The Blue Light

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.deIn any case I'm awaiting the DVD possibilities in all countries interested in bringing to Amazing Light this early 1930s exquisite piece of cinema

The film is inspired - Made before Leni Riefensthal's desent into NAZI propaganda (she taught them how to goose step with effectiveness all too well - "Triumph of the Will" her best really worked as propaganda. ) . Genius Filmaker, the film is fabulous, one of the mountain climbing series of german films, one of the best. - However and this is important as a caution. this transfer to Video Tape sucks, it may have been nessasary as prints are very hard to find. Needs to be restored as a film and brought out as a DVD.

This version of the Blue Light is practically worthless except for the serious film student As others have mentioned we have seen hints of how beautiful it COULD be from restored clips in "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of LR". Hopefully someone will come out with a restored DVD version soon.

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 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.

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.

The fascinating, controversial Leni Riefenstahl displays her vast and complex skills as both filmmaker and actress in this enchanting fantasy tale of morality and emotion. Not a great quality print, but its magic remains in tact. Important historically, given Riefenstahl's cult status.

I must agree that the quality of this video is extremely poor, and the music is pretty hysterical. However, the film, itself, is beautiful. All in all, I would say it's worth the very cheap price as I'm pretty sure this is the only version that exists on video. Something that's been bothering me, though --- I could have sworn I'd seen clips from this with synched dialogue --- and it is from the early 30's. Did I dream this or was the soundtrack destroyed or lost at some point? The best things about this film have to be the bizarre and beautiful performance by Leni and the equally bizarre and beautiful photography. The story, itself, is simple, sweet, and heartfelt.

... meinem ehemaligen und pensionierten Chef,habe ich damit "eine richtige Freude" gemacht,so sagte er!Mehr kann man/frau nicht erwarten!