Cinema of mountain

the Cinéma of Montagne is a cinematographic kind which represents the mountain. It is not summarized solely with the " cinema in montagne" who rather qualifies the films in which the mountain is only one decoration and not the stake of film. The cinema of mountain is characterized rather by films whose mountain is the stake of film, that this stake is sportsman, dramatic, symbolic system, poetic, romantic, etc It counts also films exposing the popular cultures of the mountain.

The cinema of mountain can cover with the Documentaires and films of fiction.

Theory of the cinema of mountain

Symbolisms of the mountain

The mountain constitutes a rich framework of direction to tell a history:
  • " Place; inaccessible" , near to the sky, the mountain constitutes since always a symbolic system place associated with the divinities this that it is in Europe (the Greek Olympe for example), in the tradition Judeo-Christian (Moïse and the Tables of the Law) or elsewhere (the temple-mountain Hindouistes for example). In the cinema, the mountain constitutes a place of purity (See the blue Light ) whose rise can constitute a mystical advance.
  • Place of danger and risk, the mountain constitutes also an ideal decoration for any dramatic or heroic event. Even grounds of actions for heroes such James Bond.
  • Challenge with the man, the mountain will also contribute in the years 1930-1950 to nourish a nationalist ideology, in particular in the Germanic countries (Leni Riefenstahl and Luis Trenker).

The mountain, decoration or hero?

At the beginning of the XXe century, the representation of the mountain in the professional cinema was done primarily in two manners:
  • tourist propaganda with often of long fixed plans and at best of the dollies.
  • of the films in which the mountain was a decoration being used to dramatize an external intrigue (sentimental, police, of espionage, etc). More the good examples are the German films, of which those of Leni Riefenstahl.

Concurrently to that, of the mountaineers turned of films, generally of the memories of their races, whose diffusion did not exceed their entourage.

In reaction against that, on the scenario writers and especially on the mountaineers, in particular Marcel Ichac as from 1934, decided to replace the mountain in the center of film:

  • the mountain (its rise in particular) must constitute the center of the intrigue.
  • the actors must be true mountaineers: no faking (it is the Cinéma truth).
  • the camera must accompany the mountaineer in his sporting exploit. What did not become possible that with light cameras (In 1934, Marcel Ichac achetea a camera of German exploration ethnological to the Chips) and either of the fixed cameras on foot.
  • the scenario writer must thus also be to him an accomplished mountaineer.

“Marcel Ichac, with his idea of the cinéma-vérité (“All would have done without the same way if the camera had not been there”, said it in connection with the Needles of the Devil) launched a true debate which is not still closed today: what the cinema of mountain? ” (Marc Fenoli).

The cinema of assembly is thus before a whole documentary kind, even if a share of fiction can be brought there (see " Stars of midday " of Marcel Ichac).

Remain that pure films of fiction, having assimilated the lessons of the mountaineers, can represent the mountain with much beauty or force (" Cliffhanger").

History of the cinema of mountain

First reports (as from 1901)

  • the first film of the cinema of mountain is the film Cervin , turned in 1901, six years after the invention of the cinema, by a probably Swiss scenario writer who did not leave his name to the history. It is a film of a few minutes which reports the principal stages of the rise since Zermatt.
  • the film of the American mountaineer Frank Ormiston-Smith with the Mont Blanc in 1903.
  • Drama on the glaciers of Blumlisalp (1905), carried out by Felix Mesguich, with Doctor Biely (Swiss). A rescue on the Swiss glacier (2.800 meters of altitude) dominated by the Eiger and the Jungfrau. Then Felix Mesguich and Doctor Biély would have left to turn of other films of mountain.

Italian domination on the documentary one of mountain (years 1910)

The Italians (as private individuals inhabitant of Turin) will dominate the cinema of mountain of the years 1910.
  • Ascension in Cervin (1911) realized by Mario Piacenza, “first mountaineer to have made a film of mountain”, according to Marc Fenoli. Since 1908, it would have turned to 4.000 meters.
  • Rise with the Tooth of the Giant (1911), carried out Mario Piancenza.
  • has 3.000 meters on Adamalo (1916), military film carried out by Luca Comerio and Paolo Granata.
  • Through the glaciers and snows of Tonal the (1918), anonymous military film.
  • Maciste alpino (1916) realized by Giovanni Pastrone: Italian film of war. It is with him “that the cinema of mountain will hang the turning which will make it evolve/move of documentary with film with intrigue. ” (Marc Feboli).

The Italians will carry out first Himalayan films:

  • the forwarding of the duke of the Abruzzi in K2 (1909) realized by Vittorio Sella. First Himalayan film in the world.
  • In the Himalayas of the Cashmere (1913), realized by Mario Piancenza.

