Review of The Silent Mountain (2014) by Ola G — 04 Feb 2017

The story begins on May 1915 in South Tyrol where Anderl Gruber (William Moseley), a son of a rich hotel owner, is attending the wedding of his sister Elisabeth with Italian Angelo Calzolari. There, he meets Angelo's sister Francesca (Eugenia Costantini), 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 expulsion of Italians by the villagers Francesca is forced to hide her identity...

"The Silent Mountain" or "Der stille Berg" is an Austrian movie that deals with the outbreak of World War I between Italy and Austria-Hungary in 1915. To be very honest "The Silent Mountain" is not working on the main levels at all, meaning the acting, the dramatic structure, the storyline and the general character set up. The love relationship between Anderl and Francesca is not intriguing nor convincing, which needs to work for you as a viewer to stay focused and interested. My biggest issue was however the theatrical bad acting that runs through the whole film. And it seems that there´s been a bit of poorly excecuted dubbing as well. This actually forced me to fastforward the final 40 minutes and that my friends is something that never ever happens despite how bad it might be. But, I simply couldn´t endure this film. Yes, the cinematography is stunning at times, but it´s too much style over substance, and with such a historic tragic backstory it could´ve been so much better. This is unfortunately a failure in my eyes.