Eric Escoffier, la Fureur de Vivre

When the Mountaineers Make Their Cinema

Many mountaineers as part of their activity have used cameras and films to allow us to participate through images in their adventures and their emotions. Many of them have become true film professionals: Joseph Vallot, Lionel Terray, Marcel Ichac, Renè Vernadet, Jean Afanasieff, Pierre Royer, Denis Ducroz, Kurt Diemberg and many others are among the conquerors of the image of the mountain. The film depicts the passion of these men on the highest mountains in the world... behind the lens.

Faces Nord

March 12, 1987. The young French mountaineer Eric Escoffier prepares his equipment, very reduced in material and food. He leaves the next day and intends to chain three north faces in the Alps: Eiger, Matterhorn and Grandes Jorasses. The ascent of the first summit, the Eiger is slow, difficult and full of pitfalls. It takes 17 hours to reach it. Without recognizing the terrain -he prefers to improvise- the mountaineer continues through the Matterhorn. When night falls, anxiety is felt on Zermatt's side. Help is organized to pick him up. Desp...

Everest 78, or the French on top of the world

It was a sporting feat, a national feat, but also and above all a technical feat: on October 15, 1978, three French mountaineers, for the first time, reached the summit of Everest: Pierre Mazeaud, Nicolas Jaeger, Jean Afanassieff, accompanied by Kurt Diemberger, Austrian mountaineer and cameraman A performance broadcast live on the radio thanks to the France inter teams and filmed for television by TF1. Christian Brincourt, a great French reporter, tells us about this expedition and questions the members of the expedition on their motivation...