La Congenialità
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.
A screen adaptation of the well-known novel by Roger Frison-Roche about the harsh lives of mountain guides and their families in the French Alps, near Chamonix and the French/Swiss/Italian borders... Like his father, Zian Servettaz is a dedicated mountain man. His Italian-born wife Bianca does not adjust well to his mountain village in France, and to the ever life-threatening dangers presented by his mountain guiding and climbing. She briefly returns to Italy and to her family. However, after Zian's insistence and trip to Italy, she returns to mountain life in the French Alps. Once back there, events will unfold, changing their lives as well as those of other mountain people forever.
The "Lyon Premier 8000-Gasherbrum II 8035m" expedition, organized and led by Jean-Pierre Frésafond in 1975, was sponsored by the Lyon section of the Club Alpin Français and by Louis Pradel, Mayor of Lyon. The film traces the departure from Lyon of Berliet heavy trucks loaded with equipment, daily life in Pakistan, preparation for the expedition and the approach march with the porters, daily life at the base camp and in the camps. altitude of the members of the expedition: L. Audoubert, Marc Batard, F. Bourbousson, A. Chariglione, J. Dupraz, J.J. Forrat, H. and JP. Frésafond, B. Macho, Doctor A. Raymond, Y. Seigneur, J. Soubis, F. Valençot, B. Villaret de Chauvignypuis. Finally On June 18, 1975, Yannick Seigneur and Marc Batard reached the summit by opening a route along the south ridge. Bernard Villaret de Chauvignypuis, who was killed during the second assault, was the first victim of the Gasherbrum.
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.
"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 dramatic story of the British expedition that made the first ascent of Everest. Combining interviews with the surviving members of the 1953 British and 1952 Swiss attempt on Everest with rare archival material, this film tells the story of the race to climb Everest in the early 1950s and its climax in 1953.
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...
"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.
Roger Frison-Roche born in Paris in 1906 and moved to Chamonix at the age of 17. He was quickly adopted by local mountaineers and became the first guide in the Company not to have been born in the valley. He is also an insatiable explorer, in love with landscapes and peoples, having traveled from the Hoggar to the Sami camps in Lapland. And the author, among others, of the famous adventure novel Premier de Cordée! This documentary, made up of archive images and interviews, exposes the prolific life of a man who communicated his passion for the mountains by all possible means. A young journalist from Chamonix follows in the footsteps of Roger Frison-Roche. She meets people who knew him and others who followed in his footsteps: guides, filmmaker and author Philippe Claudel, a director, his family; on a trip to Lapland, Algeria, Chamonix.
Documentary about eating disorders among professional climbers
The documentary focuses on the annual Mani Rimdu festival of Tibet and Nepal, an event which encapsulates the Himalayan Buddhist experience.
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.
Metamorphosis is a real ballet dance on the rocks, interpreted by a great climber, Patrick Berhault, and set in the picturesque countryside of Cote d'Azur and the Lingurian coast. Berhault's evolutions, in the sea, in the grottoes, on the rocks and precipices, are exceedingly difficult but they are chiefly performed to give the movement an aesthetic value. Matemorphosis is the story of a cycle without words, narrated with gestures and music. The climber Monique Dalmasso also partecipates in the film.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Folco Felzani embarks on an epic journey on foot in search of Mustang, the last lost kingdom, in northern Nepal. The story of a king without a kingdom. The adventure of a son without a father.
The documentary gives a detailed description of the conquest of K2 climbing from the north edge on the Chinese side of the mountain. The climb - that proceede well for the first days without too much difficulty even because the weather was good - was extremely hard and took over 30 days in July and August.
Blind climber Erik Weihenmayer and his team's highly successful ascent of Mount Everest along with four other remarkable milestones on the mountain. Time magazine called this the most successful Everest expedition of all time.
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.
Transcending cultural barriers and consistently going against the grain, female Nepali climber Pasang Lhamu Sherpa attempted to summit Everest four times in the early nineties. Although she was not allowed to attend school as a child, Pasang did not let that stop her from pursuing her dreams. After founding her own trekking company in Kathmandu, she blazed a trail for Nepali women via her efforts to summit Everest. Proving how big you can dream and how far you can go to achieve those dreams, she left a legacy not only for the family she has left behind, but for the myriad women following in her footsteps.