Best wishes for your paper (BTW, is it an academic paper or a newspaper? I’m interested anyway). Will try to catch The Blue Light ASAP. Thanks a ton, JDM, for the tip.

The last line of the synopsis is wrong. Her suitor finds “the secret”, himself and tries to convince Junta how everyone will be rich, including her, and she can leave the mountain.

But she does not speak German and does not want to leave the mountain..

If you plan to see Blue Light soon, I won’t tell you the joking about it in IG. (hint: accents and Brad Pitt ) Otherwise, I will tell.

I am interested in your Rief. ideas. I thought Shoshanna running from the dairy farm, perhaps a symbol of purity like Crystal Mountain, wore a frock like Junta. And I suppose her crawling under the floor might be mountain-climbing like. Then two days ago I was refreshed on “Big Face.”

Now that I think of it, the dairy farm may be analogous to Junta’s mountain house–there is a shepherd boy too with flocks of sheep and goats.

But you have not seen Blue Light so I am intrigued to read your thoughts about the Rief. parallels in the introduction shot, and elsewhere. I will check out the projector table shot soon. Last night I started reviewing the dvd for my paper which I hope to get out soon.

“Junta is hated by the people in the village where she lives, especially by the women, who suspect her of being a witch. Only she can climb the nearby mountains to a cave high up, whence a mysterious blue light glows when the moon is full. Many young men of the village have died trying to follow her. She is driven out of town, and takes to living in the mountains. Eventually she shares the secret of the blue light with one man, and he betrays it.”

No wonder she stands on the ladder in the opening shot…

Since seeing IG I had a nagging idea I should view Das Blaue Licht again. Viewed it last night. I venture to say that Big Face Shoshanna borrows, from among other places, Riefenstahl’s illuminated face. There are various illuminations of “Junta” in the film, one full-big-face, light from the moon, out of camera, above and to the left. In IG the light source is to the left and below. From hell, one might say..

Would like your thoughts or criticisms on my Rief. idea, and whether any illuminated “big faces” appear elsewhere in Rief.’s work.

There is another coincidence between IG and Licht that’s quite funny. I’ll tell you later, don’t want to prejudice your judgment on my big face theory!

You mention Battleship Potemkin strikingly. The first movie that came to mind when watching IB was Pudovkin’s Mother. But then, such close ups were way too common in the early Soviet cinema. Still, the Potemkin connection is possible considering the WW2 setting of the film…

But Nation’s Pride, which I have seen, sure does borrow a lot from Eisenstein’s film.

Thanks and Cheers!

I found your page looking for support for my Joan of Arc idea. I am composing an article on my ideas about the film. Now I see via the Cahiers article you link in a post above that Tarantino confirms the association too. Good catches.

Still I think there is another parent film for the shot. The lighting, wisps of hair trigger a memory, but vague. I thought maybe Eisenstein’s faces in Battleship Potemkin. The full length “Nation’s Pride” has multiple Potemkin borrowings. If you don’t have the IG disc, you can view it at youtube.

I know I’ve seen her like that somewhere else before…