North Face

Mentioned by mountaineer Heinrich Harrer in his book The White Spider, this tragic tale is brought to life in gripping fashion by director Philipp Stölzl. When Berlin newspaper editor Henry Arau (Ulrich Tukur) learns that his secretary, Luise Fellner (Johanna Wokalek), grew up with two of Germany's most daring mountaineers, Toni Kurz (Benno Fürmann) and Andreas Hinterstoisser (Florian Lukas), he sends her to Bavaria to ask why they haven't attempted the first ascent of the Swiss Alps' famed Eiger's North Face: the time is 1936, and a German triumph over the Wall of Death would provide an ideal prelude for the upcoming Berlin Olympics. It turns out that Toni knew two alpinists who died trying to conquer the seemingly unconquerable, but after meeting with Luise he decides to proceed, traveling with Andreas to Switzerland, where they encounter competitors from Italy, Austria, and France. With Luise and Henry arriving to report on the outcome, the climbers take off with Austrians Willy Angerer (Simon Schwarz) and Edi Rainer (Georg Friedrich) on their tail, but when the going gets rough, the two teams combine until events ranging from a storm to an avalanche threaten the entire expedition. North Face offers some of the same high-altitude suspense and convincing climbing sequences as Kevin Macdonald's documentary Touching the Void, but in the end it focuses more on the fictional observer Luise than on the climbers. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)[Blu-ray Review—July 2, 2013—Music Box, 121 min., in German w/English subtitles, not rated, $24.95—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 2008's North Face sports a great transfer and an uncompressed mono soundtrack. Extras include a “making-of” featurette (17 min.), deleted scenes (6 min.), a visual effects segment (3 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid Blu-ray debut for this critically-acclaimed film.]