Rarely is it easy to understand a film through selected tidbits of dialog. It’s even rarer when you have to auto-translate the quotations.
Rarer still? An outcome in which the result tells a relatable story.
But The Noire – Climbing in the Shadow of Mont Blanc, featuring Francois Cazzanelli, Emrik Favre, and Stefano “Teto” Stradelli, is that story, at least for explorers.
Here it is (auto-translated):
“Without the suffering, there would be no outcome, OK? But without the outcome, we would not be willing to suffer.”
“Repulsivo.”
“We suffered a lot to get there. However, the dark mountain gave us a glimmer of light. It gave us these first beautiful pitches, and so it charged us.”
Photo: The Noire
“I did a 60m pitch in the dark and then the night came. I couldn’t find a place to sleep. I told him, look down there, we are under this little wall, let’s sleep there.”
“And there it looked really good, everything was perfect.”
[Ominous musical interlude as stars reel over the black silhouette of the mountain ridge.]
“Probably the wind on the ridge increased a bit.”
“Emrick?”
“Very cold.”
“Franz?”
“F*ck you.”
Photo: The Noire
“I confirm.”
“I always told myself, you have to hold on because the dawn will come. We are close, to give up now would be foolish.”
“Franz, how is it?”
“Like sh*t.”
[Pensive musical interlude as dawn slowly breaks.]
“When dawn came, fortunately, my comrades had had a better night than me. Teto in particular got out of his sleeping bag and managed to make water.”
Photo: the Noire
“I really didn’t sleep a wink.”
“I took this opportunity and I said, ‘I’ll try to go myself.’”
“How’s it going?”
“Other than the hardest night I’ve ever had, I’d say great.”
“Here we are, the last two meters. I’m so happy.”
Photo: The Noire
“And I want to get out of this hole.”
“When I climbed into the sun, when I finally felt the sun on my skin, I felt reborn.”
“We sent out a message: We are still here.”
Photo: The Noire
