The Silent Mountain | |
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Directed by | Ernst Gossner |
Written by | Clemens Aufderklamm |
Produced by | Heinz Stussak Ernst Gossner |
Starring | William Moseley Eugenia Costantini Claudia Cardinale Fritz Karl Werner Daehn Emily Cox Brigitte Jaufenthaler Harald Windisch |
Cinematography | Daniela Knapp |
Edited by | Florian Miosge Janine Dauterich Evi Romen |
Music by | Gregor Narholz |
Distributed by | Highest Cinemas (india Saarc) |
Release date |
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Running time | 98 minutes |
Country | Austria |
Language | English |
The Silent Mountain is a 2014 Austrian war drama film written by Clemens Aufderklamm and produced and directed by Ernst Gossner set in the Alpine Front of World War I. The Silent Mountain is a love story set in the Dolomites at the outbreak of hostilities between Italy and Austria-Hungary in 1915.
The story begins in May 1915 in South Tyrol where Anderl Gruber, a son of a rich hotel owner, is attending the wedding of his sister Elisabeth (Lisl) with Italian Angelo Calzolari. There, he meets Angelo's sister Francesca, with whom he falls in love. However, the same day Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary. The tensions present between Austrians and Italians immediately escalate into the conflict between them, and they both join their respective armies. With the expulsion of the Italians, by the villagers Francesca is forced to hide her identity. However, Fritz Weinberger, a local teacher who returns from the front and who has particularly strong hatred towards Italians, exploits this and offers Francesca to protect her identity in exchange for sexual favors.
An Austro-Hungarian Army platoon that occupies the adjacent mountains tricks the attacking Italians into retreating. Later. they are reinforced by a German Alpenkorps unit. Anderl is wounded in a massive battle and ends up in the hotel Gruber, which is now a field hospital for wounded Austrian soldiers. Meanwhile, Anderl discovers Francesca's affair with Fritz and returns to the front in such a rage that he single-handedly repulses a massive attack of Italian infantry. Andrerl is severely wounded again. As the following Italian offensives also fail, Nicola Quinziato, the commander of Italian garrison, orders Angelo, an experienced civil engineer, to dig a tunnel below the Austrian positions. Initially it is planned to launch an offensive through the tunnels, but later Quinziato decides to set the explosives below the mountain to blow up the Austrian troops. Angelo is discharged immediately after that and sent to the regular infantry, thus exposing him to the dangers of the war.
Some time later, Angelo is caught by the Austrians where he reveals the Italian plans to blow up the mountain. Anderl helps Angelo to return to their village, while the German and Austrian troops decide to hold the mountain despite the imminent danger. Unfortunately, Angelo's identity is quickly discovered and he is summarily executed by the Austrian troops, with Elisabeth watching.
Anderl looks for Francesca, forgives her and leads her out of the village to the mountains. They arrive close to the Austrian positions in the moment of explosion, which annihilates the Austrian stronghold. They then leave the valley and Anderl later often thinks about their mountain, a mountain without the soldiers.
The film was a box-office success in Austria and Italy in March 2014 and sold to more than 60 countries worldwide. [1] It was released in the United States on August 19, 2014. [2]
The Silent Mountain was shot in various locations in the Dolomites in South Tirol, Trentino, Tirol and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The story is inspired by the actual events during the Mountain War between 1915 and 1918.
In 2012 it was announced by Paradigm's manager David Guillod and his attorney Lev Ginsburg that William Moseley will star in a film along with Eugenia Costantini and Claudia Cardinale. [3]
The crew and cast was struck by lightning while shooting in the mountains. William Moseley was hit as was the camerawoman. She was looking through the viewfinder as the lightning struck and went through the iron body through her eye to her optical nerve and burnt it. [4]
A battlefield set was destroyed and flushed into a nearby river by a mud slide. [4]
Innsbruck is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass 30 km (19 mi) to the south, it had a population of 132,493 in 2018.
Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol is an autonomous region of Italy, located in the northern part of the country. The region has a population of 1.1 million, of whom 62% speak Italian as their mother tongue, 30% speak South Tyrolean German and several foreign languages are spoken by immigrant communities. Since the 1970s, most legislative and administrative powers have been transferred to the two self-governing provinces that make up the region: the province of Trento, commonly known as Trentino, and the province of Bolzano, commonly known as South Tyrol. In South Tyrol, German remains the sizeable majority language.
Kitzbühel is a medieval town situated in the Kitzbühel Alps along the river Kitzbüheler Ache in Tyrol, Austria, about 100 km (62 mi) east of the state capital Innsbruck and is the administrative centre of the Kitzbühel district. Kitzbühel is one of the most famous and exclusive ski resorts in the world. It is frequented primarily by the international high society and has the most expensive real estate in Austria. The proximity to Munich has made it a preferred location for vacation homes among the German elite.
Cortina d'Ampezzo sometimes abbreviated to simply Cortina, is a town and comune in the heart of the southern (Dolomitic) Alps in the province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the Boite river, in an alpine valley, it is an upscale summer and winter sport resort known for its skiing trails, scenery, accommodation, shops and après-ski scene, and for its jet set and Italian aristocratic crowd.
