did timeless intentionally screw this great movie up or is this a bootleg from the thirties. I'm never buying anything from timeless again because of the poor standards of the company save your money wait for the version with great audio and video it's out there,this is junk!

I'm disappointed that Amazon can't put the right reviews with the right movies. The ones I have read seem to be several years old and to refer to a public domain VHS copy. Well, I don't know about the VHS copy, but the DVD copy is beautiful and the movie is both moving and a masterpiece.

Mountain climbing films are not the greatest genre ever invented, but you owe it to yourself to see The Blue Light. If you want to make it a double feature, I would recommend: The White Hell of Pitz Palu, SOS Iceburg and/or from America, Erich Von Stroheim's Blind Husbands.

Enjoy!

"The Blue Light" is a beautiful fairy tale, a faux Mitteleuropean fable with a Brothers Grimm feel. Junta, played by Leni Riefenstahl, is a beautiful outcast in mid 19th century northern Italy. A child of nature who lives in the mountains, she is believed to be a witch by the townspeople in the valley. She alone can climb to the mysterious blue light that appears on the mountain peak during the full moon. The young men of the village are as mysteriously drawn to the light as she, but one by one fall to their deaths in their attempts to reach it. Into this mystical little valley comes our young, German traveler who falls in love with Junta but ultimately destroys her in a way I won't reveal.

The story can be interpreted in a lot of ways, I suppose: capitalism vs. tradition, civilization vs. nature, a celebration of incipient fascist primitivism, et al. Like all good fairy tales, symbolism and archtypes abound. However, I like it simply because I think it's beautiful. From Leni Riefenstahl- speaking Italian!- to the mountain to the faces of the Brueghelian peasants, this movie delights the senses and intoxicates the imagination.

For fans of the movie, I recommend getting the CD "Res Gestae" by Eric Owens, who has a song called "Junta" inspired by this film. Some lines: Another mother's son heeds the call/ Another mother's son scales the wall/ Another mother's son takes a fall/ Another cross is hoisted on the wall. It's a good one.

And for all those hesitant to buy this because of all the reviews criticizing the quality: the new DVD released in 2006 is fine. Those people were referring to some earlier VHS edition. Unfortunately, amazon.com has combined reviews for two essentially different products.

This is a gorgeous and haunting film, starring, and directed by, the century's true genius of film, tragically forbidden from creating for over 50 years now by the evil forces of political correctness.

If I could give this a lower rating, I'd do it. The videotape I received was a hideously butchered version of what may once have been a remarkable film. If THIS version is the one that won the plaudits claimed for it, then those who gave the awards must have been blind and mad. The publisher, Timeless Video, Inc., further mutilated the film by tacking on a ridiculously inappropriate sound track, starting with tunes from the musical 'Gigi'! (This I could fix: I turned the sound all the way down.) Photos on the tape's dust jacket are NOT from this film, and the dust jacket looked nothing like the one Amazon shows for this item. Because of the film's butchered condition, the plot made almost no sense--successive scenes often seem unrelated. Much of the film is very hard to see due to light flares, scratches, etc. Certainly I'll be very wary of ordering any videos from this site again, and I'll definitely never order one published by Timeless Videos.

I am very disappointed to read that this is apparently the shoddy public doman transfer of this film that has been around for years.

The shame is that we *KNOW* that beautiful looking masters of the film ARE in existence because of the documentary THE WONDERFUL HORRIBLE LIFE OF LENI REIFENSTAHL, which presents **gorgeous** looking clips from this film.

I won't be buying this one, because I already own the awful transfer being talked about here.

I had hoped to find a pristine
version like the clips in WHLIFE.

Hopefully someday!
John

Although copies of this film must be extremely rare, I felt the genius of Riefenstahl shines through... considering the limitations of the film medium when it was produced. I was very impressed with the symbols of the light and crystals of the film which have a very contemporary echoe to them... a classic!!

As noted in the Product Description of this 2006 Pathfinder Home Entertainment DVD, two different versions of the film are included on the disc, as well as a stills gallery. The two versions are taken from different prints, neither of which has undergone the sort of thorough restoration process that viewers may have become accustomed to with a few other older films.

The spoken German version, with nonremovable English subtitles, has a total run time of 79' 09". It is in quite good but not perfect condition, with some amount of fuzziness in the picture. The dialog was redubbed in the studio, as was almost universally done with all early sound films. This print has the original music score by Giuseppe Becce. Although not pristine, both video and audio are entirely acceptable for this lovely and historically important film.

The silent version runs only 52' 19", even with intertitle cards included, but I haven't tried to compare them to see what scenes have been cut. This print, with truncated credits in English, is in extremely poor condition and is barely watchable. Also it has a different and weirdly inappropriate musical score that sounds rather like circus music. Apparently it's this very bad print transferred to VHS that other reviewers have complained about.