NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (March 2026): Kino have transferred Leni Riefenstahl's The Blue Light to Blu-ray. The presentation starts with:

"Leni Riefenstahl’s first directorial effort, The Blue Light (Das blaue Licht, Eine Berglegende aus den Dolomiten) premiered in Berlin in 1932 and was a popular and critical success. In 1938, the film was re-released in cinemas with alternate opening credits. The name of the Jewish screenwriter, Béla Balázs, had been removed. Riefenstahl regained control of her films in 1951, and released The Blue Light a third time, in 1952, completely re-edited, significantly shortened, and with a new soundtrack. This time, all the artists were properly named in the opening credits. A nitrate print of the 1932 premiere version was preserved in Riefenstahl’s personal archive until the end of 2017. The missing original opening credits with the accompanying title music were also located. These elements were the basis of this 2K restoration."

Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray of The Blue Light presents the 1932 premiere version in a new 2K restoration derived from a preserved nitrate print held in Riefenstahl’s personal archive until late 2017, supplemented by the rediscovered original opening credits and accompanying title music. The high-definition 1080P transfer beautifully revives the film’s pioneering visual poetry: the dramatic alpine landscapes gain depth and texture, with inky black skies, shimmering crystalline glows, and the ethereal play of light and shadow on Junta’s form rendered with impressive clarity and contrast for a film of this age. Grain is natural and film-like, daytime mountain sequences show excellent detail in rock faces and foliage, while nocturnal and mystical scenes retain their hypnotic, otherworldly quality without excessive digital scrubbing. Minor limitations from the source material - occasional softness or density fluctuations typical of early 1930s location shooting - remain, but overall the restoration honors the film’s painterly, almost dreamlike cinematography far better than any prior home video release. Visually, the film is a triumph of poetic cinematography and technical innovation.

NOTE: We have added 74 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original German language. It is presented in a clean, lossless format that respects the transitional early-sound era limitations. Giuseppe Becce’s (Counsellor at Law, The Kaiser of California, Tartuffe, The Last Laugh, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,) romantic orchestral score sounds full and supportive, enhancing the sweeping mountain vistas and emotional peaks without overpowering the sparse dialogue or ambient elements. The restored original title music accompanying the newly located opening credits adds an authentic period touch. While the track cannot compete with modern dynamic range - dialogue is sometimes thin and effects minimal - the audio remains clear, well-balanced, and free of major hiss or distortion, allowing the film’s visual storytelling to remain dominant while the music provides essential atmospheric lift. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers extras that are lean but targeted: a newly recorded audio commentary by film historian Anthony Slide (Hollywood Unknowns: A History of Extras, Bit Players, and Stand-Ins) provides informed context on Riefenstahl’s debut as director, the mountain film genre, production challenges, and the work’s place in her career. Also included is 6-miniutes of 'Alternate Title Sequences', which showcases the 1938 re-release version with the removal of co-writer Béla Balázs’s name (due to his Jewish heritage) alongside a comparison or presentation of the restored 1932 credits. These extras, combined with the restoration text on the packaging, underscore the disc’s focus on historical accuracy and textual integrity.

Leni Riefenstahl's The Blue Light stands as her feature directorial debut, a pioneering mountain film (Bergfilm) that she also produced, starred in as the lead, co-wrote (with Béla Balázs, plus uncredited input from Carl Mayer,) and edited herself - marking a bold transition from her acting roles in Arnold Fanck's alpine dramas to auteurial control. Riefenstahl's self-aggrandizing performance - showcasing her real climbing prowess in manipulated yet awe-inspiring sequences - drew acclaim for its mythic quality, though the work's legacy remains inextricably shadowed by her subsequent Nazi-era documentaries like Triumph of the Will. Postwar, it is often analyzed as a bridge between Weimar romanticism and fascist visual rhetoric, its emphasis on disciplined bodies, elemental forces, and visual ecstasy anticipating her propaganda techniques while retaining a pre-ideological purity. Ultimately, The Blue Light endures not as political tract but as a hypnotic ode to nature's fragile majesty, where Riefenstahl's pioneering eye for composition and light reveals her genius for spectacle - beauty that, like the crystals themselves, proves both enchanting and perilously double-edged. Thematically, The Blue Light operates as a cautionary romantic allegory on the collision between primal purity and corrosive modernity: Junta embodies an innocent, almost pagan communion with nature's untamed beauty, her solitary climbs a dance of spiritual ecstasy rather than conquest. Framed as a fairy-tale legend recounted from a leather-bound book to modern tourists arriving by car at a Dolomites inn in the village of Santa Maria, the story unfolds in 1866 as the tale of Junta, a wild, ethereal outcast who lives in rustic harmony high in the mountains with only a young goatherd companion. Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray of The Blue Light is a welcome and respectful debut in high definition, delivering a solid 2K restoration of the 1932 premiere version that finally does justice to the film’s luminous cinematography and mystical alpine beauty. While extras are modest - centered on Anthony Slide’s knowledgeable commentary and the alternate title sequence - the package prioritizes the core film in its most authentic form, complete with original credits and music. For admirers of Riefenstahl’s early artistry, mountain films, or early sound cinema visuals, this disc represents the definitive home video presentation available, striking a thoughtful balance between technical improvement and historical preservation.

A text screen at the end states:

"Leni Riefenstahl died in 2003, at the age of 101. The artist’s estate was donated in its entirety to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation by her longtime collaborator and sole heir, Gisela Jahn."

Gary Tooze