Dure Limite: Caving in a mill, Mer de Glace

The Descent

July 2005 •English

After a tragic accident, six friends reunite for a caving expedition. Their adventure soon goes horribly wrong when a collapse traps them deep underground and they find themselves pursued by bloodthirsty creatures. As their friendships deteriorate, they find themselves in a desperate struggle to survive the creatures and each other.

The Frison-Roche Track

January 2009 •French

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.

Stars and Storms

June 1955 •French

Gaston Rébuffat is part of the history of mountaineering. Marseillais prodigy, high mountain guide of the Chamonix guide company and famous for the ascent of the most famous north faces: some are 1st rehearsals, others 1st French or 1st as a guide. Filmed by Georges Tairraz, this masterpiece released in 1955 reveals the beauty of effort and the pleasure of sharing in the mountains. Apart from the feat, the mountains are not there to satisfy egocentric ambitions. A classic !

The Cave

August 2005 •English

After a group of biologists discovers a huge network of unexplored caves in Romania and, believing it to be an undisturbed eco-system that has produced a new species, they hire the best American team of underwater cave explorers in the world. While exploring deeper into the underwater caves, a rockslide blocks their exit, and they soon discover a larger carnivorous creature has added them to its food chain.

Le Regard Tairraz

May 2015 •French

For a century and a half, mountain images by their beauty have largely gained from its influence, its frequentation and its development. But they are also a tool in the service of science, fixing the transformation of landscapes, habitats... Over 150 years, the Tairraz dynasty photographed the mountain. Four generations of photographers have magnified the Mont-Blanc massif. From the first photograph taken at the summit of Mont-Blanc in 1861 to the present day, this art is at the origin of many mountaineering vocations and has largely contributed to the tourist development of these formerly ignored valleys. Here is the wonderful story of a dynasty of photographers, the Tairraz, which stretches from 1861 to the dawn of the 2000s.

The Call Of The Peaks

January 1946 •French

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.

Des Hommes Et Des Montagnes

January 1953 •French

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.

Sur Les Traces De Premier De Cordée

January 1952 •French

"Sur Les Traces De Premier De Cordée", a color documentary from 1952 which will be released the same year as the eponymous photo book published by Arthaud, features Roger Frison-Roche and his sidekick Georges Tairraz II on the Aiguille du Grépon (3482 m) in the Aiguilles massif which overlooks the Chamonix valley. Together they co-produce the images of the ascent. The young Pierre Tairraz, who completed his training in Paris, at the school in the rue de Vaugirard (Cinema promotion in 1953), also took part in this very technical aerial filming as assistant to his father Georges Tairraz II and cameraman.

L'Homme qui revient de haut

February 2004 •French

Stars at Noon

January 1959 •French

Les Etoiles de Midi is an engaging docudrama about some of the more spectacular exploits of French mountain climbers over the last several decades. In one re-enacted story, there is a wartime escape through the mountains, and in another, a daring rescue of a pair of climbers who had been missing. The actors themselves are adept at the sport of climbing, and they give the scenes an immediacy and real daring that brings the stories alive. A combination of their acrobatics and skill and the outstanding episodes in the history of French climbing creates a winning 78 minutes.

Dans la voie, Portrait d'un guide au travail

May 2004 •French

First in Line

February 1944 •French

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.

Les 4 Faces de l'Aiguille Verte

March 2019 •French

An adventure of extreme skiing in the Mont Blanc area

Ski The Outer Limits

January 1969 •English

"Ski The Outer Limits" is a poetic exploration of man's "conquest of the useless," his quest to expand the limists of his abilities. Racing, clowning, teaching, flipping and flying - the world's finest skiers define their limits. A philosophical narration brings the story home to anyone wishing to explore their limits.

Caveman: The Hidden Giant

September 2021 •Italian

It has been almost thirty years since Filippo Dobrilla started to sculpt a giant male nude inside a cave 650 metres deep in the Apuan Alps. This almost inaccessible place has jealously protected his secret: his youthful passion for a fellow climber, a passion Filippo was only able to indulge in here in the intimacy of this cave. Even after it was over and ever since then, Filippo has been returning regularly to the cave to work on the most important sculpture of his life, a masterpiece no one will see.

The Mountain

May 1956 •English

Selfish Chris Teller pressures his older brother, a retired climber, to accompany him on a treacherous Alpine climb to loot the bodies of plane crash victims.

Christophe

January 1985 •French

It is 1 p.m. on June 30, 1982, when Christophe Profit, 24, shows up at the foot of Les Drus with his pof bag, his climbing shoes and nothing else. He will try the west face of Les Drus in "solo", in the Mont Blanc massif by "Directe Américaine", 1100 meters of vertical and smooth rock. Christophe will achieve the feat of climbing the wall in free solo, without using a rope or any belaying technique. At 4:10 p.m., barely more than three hours after the start of his ascent, the new climbing star can embrace the Virgin of the Drus at the same time as the career of a high-level mountaineer. Three years later, on July 25, 1985, he climbed the north faces of the Matterhorn, the Eiger and the Jorasses in the same day. Awarded at many mountain film festivals, this great documentary is a magnificent testimony to one man's passion for climbing, the mountains and adventure.

Reel Rock 5

September 2010 •English

From death-defying speed link-ups of the wildest faces in the Alps, to Olympian displays of strength and tenacity on the hardest boulders ever climbed, Reel Rock 2010 features a breathtaking journey through the vertical realm with the heroes of rock and snow.

Reel Rock 6

September 2011 •English

The complete 2011 REEL ROCK Film Tour: Six astounding short films covering every style of climbing on the planet. Starring Tommy Caldwell, Dean Potter, "Sketchy" Andy Lewis, Ashima Shiraishi, Will Gadd, Kevin Jorgeson, Corey Richards, Obe Carrion, Sean Leary, Tim Emmett, Simone Moro, Denis Urubko, Hans Florine, The Huber Brothers, and more.

Voyages au centre de la Terre : Dans les pas de Jules Verne

October 2023 •French