Biography

During the National Socialist period, Fanck got in trouble with propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, since he refused to cooperate - apparently because of the necessity of joining the party. In 1934, he also began working on his film, Der ewige Traum/Der König vom Mont-Blanc, which not only starred a French hero in French mountains, but also had a Jewish producer, Gregor Rabinowitsch. This conflict brought Fanck into economic difficulties, from which he was only able to escape by accepting a contract from the Japanese ministry of culture in 1936.

He was characterized as a martinet by a number of actors he directed, including Leni Riefenstahl. His actors often suffered bruises, cuts and injuries as a result of being in some of his films, especially the "mountain" films. In one instance Riefenstahl was hauled halfway up a cliff and "buried" by an avalanche triggered by Fanck having dynamite exploded on the mountain above her. There were no stand-ins in Fanck's vocabulary. Riefenstahl even complained about having bruises for several months after the making of The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) (aka 'The White Hell of Piz Palu'). Notwithstanding this, working conditions on some of Fanck's films were mitigated by having the more humane Georg Wilhelm Pabst as a co-director.

After the screening of his film Der ewige Traum at the mountain film festival in Trento in 1957, Fanck was once again recognized for his artistic achievements. In order to survive his economic difficulties, however, he was forced to sell the rights to his films to a friend, until TV broadcasts improved his situation.

Fanck, who held a PhD in geology, directed mountain films, sports films and ski films. He was assisted by Sepp Allgeier, a cameraman who later worked with Leni Riefenstahl, and worked mostly in the Alps in locations such as the Engadine, Zermatt and the Arlberg and on mountains such as Mont Blanc and Piz Palü.

Arnold Fanck was not able to revive his film career after the war, interested parties failed to come.