The Holy Mountain

1926 'Mountain Film' by Arnold Frank, starring Leni Riefenstahl
The cutting here is cheerfully fast, pretty rough. We can go right in, out a bit (notice the European rather than plan Americain medium-Long shot), and some very distant views. It really is cut pretty quickly, with not a lot of dwelling. Nevertheless, it, along with the title-cards, is self consciously poetic. With a narrative that isn't interested in itself until most of the way in, we have some wonderful Kuleshov-esque work in between the dancing and the oceans. The montage could have been a little more rythmic, but there's a certin poetry here.
This film trades hugely on backlighting, forming rims around characters (enhanced by plae costume around the head) , making sillouhettes in the long shots. It is all part of a texturally complex piece, with a cluttered array not so much of mis-en-scene, but, as said, textures.
The framing of the film is what gives this its particularly rough and ready style though. For reasons, perhaps of necessity, there is little central framing. When climbing, when anything pretty much, our characters appear in different parts of the frame, all except the centre. Lower down, we have that great sense of earth. Small figures against the great backdrop. Perhaps the finest shots though are the off-necessity low angle ones, where we have out characters on peaks, in the top left corner of the frame. Original, and the angle gives a real sense of height. This is how to shoot nature; not making it part of a centralised human space, but itself the 'subject' of the frame.
The film rather works against this positive usage in its intent on making the mountain a symbol rather than, well, a mountain (it really vacillates between the two). No doubt the sexual politics, save one rather satisfying call to the mountain-top, aren't great, with an emphasis on idiotic 'loyalty' and the woman getting in the way. This film isn't a masterpiece, but, well, it's nice to see some skiing, and with the weather and the clearly very real locations, some great uses of light, there are some craggedly beautiful images.