The White Ecstasy (film)

The White Ecstasy
German theatrical release poster
Directed by	Arnold Fanck
Written by	Arnold Fanck
Produced by	Harry R. Sokal
Starring	Hannes Schneider Leni Riefenstahl Guzzi Lantschner Walter Riml
Cinematography	Richard Angst Hans Karl Gottschalk Bruno Leubner Kurt Neubert
Edited by	Arnold Fanck
Music by	Paul Dessau
Production company	Sokal-Film GmbH
Distributed by	Aafa-Film AG
Release date	17 December 1931 (1931-12-17) (Germany)
Running time	70 minutes
Country	Germany
Language	German

The White Ecstasy (German: Der weiße Rausch) is a 1931 German mountain film written and directed by Arnold Fanck and starring Hannes Schneider, Leni Riefenstahl, Guzzi Lantschner, and Walter Riml. The film is about the skiing exploits of a young village girl (played by Riefenstahl), and her attempts to master the sport of skiing and ski-jumping aided by the local ski expert (played by Schneider). Filmed on location in Sankt Anton am Arlberg, the film was one of the first to use and develop outdoor film-making techniques and featured several innovative action-skiing scenes.

Two Tyrolean skiing stars, Walter Riml and Guzzi Lantschner, have important parts in this movie. They play two Hamburger carpenters in their traditional outfits. They come to the Arlberg and try to learn how to ski with the aid of two different skiing books. A Weisse Rausch downhill race, based on the film, is held every April in St. Anton.^[1]

Cast

• Hannes Schneider as Hannes
• Leni Riefenstahl as Leni
• Rudi Matt as Rudi
• Lothar Ebersberg as Der kleine Lothar
• Guzzi Lantschner as Guzzi, the Hamburger carpenter
• Walter Riml as Walter, the Hamburger carpenter
• Otto Lantschner
• Harald Reinl
• David Zogg
• Josef Gumboldt
• Hans Kogler
• Luggi Foeger
• Benno Leubner
• Hans Salcher
• Kurt Reinl

References

Notes

1. Ski (Jun-Jul 2004) Vol. 68, No. 8:32

Bibliography

• Filmwelt Nr. 51 (20 December 1931) Berlin
• Sadoul, Georges; Morris, Peter (1972). Dictionary of Film Makers University of California Press ISBN 978-0-520-02151-8 pg 79
• Hinton, David B. (2000) The Films of Leni Riefenstahl Scarecrow Press ISBN 9781461635062 pg 9-10
• Richards, Jeffrey (2013) Visions of Yesterday ISBN 131792861X pg 294

External links

• The White Ecstasy at IMDb
• Der weisse Rausch is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
• Walter Riml website