'Hukkunud Alpinisti' hotell (1979)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Grigori Kromanov

Writers:

Arkadi Strugatsky (screenplay)
Boris Strugatsky (screenplay)

Release Date:

27 August 1979 (Estonia)

Genre:

Crime | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Police gets a call-out to a lonely hotel in the Alps. When an officer gets to the hotel everything seems to be alright...

Plot Keywords:

Hotel | Mystery Guest | Mountain Resort | Cyborg | Blonde

Cast

Uldis Pucitis	...	Inspector Glebsky
Jüri Järvet	...	Alex Snewahr
Lembit Peterson	...	Simonet
Mikk Mikiver	...	Hinckus
Karlis Sebris	...	Mr. Moses
Sulev Luik	...	Luarvik
Tiit Härm	...	Olaf
Nijole Ozelyte	...	Brun
Kaarin Raid	...	Kaisa
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
I. Kriauzaite

Also Known As:

Otel 'U pogibshchego alpinista' (Soviet Union: Russian title)
The Dead Mountaineer Hotel (USA) (literal title)

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Estonian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Tallinnfilm

why this piece of crap is still kept for the golden fund of Estonian films ?

25 years ago "Hukkunud alpinisti hotell" was considered to be among one of the three best Estonian films (together with "Viimne reliikvia" and "Navigaator Pirx"). No crime nor fantasy films were often produced in Estonia. So making a real sci-fi movie and shooting it in a far land (Caucasian mountains ?) had to be quite an event here. That was then... The thing i don't understand is why this piece of crap is still kept for the golden fund of Estonian films. Well, the beginning that is very much "Shining" alike is yet promising. But the more the film goes on, the worse it gets. Anticipation that is cognizable in the beginning doesn't form into tension as it should. Lack of technical cull disturbs enjoying the movie instead. First of all, the cinematographer Jüri Sillart should have been drunk or disabled, filming constantly close-ups. The picture is jumping from one close-up to another, so there's practically no overview what's going on in general. I don't even talk about conveying the characters through the picture. Shooting straight into the sun and its reflections in the film for no reason is the cinematographer's style too. Light in the hotel is extremely poor, so the action is time to time only cognizable, not visible. Secondly, the director couldn't reform the mediocre script into fluent running film. The action is nervous, jumping from here to there, so watching it i had a feeling that i had fallen asleep and missed some parts. Thirdly, the much-hyped Sven Grünberg's music doesn't fit in the movie at all as it is too monotonic and doesn't support the action. I can say that the movie interferes the music a bit but the music doesn't help the film at all. For the fourth, special effects are feeble and even embarrassing to watch. For example the scene in the end when the ET-s were escaping from the hotel gliding on the snow, was miserable ! It should have remade and not to put in the movie ! For the fifth, it's incredible how its possible to present good actors so poorly. The most important actor Uldis Pucitis is OK in the beginning where he didn't have to do much yet. The man's charisma helps him out there. Later when his role turns to much more demanding one, he doesn't control it anymore. He just exists on the screen. Estonian far-famed Mikk Mikiver shows that he should have stayed producing as his performance is very very non-realistic. The same critics goes almost to all the other actors as they don't manage with their rather a difficult roles. The actors are rather tin soldiers than individual characters, so even at the end of the movie it is not clear how many people were involved. The only exception is grand old Jüri Järvet who is good as always. And Aarne Üksküla reading text for Pucitis is superb. So watch it and i hope that the myth of the great Estonian sci-fi film is going to be broken at last.