The Italian front was one of the main theatres of war of World War I. It involved a series of military engagements along the border between the Kingdom of Italy and Austria-Hungary from 1915 to 1918. Following secret promises made by the Allies in the 1915 Treaty of London, the Kingdom of Italy entered the war on the Allied side, aiming to annex the Austrian Littoral, northern Dalmatia and the territories of present-day Trentino and South Tyrol. The front soon bogged down into trench warfare, similar to that on the Western Front, but at high altitudes and with extremely cold winters. Fighting along the front displaced much of the local population, and several thousand civilians died from malnutrition and illness in Italian and Austro-Hungarian refugee camps.
A via ferrata is a protected climbing route found in the Alps and certain other Alpine locations. The protection includes steel fixtures such as cables and railings to arrest the effect of any fall, which the climber can either hold onto or clip into using climbing protection. Some via ferrata can also include steel fixtures that provide aid in overcoming the obstacles encountered, including steel ladders and steel steps.
Marmolada is a mountain in northeastern Italy and the highest mountain of the Dolomites. It lies between the borders of Trentino and Veneto. The Marmolada is an ultra-prominent peak (Ultra), known as the "Queen of the Dolomites". In 2009, as part of the Dolomites, the Marmolada massif was named a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The Battle of Vittorio Veneto was fought from 24 October to 3 November 1918 near Vittorio Veneto on the Italian Front during World War I. After having thoroughly defeated Austro-Hungarian troops during the defensive Battle of the Piave River, the Italian army launched a great counter-offensive: the Italian victory marked the end of the war on the Italian Front, secured the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and contributed to the end of the First World War just one week later. The battle led to the capture of over 5,000 artillery pieces and over 350,000 Austro-Hungarian troops, including 120,000 Germans, 83,000 Czechs and Slovaks, 60,000 South Slavs, 40,000 Poles, several tens of thousands of Romanians and Ukrainians, and 7,000 Austro-Hungarian loyalist Italians and Friulians.
William Peter Moseley is an English actor. He is known for his portrayal of the fictional character Peter Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia (2005–2010) trilogy, which won him a Kids' Choice Award, in addition to nominations for a Saturn Award and a Young Artist Award. He also played Prince Liam in the E! series The Royals (2015–2018).
The Tre Cime di Lavaredo, also called the Drei Zinnen ; pronounced[ˌdʁaɪˈtsɪnən] ), are three distinctive battlement-like peaks, in the Sexten Dolomites of northeastern Italy. They are one of the best-known mountain groups in the Alps. The three peaks, from east to west, are:
Although a member of the Triple Alliance, Italy did not join the Central Powers – Germany and Austria-Hungary – when the war started with Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Serbia on 28 July 1914. In fact, the two Central Powers had taken the offensive while the Triple Alliance was supposed to be a defensive alliance. Moreover the Triple Alliance recognized that both Italy and Austria-Hungary were interested in the Balkans and required both to consult each other before changing the status quo and to provide compensation for whatever advantage in that area: Austria-Hungary did consult Germany but not Italy before issuing the ultimatum to Serbia, and refused any compensation before the end of the war.
Sillian is a market town in the district of Lienz, in the Austrian state of Tyrol.
Ernst Gossner is an Austrian film director, screenwriter and producer best known for writing and directing the 2007 film South of Pico as well as 2014 film The Silent Mountain
The Col di Lana is a mountain of the Fanes Group in the Italian Dolomites. The actual peak is called Cima Lana and situated in the municipality of Livinallongo del Col di Lana in the Province of Belluno, Veneto region.
The Kaiserjäger, were formed in 1895 as four normal infantry regiments within the Common Army of Austria-Hungary. Despite the name "Tirol" in its title its members were not just recruited from the crown land of Tyrol but also from other parts of the monarchy. The regiments were disbanded in 1918 with the end of the k.u.k. monarchy. The word Jäger is a characteristic term used for light infantry or light infantrymen in a German-speaking context.
Monte Piana is a 2,324-metre (7,625 ft) tall mountain in the Sexten Dolomites and located on the border between the provinces of South Tyrol and Belluno. The smaller Northern summit of the mountain is named Monte Piano (2,305m).
Tyrol is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, from its formation in the 12th century until 1919. In 1919, following World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, it was divided into two modern administrative parts through the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye:
Viktoria Savs served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War disguised as a man. She was one of two known female soldiers on the Austrian front lines. She served with the knowledge of her superiors, but virtually unrecognized as a woman, on the Dolomite front from 1915 to 1917. After a severe injury in May 1917, she was hospitalized, and her biological sex was discovered, ending her military career. She was awarded several medals for her dedication and bravery. She was known as the "Heroine of the Drei Zinnen."
Elisabeth Jäger was an Austrian journalist, based from 1950 in the German Democratic Republic. She was a committed anti-fascist and a survivor of the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
The White War is the name given to the fighting in the high-altitude Alpine sector of the Italian front during the First World War, principally in the Dolomites, the Ortles-Cevedale Alps and the Adamello-Presanella Alps. More than two-thirds of this conflict zone lies at an altitude above 2,000m, rising to 3905m at Mount Ortler. In 1917 New York World correspondent E. Alexander Powell wrote: “On no front, not on the sun-scorched plains of Mesopotamia, nor in the frozen Mazurian marshes, nor in the blood-soaked mud of Flanders, does the fighting man lead so arduous an existence as up here on the roof of the world.”