Search - The Blue Light on DVD

Top Film - Very Low Quality Transcipt

J. N. Valente | Evora, Portugal | 09/09/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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"

A magic film by a much misunderstood artist

Katjasomi | England | 06/09/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

For this bad copy one star, but five for the movie

Dr. Jekyll | Audubon, Pa. USA | 03/11/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"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!"

Save your money!

K. Morey | Mammoth Lakes, CA USA | 01/05/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"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."