Premier de cordée (1944)
Directed by Louis Daquin

Film Review

It was with his first solo film as a director, Nous les gosses  (1941), that Louis Daquin showed a flair for slice-of-life realism, something that was comparatively rare in French cinema at the time.  Daquin brings a similar sur le vif or near-documentary approach to his adaptation of Roger Frison-Roche's novel Premier de cordée, a film that pays homage to the courage of mountain guides.  As Daquin was active in the French resistance at the time he was making this film it is easy to read a pro-resistance subtext into the film, if you equate the heroic exploits of mountaineers with those of resistance members.

Premier de cordée suffers from a weak narrative and a distinct lack of character depth but it is massively redeemed by its jaw-dropping photography.  Most of the film was shot on location, and a fair chunk of this on the precarious heights of Mont Blanc - something that presented enormous challenges for the cast and crew.  Roger Pigaut, the actor who was originally cast in the lead role, sustained a serious injury after falling down a crevasse and was replaced by André Le Gall.  Several other members of Daquin's team suffered similar injuries.  The film's more spectacular sequences, breathtaking to watch, were filmed with the help of Georges Tairraz, an experienced mountaineer.

After a sluggish beginning, Premier de cordée picks up around its mid-point and builds to a truly gripping climax, the drama sustained by some extraordinary camera work that powerfully evokes both the beauty and danger of the incredible Mont Blanc setting.  Whilst it is far from being a masterpiece, the film's stunning visuals are a sight to behold.  The film is all the more impressive when you realise that every one of its death-defying stunts was filmed for real, within any trickery.  They had guts in those days.

Film Synopsis

For many years, Jean Servettaz has worked as a mountain guide in Chamonix but, too aware of the risks of his profession, he gives this up so that he can run a guest house for tourists.  He intends that his son Pierre will follow his example and become a hotelier but Pierre is too in love with the mountains to even consider such an idea.  A head injury sustained in a climbing accident puts paid to Pierre's dreams of becoming a guide.  Afflicted with vertigo, he leaves for Paris and works as a receptionist in a luxury hotel.  It isn't long before Pierre is drawn back to the snow-capped mountains and, with the help of his fiancée Alice he makes another attempt to overcome his fear of heights.  When his father is caught in a thunderstorm whilst taking a tourist across a hazardous stretch of the mountains Pierre has a chance to prove himself...