Sangen om Rondane is actually a pretty decent mountain drama

I finally got around to watching Sangen om Rondane from 1934. If you like looking at big rocks and people in heavy sweaters, you should definitely watch this today. People who hate slow stories where nothing happens for twenty minutes might want to skip it though. 🏔️

It is basically about this super rich family from Oslo. They go up to the mountains every summer because that is what you did if you had money back then. They have this huge property that looks way too nice for the middle of nowhere.

Greta is the main girl. She is played by Sonja Wigert. She has this very dramatic face that the camera really likes to stay on for too long. Sometimes she just stares at the horizon and you wonder if she is thinking about her life or just hungry.

There is this one scene in the mountain lake that is just... weird. Greta has a seizure while swimming. It happens so fast. One second she is splashing around and the next she is just sinking like a stone. 🏊‍♀️

The guy who saves her is Knut. He is played by Georg Løkkeberg. He looks exactly like what you think a mountain guy should look like. Very rugged. Very quiet. He probably knows a lot about sheep.

The way they filmed the rescue is actually kind of intense for 1934. The water looks freezing. You can almost feel the cold coming off the screen. It reminded me a little bit of the nature vibes in Zoo in Budapest but with more moss.

Then they fall in love, obviously. It is that kind of movie. But then Greta gets pregnant. That was a big deal for a movie back then. The movie doesn't make it a huge loud thing, it just kind of sits there. It makes everything feel very heavy.

I noticed the sound is a bit scratchy in some parts. There is this one scene in a cabin where the wind is howling outside and the audio gets all distorted. It actually makes it feel more real though. Like you are actually stuck in a drafty house in Norway. 🏚️

The dad is a 'wholesaler' from the city. I don't know what he actually sells. He just walks around looking important in a suit that looks very itchy. He does not seem happy to be in the mountains at all.

There is a lot of walking. So much walking. They walk up hills. They walk down hills. They walk across ridges. If you like hiking, this is the film for you. It’s like a very long travel brochure for Rondane.

I kept thinking about Port of Dreams while watching this. Both movies have that feeling of wanting something you can't quite have. But this one has way more goats. 🐐

The lighting in the indoor scenes is really dark. Like, really dark. I think they only had one lamp. You just see eyes and foreheads moving around in the shadows. It is kind of spooky for a romance movie.

There is this one reaction shot of the mother that lasts about ten seconds too long. She just looks surprised. For a long time. I started checking my phone because I thought the video had frozen. But no, she was just that surprised.

The music is also very 1930s. It’s loud and sort of swells up whenever something minor happens. Like, they see a nice cloud and the orchestra goes crazy. It’s a bit much sometimes. 🎻

I liked the mountain scenery though. It’s all black and white but you can tell the air is crisp. It makes me want to buy a very thick scarf and go sit on a rock. But then I remember there are no bathrooms on mountains.

The pregnancy plot gets a bit messy toward the end. It feels like they were trying to be as dramatic as Hamlet but they didn't have enough time. Everyone starts talking at once and the wholesaler gets very red in the face.

One thing that was really cool was the stop-motion style shots of the clouds moving over the peaks. I don't know if they meant for it to look like that or if the camera was just old. But it looked cool. ☁️

I did find myself wondering how Greta kept her hair so perfect after almost drowning. It is a mystery. Maybe the mountain water has special hairspray in it. Her hair doesn't move even in a gale.

It is definitely better than most of the stuff from that era that just stays in one room. At least they went outside. You can tell the actors were actually cold. Their breath fogging up is not a special effect.

Is it a masterpiece? No. But it’s a good way to spend ninety minutes if you like old-school melodrama. It feels very honest. Even the parts that are a bit goofy feel like they were made by people who really cared about the story.

I think I missed a whole conversation about a property dispute. I was too busy looking at a weird dog in the background of one scene. The dog looked very confused to be in a movie. 🐕

The ending is... okay. It wraps up a bit too fast for me. Like they realize they only had five minutes of film left and had to finish the story. But I guess that's just how movies were back then.

Anyway, give it a watch if you're bored. It’s better than another superhero movie. Just don't expect it to be fast paced. It moves at the speed of a slow hike. 🥾