Le Regard Tairraz

Wisła

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the first ascent of the Aiguille Verte, the Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix is ​​producing a film retracing the major dates of this summit which is so dear to it. 'La Verte' has been the object of desire for many mountaineers for a century and a half. Big names have paraded in search of this 4122 meter summit: Edward Whymper, Michel Croz, Albert Mummery, Armand Charlet, Marco Siffredi... La Verte has had a strong impact on the history of mountaineering, inspiring Gaston Rébuffat who warned the future contenders for this summit: "Before the Verte you are a climber, in the Verte you become a mountaineer".

Feel the rush of the breathtakingly beautiful National Parks of California with one deep breath of the summer air.

The first filmed winter ascent of the north face of the Matterhorn. To set the scene, the tragic story of Edward Whymper's first ascent is skillfully pieced together. The modern expedition, a team of three British climbers, is also plagued with epics: Eric Jones is hit by an avalanche and can only come to a dangerous stop at the edge of a 1000 foot drop. Then the worst storm ever recorded in Zermatt hits the Matterhorn. With time and weather against them, the team is forced to climb in the dark as thunderstorms rumble around them. This adventure captures the skill and courage of the climbers, their agony and tension, and the beauty of the assault on this spectacular mountain. Grand Prize at the Les Diablerets festival (Switzerland) in 1976.

Voyage au Mont Perdu

Come fly with us in OVER ALASKA as we take off on a breathtaking tour of our 49th state. Soar over Mt. McKinley and through the craggy crevasses of electric blue glaciers. Follow the Iditarod and kayakers as they navigate past icebergs. Then touch down to Earth and get as close to bears, whales and wildlife as humanly possible.

Jean des Bossons is a documentary-fiction which recounts the activities of a high mountain guide in 1947. Around Chamonix Mont-Blanc, the guide Jean des Bossons, interpreter by the mountaineer Armand Charlet, accompanies on mountain hikes, Jean-Pierre, an apprentice guide. The novice, skis on the shoulder, is already clumsy. The professional taught him how to travel on skis uphill and downhill, then mountaineering in ice and rock parishes. By dint of training, Jean-Pierre has made it his job. Guides are also lifeguards. A group went to a glacier to rescue a man who had fallen into a crevasse. During this rescue, Jean des Bossons is the victim of an accident. A drama that prevents him from practicing the profession, but not climbing. The man sinks into the fog and Jean-Pierre cannot find him.

High up on the Tibetan plateau. Amongst unexplored and inaccessible valleys lies one of the last sanctuaries of the wild world, where rare and undiscovered fauna lives. Vincent Munier, one of the world’s most renowned wildlife photographers takes the adventurer and novelist Sylvain Tesson (In the Forest of Siberia) with him on his latest mission. For several weeks, they’ll explore these valleys searching for unique animals and try to spot the snow leopard, one of the rarest and most difficult big cats to approach.

"Flammes de Pierre" is the first documentary made by Gaston Rébuffat himself in 1947. It depicts Rébuffat in full ascent of the Flammes De Pierre, wild ridges in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif overlooking Chamonix. Like Roger Frison-Roche, Walter Bonatti, René Desmaison or Giusto Gervasutti, Gaston Rébuffat has written and filmed the great pages of contemporary mountaineering but above all, he knew how to talk about it with enough poetry so that it is not simply airtight race stories for spectators. Stories that have been triggers for many readers, who have come to know “stone flames” thanks to him.

"The ascent of the Aiguilles Ravanel and Mummery", climbed by young guides in cycling pants: The brothers Armand Charlet and Georges Charlet, Arthur Ravanel, Henri Couttet and Charles Balmat. The film was shot by Georges Tairraz II, Chamoniard mountain photographer, representative of the third generation of a family line of mountain photographers and filmmakers. George Tairraz II's film will lay the groundwork for a French vision of mountain film; In the 1930s, a French school of mountain cinema emerged, less expressionist, more stripped down and realistic than the German school. These are the films of Marcel Ichac, Roger Frison-Roche, Samivel, Georges Tairraz II, etc. It develops according to the principles set by Marcel Ichac, in opposition to the German school. It is both about getting out of the dramatic vision of the mountain and placing the mountain and the climbers at the heart of the plot.

Marcel Ichac accompanied the mountaineer Armand Charlet, in 1943, in the repetition of the first crossing of the Aiguilles du Diable that the guide of the Chamonix valley had made in 1925. A roped party joined on snow and ice the Col du Géant, reached at the Mont-Blanc-du-Tacul stop and on the Col du Diable. The men cross the needles by climbing chimneys, cracks and abseiling walls. They access the eastern slope of the Mont-Blanc massif which offers a panorama of the Grandes Jorasses and Mont-Blanc. Armand Charlet was the first to reach the summits of four needles above 4000 meters: the Devil's Horn, Pointe Chaubert, Pointe Médiane and Pointe Carmen; he also tells how he successfully climbed the furthest, the Isolated. Marcel Ichac shot these scenes as close as possible to his subject, he responded with this film with a “truth” cinema, the principle of which we find in his later productions.