Later, the British will raaliseront a film during the forwarding of 1924 in the Himalayas.

The mountain like decoration (years 1920)

“the scenarisation, with the beginning of the year twenty, makes take with the cinema of mountain a decisive turn. For a certain number of productions, the mountain becomes the framework, and only the framework, of a romantic screen whose action is not strictly related to the mountain medium. ” (Marc Fenoli).
  • of the Western S is turned to the foot of the Rocky Mountains,
  • Blind husbands or the law of the mountains (1919), carried out with the the United States by Eric von Stroheim (the retributive mountain “absorbs” a seducer)
  • Jocelyn (1921) and Genevieve (1923) carried out by Leon Poirier, adapted Lamartine.
  • Fleur of snows (192?) realized by Paul Barlatier (intrigue in love with 2.700 meters with altitude).
  • the Wheel (1922) realized by Abel Gance (the mountain like symbol of the destiny).

The German school: the dramatized mountain (1924-1939)

It is the “German” school (in fact Germanic of expression in the broad sense) which will dominate this cinema in which the mountain is used like a dramatic decoration. They are mainly the films of Fanck, Trenker and Riefenstahl. A domination of a good decade inaugurated by the crowned Mountain (1924) of Arnold Fanck (but it starts to turn since 1913?). The mountain is in fact dramatic more than one decoration: it enters of full foot the intrigue. “It constitutes even the motive fluid of it, by the framework and its dramatic dimension, but especially by the relationship induced between it and the characters. ” (Marc Fenoli). Characteristic of the German culture, the mountain and nature is seen like triumphing, inspiring enthusiasm or crowned fear. A romantic vision which will be run very well in the ideology Nazi.

  • Arnold Fanck carries out in particular Prisonniers of the mountain (1929), Tempête on Mont Blanc (1931) (with Leni Riefenstahl and a German ski champion), DER weisse rausch or White Ivresse (1932) (one of first films on the Ski).

  • Leni Riefenstahl carries out in particular Das blaue licht or the blue light (1932), then propaganda films of the mode.
  • Luis Trenker carries out in particular DER kampf ums Matterhorn or Combat for Matterhorn (1928) (chronic of the rise of the Cervin by Whymper) (film carried out with Mario Bonnard, Nunzio Malasomma), Monts in flame (1931) (on the austro-Italian war), the ambush (1932), DER verlorene sohn or the prodigal son (1934) (a mountaineer in New York), Drame in Cervin (1935-1938), Love letter of Engadine (1938).

The films which passed to France about 1930

Here the principal films of mountain to which have could assist in France about 1930: “One saw in France at that time, some good films of mountain. Jean Tedesco, with the Old man-Dovecote, passed by again the Crossing of Grépon regularly filmed by Gaston Chelle which we turn over to see each time with devotion, while a small room of Chamonix had constituted a program exclusively made up of films of alpinism due to Georges Tairraz, another veteran of the cinema of mountain, him also always on the breach. One of these films showed the Rise of the Needles Ravanel and Mummery, climbed by two young affublés guides of breeches cyclists: the brothers Armand and Georges Charlet (…) To Paris, we ran to see German films, always terribly dramatic, of Arnold Fanck and Luis Trenker. As these films had had much success, at least in France, the producers austro-German flooded the French screens. Each film comprised obligatorily a scene of love on the terrace of a refuge, tallied on bottom of mountain, an avalanche, and a scene of night with research of the victims by a caravan of guides holding up of the torches and going, following the case, with foot or ski. Because the ski was combined with the alpinism for the needs for the setting in scene. To be last Prisoners of the Mountain with Storm on Mont Blanc and of white Intoxication to the Knights of the Mountain, we east were not happier for that. ” (NB: for the quality of the authenticity) (Marcel Ichac, When the stars of midday shine, ED. Arthaud, Paris, 1960, page 11-12).

The French school, a humanism (years 1940-1960)

In the years 1930, affirms a French school of the cinema of mountain, less expressionnist, more stripped and realistic that the German school. They are the films of Marcel Ichac, Roger Clipping-Rock, Samivel, Georges Tairraz, etc It develops according to the principles fixed by Marcel Ichac, in opposition with the German school. It is at the same time a question of leaving the dramatic vision of the mountain and of placing the mountain and the mountaineers in the middle of the intrigue. “the cinema of mountain, French slope, will have imposed a new version, stripped of any pathos, which will make its place with the gesture and the pure relation of the man with the mountain. ” (Marc Fenoli).

  • Georges Tairraz opens the way since 1924 with Ascension of the needles Ravanel and Mummery (1924).

