Premier de cordée (1944) User Reviews

"Fear is like vertigo,we all experience it, those who claim not to know it, are liars or forgetful."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 16 December 2020]

Coming down to the final trio of French films from 1944 that currently have English subtitles,I was intrigued by dbdumonteil's very good review about the outdoor filming aspect,leading to me getting set to climb a mountain.

View on the film:

Over a decade before the first tremor of the French New Wave was felt, co-writer/(with Alexandre Arnoux/Jacqueline Jacoupy & Paul Leclercq) director Louis Daquin is joined by future Rififi (1955-also reviewed) cinematographer Philippe Agostini in leaving the studio behind, and heading to the great outdoors in beautiful wide-shots capturing the mountain landscape.

Backed by a chirping score from Henri Sauguet and stating in the opening credits that "No stuntmen or special effects were used", Daquin impressively moves the heavy camera equipment of the era for spectacular long panning shots following Pierre climbing the rugged terrain under roasting natural light.

When taking a breather from all the mountain climbing, the writers counter the breakout nature of the filming style,with a more traditional, silky Melodrama tale.

Reflecting the rough-edge appearance of the mountains with a fight on the tough masculinity between Pierre (played by a very good, fresh face Andre Le Gall, who replaced Roger Pigaut,after he suffered a serious injury after falling down a crevasse) and his dad, the writers weave the family drama clash with a sly subtext showing support for The French Resistance,in Pierre overcoming all of the towering odds confronting him,and reaching the peak.

Higher than the world.

[dbdumonteil · 27 November 2005]

Long before the Nouvelle Vague,there were directors who tried to take the French cinema out of the studio;Louis Daquin was one of them.His movie,adapted from a famous Roger Frison-Roche novel,was filmed on location,with real mountaineers,without any special effects (that's what the cast and credit tells us).The landscapes are really splendid and are the main asset of the movie.

It was an escapist movie.The correct year was actually 1943.In its own way ,this film reflects the Occupation days zeitgeist.In his precedent work,"le Voyageur de la Toussaint" ,Daquin had already condemned all that weakened the family."1er de cordée" is ,in its own way, more of the same.The family could be in jeopardy because of the son/father antagonism -he wants to be a guide but his father is not prepared to accept it and urges him to become a hotelier,but the ending is

the triumph of the Family with a capital F.A family where men are the heroes:theirs is the struggle against a hostile nature.A woman's role is to wait and to take care of the house.The young guy tells his fiancée so: "your place is near my mother,she needs you,etc" .This is a thoroughly "sane " movie: there's no love scene ,which is quite a feat,even at the time.It's an open invitation to outdo yourself ,provided you're a man.