Death of a Guide

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

December 1969 •English

James Bond tracks his archnemesis, Ernst Blofeld, to a mountaintop retreat in the Swiss alps where he is training an army of beautiful, lethal women. Along the way, Bond falls for Italian contessa Tracy Draco, and marries her in order to get closer to Blofeld.

Das Schweigen im Walde

September 1955 •German

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.

Brother of Sleep

September 1995 •German

In the beginning of the 19th century, Johannes Elias Alder is born in a small village in the Austrian mountains. While growing up he is considered strange by the other villagers and discovers his love of music, especially rebuilding and playing the organ at the village church. After experiencing an "acoustic wonder", his eye color changes and he can hear even the most subtle sounds.

Cervin 1865, une première tragique

March 2015 •German

The first ascent of the Matterhorn was made on July 14, 1865 by Edward Whymper, Francis Douglas, Charles Hudson, Douglas Hadow, Michel Croz and two guides from Zermatt, Peter Taugwalder father and son. Douglas, Hudson, Hadow and Croz are killed on the descent after Hadow slips and drags the other three men down the north face. Whymper and the two Taugwalders, who survive, are later accused of having cut the rope that connected them to the rest of the group so as not to be dragged into the fall, but the ensuing investigation finds no evidence of their guilt and they are acquitted. The Matterhorn is the last great peak in the Alps to be conquered and its ascent marks the end of the golden age of mountaineering. One hundred and fifty years later, a team undertakes the same expedition in order to unravel the mystery.

Dans les pas du Groupe

October 2019 •French

Expédition Hoggar 79

May 1979 •French

TSR documentary on the 1979 expedition to Algeria in the Atakor massif (Hoggar desert), organized by Geneva mountaineer Michel Vaucher and Jean-Blaise Fellay. The climbers make a dozen ascents including the famous summit of Adaouda (which means "finger" in Tamasheq, the Tuareg dialect), by several routes. Then a new route on the peaks of the southern Tezoulegs. They discover the volcanic geological characteristics of the Atakor massif and meet the nomadic inhabitants of the region, the Tuaregs, who are increasingly settling in the town of Tamanrasset.

Aventure à Bleau

January 1980 •French

Adventure in Bleau is a documentary about bouldering that takes place in Fontainebleau. Directed by Jean-Paul Janssen in 1980 and produced by Antenne 2, it is part of the series "Les Carnets de l'Aventure" and broadcast on the same television channel. It features different generations of the finest free climbing artists of the time: Patrick Edlinger, Catherine Destivelle, Lucien Bérardini, Jean Pierre Bouvier, and Bertrand Roche 'Zébulon'.

Escape to France

August 1948 •Italian

A former Fascist takes his son and escapes across the border into France, where he tries to avoid being recognized and having to pay for his wartime crimes.

The Nose Speed Record

October 2019 •English

For decades, an elite handful of climbers have competed for the coveted speed record on the 3,000-foot Nose of El Capitan, risking big falls to shave mere seconds off the fastest time. When a record held by superstar Alex Honnold is broken by little-known climbers Brad Gobright and Jim Reynolds, Honnold drafts fellow climbing legend Tommy Caldwell to establish a new mark that will stand the test of time. Honnold pushes for perfection while Caldwell, a family man, wrestles with the risk amid a series of accidents on the wall that lay bare the consequences of any mistake.

Rock Queen

February 1998 •English

Catherine Destivelle has deservedly become the most famous female climber in the world. She rose to prominence with historic climbs, such as the free ascent of the Nameless Tower in Pakistan, and solo winter ascents of the classic north faces of the Matterhorn and the Eiger, climbs that have never been repeated by any woman. She also made history in sport climbing by winning the world championship title. In 1997, this time in Scotland, on the iconic Old Man of Hoy route, opened by Bonington, Patey & Baillie, Martin Belderson crowned Destivelle Queen of the Rock. She was four months pregnant when she made this 137-meter ascent, which was not difficult but on tricky rock.

Touching the Void

September 2003 •English

The true story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' disastrous and nearly-fatal mountain climb of 6,344m Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.

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.

Ballade à Devil's Tower

January 1992 •French

At the peak of her career as a rock climber, Catherine Destivelle goes to the United States to get away from the competitions and to recharge batteries. There, Destivelle travels by car through Utah and Wyoming to make spectacular free solo ascents in Indian Creek, where she soloes 'Supercrack' (5.10d), in Dead Horse Point State Park, and on the iconic Devil's Tower, where she climbs unroped the second half of the classic 130-foot route 'El Matador' (5.10d).

The Specialists

March 1985 •French

While being transferred to another prison, two convicts - Stéphane Carella and Paul Brandon - effect a miraculous escape. They are pursued across the Verdon Gorge before arriving at an isolated farmhouse whose owner, Laura, offers them sanctuary. Since the death of her husband, Laura has longed to get her own back on the police and she agrees to help Carella and Brandon in their scheme to rob a casino in Nice. After a shoot out with the casino’s owners, Carella realises that not everything is what it seems. Brandon is not what he appears...

Farther Than the Eye Can See

January 2003 •English

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.

Hoggar 1973

January 1973 •French

In 1973, 6 guides from the National Ski and Mountaineering School (ENSA), including Charles Daubas and Walter Cecchinel, left by truck from Chamonix to Tamanrasset in the desert in Algeria with the aim of climbing some peaks of the Atakor massif including Adaouda and Tizouyag where they do the first of "La Voie de l'ENSA".

Nanda Devi

January 1975 •French

In 1975, Raymond Renaud, Yves Pollet-Villard, Maurice Gicquel, Maurice Cretton, Jean Coudray, Yvon Masino, Walter Cecchinel, all teacher guides at ENSA in Chamonix, with the help of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, set out to cross the 2 peaks of the highest mountain in India. After 43 hours in a truck, 10 days of slow and difficult approach walking, helped by goats for the portage due to lack of sherpas, the base camp is set up on the Nanda Devi glacier. Two groups share the two eastern and western slopes, 3 kilometers separate them: the goal being to meet between the two summits by the ridge. But on the big day, with the monsoon, bad weather arrives with wind and snow, we will have to give up. Like the French expedition of 1951 which lost two mountaineers, Roger Duplat and Gilbert Vigne, to whom Paul Gendre and Louis Dubosc pay tribute.

Insostenibile

September 2023 •Italian

Where Eagles Dare

December 1968 •English

World War II is raging, and an American general has been captured and is being held hostage in the Schloss Adler, a Bavarian castle that's nearly impossible to breach. It's up to a group of skilled Allied soldiers to liberate the general before it's too late.