  • the first film manifest of this school will be With the Attack of the Needles of the Devil (1942) of Marcel Ichac.
  • It is followed by Premier of cord (1943), of Louis Daquin, according to the novel of Roger Clipping-Rock. He is “the first film with scenario to open with the cinema of mountain other prospects that the drama. ” (Marc Fenoli).
  • the Stars of Midday (1958) of Marcel Ichac was the company successful to leave the cinema mountain, and this in its most rigorous meaning (that the mountain and the alpinism are the center of the subject of film, its raison d'être), of its ghetto to make a general public kind of it.

In 1944, the historian of the cinema Pierre Leprohon thus summarized the first decades of the cinema of mountain: “Of all that brought to us the Alpine cinema, from the images is detached, but three names remain in light: Arnold Fanck, Shine Trenker, Marcel Ichac. Three names of scenario writers who were initially mountaineers. It is by a personal knowledge of the mountain that they managed to us to give the most veracious images of them and also more moving. (.) The three men whom we have just quoted do not have anything in common if not the love of the mountain and their Article Their expression differs in measurement even from their personality. Arnold Fank made use of the mountain like reason symbolic system or dramatic. Luis Trenker sees there an element of picturesque and exaltation. Marcel Ichac, a school of energy and endurance. Three forms of inspiration lead to three different expressions: the symbol, the evocation, the document. ” (Pierre Leprohon, the Cinema and the mountain , Jean editions Knew, Paris, 1944, page 141).

Marcel Ichac will use portable German cameras planned for ethnological films to revolutionize the cinema of mountain. The light camera indeed makes it possible to be in the middle of the action, to ski or of rgimper with the camera. ““In these times there (in the Thirties), the professional operators moved with large electrical motor cameras. The weight of the camera, of the batteries, without counting the foot and films, empéchaient the operator to circulate. ” (explained Marcel Ichac). With its portable camera, Ichac, it, will be able to keep a skier in his field during several seconds; it will be able to also move on a wall to follow the climbing one. It will be in the middle of the action, beside the sportsman. ” ( Marcel Ichac, the uncontested Master of the cinema of mountain , Pierre Minvielle, in the Mountain and Alpinism , 3-1994, p 12-14).

The Ichac method will mark the cinema of mountain: “Marcel Ichac made school; not simply because he was the first French scenario writer of mountain, but especially because having approached the cinema as a professional, i.e. with the requirements of a true cinematographic writing (scenario, framing, put in scene), he did not disavow his vocation of mountaineer, leaving with the mountain its full dimension. In particular, he always endeavoured to turn the various sequences to the place and hour when they were supposed to take place. This requirement taken again by his/her own collaborators (Jacques Ertaud, Jean-Jacques Languepin, Rene Vernadet, etc) became a label: that of the authenticity” . (Homage to Marcel Ichac, Yves Ballu, about 1986 in???).

Following the example Marcel Ichac, several large French mountaineers of the following generation decided to hold themselves the camera, of which Lionel Terray, Gaston Rébuffat, etc

The failure of Hollywood (years 1950)

The United States will spend time before absorbing the lessons of the cinema of French mountain. Hollywood will primarily try to be located in the wake of the German school, exploiting mainly the mountain like decorations dramatic.

(To be supplemented)

Lists of principal films of mountain

Among the films which marked the cinema of mountain:
  • Die Geierwally (1921), and the remakes of 1940,1956 and 1988
  • Die weisse Hölle vom Piz Palü (1929)
  • Das Blaue Licht (1932)
  • Der Berg ruft (1938)
  • the crossing of Grépon of Gaston Chelle (1925)
  • the films of Georges Tairraz

Film festivals of mountain

The festivals members of Alliance AICM

International Alliance for the Cinema of Mountain (International alliance for moutain film) account (in 2006) 16 festivals in 13 country:.
  • International Mountain and Adventure Film Festival At Graz (Austria)
  • Banff Festival off Mountain Films (Canada) * Teplice nad Metují (Czech Republic)
  • Festival of film of mountain and adventure of Autrans (France). It Co-is organized with the French federation of the alpine clubs and mountain.
  • Kendal (Great Britain)
  • Dundee (Great Britain)
  • Cervino (Italy)
  • Torino (Italy)
  • Festival Internazionale Film della Montagna E dell' Esplorazione Citta de Trento (Italy) (Italy)
  • Moscow (Russia)
  • Poprad (Slovakia)
  • International festival of the cinema of mountain and adventures of Torello (Spain)
  • Diablerets (village) (Swiss)
  • Lugano (Swiss)
  • Taos (the United States)
  • Mountainfilm in Telluride (Colorado, the United States)

Other festivals

  • Cortina d' Ampezzo (Italy)
  • Habuka (Japan)

See too

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