A Tragedy in the Alps
A rich Englishman arrives to Chamonix and finds accommodation in a hotel: here he realizes that he has been robbed along the way and that he no longer has a penny. Abruptly expelled from the hotel, the man wanders through the woods, where he meets a mountain guide. A crazy idea flashes through his mind: with a stone he hits the guide and deprives him of clothes, boots, the ax and all the mountain gear. Then, making himself go for guidance, look for customers to take to the mountains and earn some money. Hired by a group of compatriots, he ventures into a long hike and, having reached the Bossons glacier, he leaves his customers and flees. But the robbed guide reaches him with a vengeful purpose...
Eagleswing Panorama of the Mer de Glace
1901 film of the Mer de Glace, cinematography by Frank Ormiston-Smith.
Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez
The ambitious police officer Cruchot is transferred to St. Tropez. He's struggling with crimes such as persistent nude swimming, but even more with his teenage daughter, who's trying to impress her rich friends by telling them her father was a millionaire and owned a yacht in the harbor.
The Conqueror Of The Useless
Biography of ski instructor, mountain guide, mountaineer and filmmaker-lecturer Lionel Terray. Film-portrait of an emblematic figure of French mountaineering in the 1950s and 1960s, reconstructing the life, the great races and the expeditions of the "conqueror" of the most difficult walls and summits of Europe, the Himalayas, the Andes and North America. Marcel Ichac produced in 1966, the day after the Gerbier accident, this illustrated tribute by bringing together personal archive documents, unpublished animated sequences or extracts from expedition images as well as comments taken from the autobiographical texts of Lionel Terray " The Conquerors of the Useless" and "Battle for Jannu". This film, presented at the Cannes Film Festival, has won numerous awards at specialized film festivals, including the Trente Festival and the Banff Festival.
Excursion on the Chain of Mont Blanc
In 1910, Arrigo Frusta and the operator Giovanni B. Vitrotti took the camera up to the 4000 meters high of the Mont Blanc chain to make three short mountaineering films for the Società Anonima Ambrosio. They were the first in Italy to realize documentaries in the high mountains. In this first film, a party of three mountaineers, including Arrigo Frusta make a mountaineering traverse in the Mont Blanc Massif. The purpose of the film is not to show a concret ascent, but to show the beauty and spectacularity of the high mountain landscapes and the the fascination of those who venture to conquer the high peaks. The other two films of the series are: 'Da Courmayeur al Colle del Gigante' and 'Sulle dentate scintillanti'.
Fusillade of Rocks in the Alps
1904, cinematography by Frank Ormiston-Smith.
Circular Panorama of Bear Rink
1903, cinematography by Frank Ormiston-Smith
Cervin 1865, une première tragique
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.
Surmounting the Summit of Finsteraarjoch
1905, cinematography by Frank Ormiston-Smith.
Climber and Guides Camping Out
1902, cinematography by Frank Ormiston-Smith
Chamonix - La Mer de glace. Montée
Four roped men jump a crevasse and ascend through the seracs of the Mer de Glace using long ice axes. The shot belongs to a collection of scenes that were presented together as a kind of travelogue film under the title of 'Voyages animés' in a diorama pavilion in the Universal Exhibition of Paris of 1900. The mountaineering scenes in this series include four scenes in the Mer de Glace and one in the Meije glacier. These five scenes, under a minute long, are the first mountaineering images ever filmed. Several of the 'Voyages animés' scenes were included in the Lumière catalog in 1901 under the title of 'À travers la France'.
Switzerland Series
Distributed under the title of ‘Switzerland’ or ‘Playground of Europe’, the film consists of a collection of scenes filmed in the Alps by Frank Ormiston-Smith between 1903 and 1905. The scenes belong to concrete moments in different ascents and treks in the Alps and are presented together without the intention to narrate a concrete ascent. These are some of the scenes: Snow avalanche on the Shreckhorn, Difficult ascent of a Rock Peak, A close call - Dangerous climbing, Descent of steep snow drift, Crossing a dangerous snow bridge, Fusillade of rocks on the Alps, Descending a steep rock-faced mountain side, Capt. Spelterini's balloon trip across the Jungfrau, Surmounting the summit of the Finsteraar-joch.
Ascent and Descent of the Dolomite Towers
Frank Ormiston-Smith, the pioneer mountaineering photograher and filmmaker, filmed in 1906 the ascent to several towers in the Cinque Torri area in the Dolomites, acomppanied by Bortolo Barbaria, Baldessare Verzi and Damiano Dibona, three well-known Ampezzo mountain guides. Among others, the team ascended Torri Inglese, and placed the camera on top of some of the towers by pulling it with a rope. The film, produced by the Urban Trading Company, was presented at the Alhambra Theater in London in November 1906. Ormiston-Smith is considered the father of mountain cinema. In 1902 he filmed the first major mountain film shown widely in cinemas: "The Ascent of Mont Blanc". The success of his films encouraged the production of alpine films in which mountaineering feats were shown, and inspired other pioneer filmmakers.
Rock Queen
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.
Christophe
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.
The Restaurant
A great French restaurant's owner, Monsieur Septime, is thrust into intrigue and crime, when one of his famous guests disappears.
Ascending the Guggi Glacier
Released in 1901
The Battle of the Snow
A crowd of a hundred boys rushing the position of another crowd, storming their adversaries with volleys of snowballs, finally driving the enemy from the crest of the hill, a position of vantage they held in the beginning of the fray.
Accident on the Great Schreckhorn
1902, cinematography by Frank Ormiston-Smith
Lady Skaters' Hockey Match on Bear Rink
1902, cinematography by Frank Ormiston-Smith