In the midst Himalayan Mountains there stands a figure that looms over the world like none other. Known to the world as Mount Everest, this juggernaut of natural beauty and signifier of the grand nature of the natural world has, for generations, inspired many a person to try and brave some of the most harsh and uncompromising conditions to say that they indeed conquered this giant mountain.
Almost 100 years after one of the first expeditions, Kino Lorber has recently released a brand new Blu-ray of the documentary that truly introduced the world to the beauty, and danger, of Everest. Entitled The Epic of Everest, the film was offered up to the world by Captain John Noel, and told the story the 1924 Everest expedition led by two of the great climbers of the early 1900s, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine. Both legends would perish during their journey, and while it would...
Almost 100 years after one of the first expeditions, Kino Lorber has recently released a brand new Blu-ray of the documentary that truly introduced the world to the beauty, and danger, of Everest. Entitled The Epic of Everest, the film was offered up to the world by Captain John Noel, and told the story the 1924 Everest expedition led by two of the great climbers of the early 1900s, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine. Both legends would perish during their journey, and while it would...
- 9/15/2015
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
David reporting on four of the British films in the London Film Festival.
The crown jewel in the archive selection this year is the BFI’s pristine restoration of J.B.L. Noel’s overwhelming 1924 documentary, The Epic of Everest. It’s one of those films where the sheer audacity of what’s being filmed, as opposed to any technical prowess, is what really impresses. And when the intertitles (it’s silent, of course, though outfitted with a gorgeously minimalist new score from Simon Fisher Turner) announce that a particular shot is brought to you using a revolutionary telephoto lens, that’s quite an achievement. Though no words are spoken, and faces barely seen, it’s hard not to become enthralled in Noel’s recounting of their journey through Tibet and up the mountain, with breathtaking long takes of some passages of the mountain gripping in the simplicity of distant figures precarious movements.
The crown jewel in the archive selection this year is the BFI’s pristine restoration of J.B.L. Noel’s overwhelming 1924 documentary, The Epic of Everest. It’s one of those films where the sheer audacity of what’s being filmed, as opposed to any technical prowess, is what really impresses. And when the intertitles (it’s silent, of course, though outfitted with a gorgeously minimalist new score from Simon Fisher Turner) announce that a particular shot is brought to you using a revolutionary telephoto lens, that’s quite an achievement. Though no words are spoken, and faces barely seen, it’s hard not to become enthralled in Noel’s recounting of their journey through Tibet and up the mountain, with breathtaking long takes of some passages of the mountain gripping in the simplicity of distant figures precarious movements.
- 10/19/2013
- by Dave
- FilmExperience
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