Henry Saw: North Face

An excellent and stirring German period piece...


North Face (Nordwand in German) tells the story of two German mountain climbers' attempt to be the first to scale the Eiger mountain (one of the three tallest mountains of the Alps) in 1936. It's a fictionalized telling of true events, weaving in facts with necessary creative license to fill out the story, and it is one of the more gripping movies I've seen concerning the struggle to survive against nature.

The list of mountain climbing films is a relatively short one. The only ones I've really seen are Cliffhanger (which sort of counts), Alive (which also sort of counts), and the documentary Touching the Void. Touching the Void is an amazing film, and North Face isn't quite as good, but it is still an absolutely compelling watch.

The film's heroes are Toni Kurz (Benno Fürmann) and Andreas Hinterstoisser (Florian Lukas) who are enticed by a childhood friend named Luise (Johanna Wokalek), who works for a newspaper, into trying to climb the most dangerous mountain face in the Alps. For the German media it is tied into the upcoming Summer Olympics and proving German superiority. When Toni and Andy arrive at the mountain there are reporters, spectators, and rival teams waiting for them. Their biggest rivals, and the other two other major characters in the film, are the Austrian climbers who know if Germany annexes Austria then they could be the ones thought of as heroes. The film then shows us in great detail the race between the German and Austrian climbers until the dire conditions force them to work together.



The acting is superb from the entire cast. Florian Lukas and Simon Schwarz (who plays one of the Austrian climbers) are the standouts but there really isn't a false note to be found. Even smaller roles, like those of the spectators at the hotel at the base of the mountain, all add an authentic flavor to the film.

Director Philipp Stölzl and cinematographer Kolja Brandt do superb work. We are constantly aware of the allure and the danger of climbing and the awe-inspiring beauty and incredible hazards of the mountain itself. At one point I wondered if the two leads were working actors or professional climbers who were acting their butts off - that's how believable the climbing scenes were. I later checked and saw that they are definitely actors but it just goes to show how impressive a job Stölzl did in making us believe everything on screen.

The film's flaws lie mostly with its editing; some moments are stretched to long while other scenes are cut too tightly together. There are a few overly sentimental and heavy handed moments involving Luise and the other guests at the hotel and parts of the ending, though based on how the events actually transpired, were frustrating in their pace and execution.



A harrowing and absorbing film that is filled with moments that will make you hold your breath, grip your seat, and move you with the climbers acts of heroism and brotherhood. If you can see this on the big screen I would make the effort, the cinematography demands as big a canvas as you can find, but try to catch this film any way you can.

Grade: B+

Best Scene: The moment when Andy and Toni must decide to continue climbing up or make their descent...