L'Appel Des Cimes, directed by Alain Pol, is a documentary commissioned by the CAF and the various French ministries on the practice of post-war mountaineering. In 1946, climbers trained at the Fontainebleau Climbing School. Guy Poulet and Jacques Poincenot try to climb the Aiguilles de Chamonix but fail during the climbing phase. After a night in a refuge with Denise Rouzeau and the guide Pierre Allain, the mountaineers make a new attempt. Successful demonstration for those who continued the approach walk then the passage of the seracs of the glacier. On the rock, the roped party crosses a chimney and a crack to reach the summit and abseil down. Led by high mountain scouts, Guy and Jacques rediscover the glaciers and needles of the Mont-Blanc massif during the next lesson.

History, advice and demonstrations of mountaineering in the Mont Blanc massif by the renowned guides of the National School of Ski and Mountaineering from Chamonix. The film starts with an historical summary illustrating the aspirations and methods that lead man to conquer the mountains. Armand Charlet teaches mountaineering techniques and takes his students to the field for glacier or rock exercises. Gaston Rebuffat makes demonstrations of particularly dangerous climbs. At altitude, people move in solitude, cold and silence, like circus acrobats without spectators, but nothing stops the modern mountaineer.

Six blind Tibetan teenagers climb the Lhakpa-Ri peak of Mount Everest, led by seven-summit blind mountain-climber Erik Weihenmayer.

Marc-André Leclerc, an exceptional climber, has made solo his religion and ice his homeland. When filmmaker Peter Mortimer begins his film, he places his camera at the base of a British Columbia cliff and waits patiently for the star climber to come down to answer his questions. Marc André, a little uncomfortable, prefers to return to the depths of the forest where he lives in a tent with his girlfriend Brette Harrington. In the heart of winter, Peter films vertiginous solos on fragile ice. He tries to make appointments with the climber who is never there and does not seem really concerned by this camera pointed at him "For me, it would not be a solo if there was someone else" . Marc-André is thus, the "pure light" of the mountaineers of his time, which marvel Barry Blanchard, Alex Honnold or Reinhold Messner, interviewed in the film. An event film for an extraordinary character.

Director Damien Roz was twelve years old when he attended a conference by mountaineer Jean-Marie Choffat who told of his passion for the mountains and his fight against cancer. Shocked, the young boy said to himself that one day he would tell the story of this extraordinary man. 29 years ago Jean-Marie Choffat, a seasoned mountaineer, suffered from liver cancer. It was then announced to his parents that he only had a few months left to live. But Jean-Marie, who had just had a son, promised himself that he would see his son grow up until he was at least 20… His son Marcelin is almost thirty today and Jean Marie is still there. Jean-Marie lived through the golden age of mountaineering with some 1,200 ascents around the world and many firsts... If he remembers an ascent of the north face of the Grandes Jorasses between two chemotherapy sessions, he evokes his strong friendships with Yannick Seigneur, René Desmaison or Gaston Rébuffat...

History of the first ascent of Aconcagua by the south face in February 1954 by the French shock team led by René Ferlet and composed of Lucien Bérardini, Adrien Dagory, Edmond Denis, Pierre Lesueur, Robert Paragot and Guy Poulet. In seven days of combat, they extricate themselves from the mountain in a pitiful state; all except Robert Paragot will be victims of severe frostbite which earned them amputations, some important as for “Lulu” Bérardini who lost part of his left hand.

Two young cameramen are asked to film a Mount Everest expedition by German mountaineer Thomas Weber; a man wishing to climb Everest, in spite of his visual handicap. For cameramen Milan Collin and Kevin Augello this is a dream come true. They accept the challenge with full excitement In the first weeks Milan and Kevin are confronted with their own physical limitations. Are they capable of climbing this mountain? Surrounded by people who are prepared to die for their dream, giving up is not an option. They are confronted with accidents and death. In the isolated environment Milan and Kevin turn the camera on each other. This film is a personal story of two men confronted with the harsh and extreme conditions high up on the mountain.

A Hmong guide's daily life in the mountains of Sapa, North Vietnam.

Struggling with a mid-life crisis, Robert Oelman leaves his psychology career in the early 1990s to photograph rare and exotic insects. After moving from the United States to Colombia, he forms a special bond with his subjects in the Amazon rainforest. This connection enables him to make striking photographic images of new and undocumented species. After more than 20 years of traveling, searching, and photographing, his quest culminates with a New York City gallery show where he finally shares his images with the public.