Destivelle film premieres at Kendal, but how did Brian Blessed get involved...
Among the 15-odd British premieres featuring at this year's
Kendal Mountain Festival,
there's one that will stand out, particularly to male climbers who cut
their mountaineering teeth in the 1980s -
Au Delà des Cimes
a film profiling French climber
Catherine
Destivelle and, featuring rather improbably, a voiceover
by none other than Mallory-obsessive actor,
Brian Blessed.
Destivelle began her career on rock, climbing some of the hardest sport
routes of the day, before graduating to a series of desperately serious
big mountain solos in the early 90s including the Bonatti Pillar on the
Dru, the North Face of the Eiger and the North Face of the Grandes
Jorasses in winter.
For many though, she's best known for
Seo, the iconic
film of her
soloing on sandstone cliffs in Mali, where the spectacle of a
lithe-limbed, crop-topped and short-shorts wearing Destivelle flowing
beautifully over the rock seemed impossibly exotic. Happily there's a
clip on You Tube, so you can see what we're talking about...
Great stuff. Almost as exotic is the story behind the Blessed
voiceover. Initially Destivelle was set to just lecture at the
festival, but on Andy Perkins' recommendation, the organisers made the
decision to show Rèmy Tezier's film about the climber, which
is apparently stunning. Destivelle and Tezier will be there to
introduce it.
The only problem was that the film was entirely in French. Initially
Tezier apparently favoured dubbing, but the organisers opted to arrange
sub-titling at their own expense. But they still needed a voice over
and this was where things got odd.
It turns out that Blessed and Destivelle are old muckers because of a
film they made in 2003 when they spent a coupe of weeks on the Indian
Ocean Island of Reunion simulating an ascent of Olympus Mons, the
highest mountain in Mars... Strange but true.
The upshot was that Destivelle asked Blessed for his help, with the
result that the Kendal premiere will feature his booming tones in
voiceover mode.
All good stuff. You can also see an
interview
in English with Destivelle on YouTube. You can find more details of
this year's Kendal Mountain Festival which runs from 20-23 November at
www.mountainfilm.co.uk
where you can also book tickets for the premiere of
Au Delà des Cimes
which is showing on the Saturday afternoon at 5 o'clock.
