Review of The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) by Nathan M — 15 Aug 2010

While trying to go the distance on Leni Riefenstahl's convincing performance and an abundance of gorgeous winter mountain imagery, Pitz Palu ultimately falls into a crevasse due to a redundancy in the latter.

The film does have its moments, namely Riefenstahl showing a restrained aptitude instead of huge heroics and dramatic night rescue footage, but showing the audience similar shots of snowy faces over and over again only bloated the length and made the film feel tedious and repetitive.

I think the film could have benefitted from shaving about 25 minutes from its 133 minute runtime. Or perhaps if Leni herself had directed it, the editing would have actually been unique and have provided us with something to chew on for those extra minutes.

In the end though I trust that Quentin Tarantino is a good compass regarding film in general and am glad that he pointed me toward (via Inglourious Basterds) what is undoubtedly one of the definitive "mountain" films of the time.