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North Face
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| Year: |
2008
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Director: |
Philipp Stölzl
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| Stars: |
Benno Fürmann, Florian Lukas, Johanna Wokalek, Georg Friedrich, Simon Schwarz, Ulrich Tukur, Erwin Steinhauer, Branko Samarovski, Petra Morzé, Hanspeter Müller, Peter Zumstein, Martin Schick, Erni Mangold, Johannes Thanheiser, Arnd Schimkat
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| Genre: |
Historical, Adventure |
| Rating: |
  7 (from 1 vote) |
| Review: |
It is the mid-nineteen-thirties in Nazi Germany, and with the upcoming Olympic Games the authorities there want more and better sporting achievements to raise the country's profile in the world as a population of champions. One obsession the nation is currently seized with is mountaineering, and the conquest of the north face of the Eiger, in the Alps, is a constant worry as nobody has managed to climb it yet and it would be a real boost to Germany if their mountaineers succeeded where others have failed. Step forward Toni Kurz (Benno Fürmann) and Andreas Hinterstoisser (Florian Lukas), whose expertise means they might be the right men for the job...
Of course, the Nazi Germany obsession with mountaineering extended into their movies as well, and a genre of film concerned with life up a lofty peak was flourishing at that time. In its way, North Face, or Nordwand in its native tongue, was a throwback to those works: all it needed was Leni Riefenstahl making an appearance and the illusion would have been complete. However, director Philipp Stölzl wasn't taking this at (north) face value, and there was a keenly felt disdain for the kind of patriotism that took so much pleasure in the success of their sportsmen without remembering the human cost of such acts.
Kurz and Hinterstoisser are fairly well known in Germany as pioneers of climbing, but to those outside the country watching, they might not mean as much unless you are a dedicated climber yourself. So to many of those, this looks to be starting out as a straightforward recreation of a triumph, as after all, why bother making a film celebrating these two men if they had not conquered the Eiger? But don't dismiss this film so easily, as yes, this is a tribute to them, but not entirely because they were so adept at their chosen pasttime. Which they were, but even great men have limits, and that is what is explored here.
A fictional character is added to their story to make a romance out of it to some extent, and she is Luise Fellner (Johanna Wokalek), a secretary at a newspaper office in Berlin who gets a chance to cover the latest Eiger climb because she lets her boss know that she grew up with the mountaineers and therefore is familiar with them personally. The ideal angle for a story, thinks the editor and the both of them head off to the mountain range where Luise rekindles her romance with Toni. None of that actually happened, but you can see why it was included to provide a measure of emotional investment and bring out the main theme.
When Kurz and Hinterstoisser arrive at the base of the mountain, they find they are not alone and there are a pair of Austrians planning to beat them to the ascent. None of the four are aware of it yet, but the presence of these rivals spells trouble for them, another aspect of the drama being that you never know when a tiny mistake, a moment of overconfidence, can sow the seeds of disaster. Although this is strong, it's two things that make North Face stand out: first, the footage of the climb, all created with remarkably convincing special effects, that grows ever more tense, and second, the idea that encouraging brave individuals into life-threatening situations simply to provide good publicity for their home nation is a hollow exercise - especially if it is an arrogant, Nazi government doing the encouraging. Music by Christian Kolonovits.
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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