Switzerland, 1806. In the midst of the Napoleonic era, as tension between France and Austria grows ever more intense, the mountains of neutral Switzerland are the scene of a great passion between the hunter Marcus (John Barrymore) and the young Ciglia (Camilla Horn), a member of a local elite family. The two lovers want to get married but an infidelity of Marcus’s that Ciglia discovers ends up separating them: they will be reunited at the end of the film, united in death, chased into the mountains by the villagers…
In his last silent film, shot between Canada and Universal Studios, Lubitsch portrays life in the Napoleonic era, in a village occupied by French soldiers, with the army organising everyone’s life, and the inhabitants threatened not only by the occupiers but also by an avalanche that threatens to bury them.
The great German director once again chooses to exalt the strength of passion, capable of overcoming all adversities, including those caused by nature.
– LENGTH: 9 REELS.
– THE FILM, LUBITSCH’S LAST SILENT FILM, WAS RELEASED AFTER THE ADVENT OF SOUND AND HUGO REISENFELD’S MUSIC WAS ADDED AND POST-SYNCHRONISED.
subject: Jakob Christoph Heer - Novel
script: Hanns Kräly - Adaptation, H.H. Caldwell- Intertitles, Katherine Hilliker - Intertitles
photography: Oliver T. Marsh, Charles Rosher
music by: Hugo Riesenfeld - Uncredited
mounting: Andrew Marton
scenography: Walter Reimann
color: Bianco & Nero
taken from: Novel "Der Koenig der Bernina" by Jakob Christoph Heer
production company: JOSEPH M. SCHENK PER JOSEPH M. SCHENCK PRODUCTIONS, FEATURE PRODUCTIONS
distribution: United Artists Picture
other titles: Eternal Love, L'abîme, La valanga
Su gentile concessione dell'Ente dello Spettacolo
