Selected at Cannes, the animated film by Patrick Imbert is an adaptation of a river manga by Jiro Taniguchi.
We follow athletes ready to do anything to get on the “roof of the world”.
The intensity of the film reserves it for audiences over 10 years old.
Climbing Everest without leaving your chair is possible!
Le Sommet des Dieux
by Patrick Imbert takes the viewer on a breathtaking adventure inspired by a manga in five volumes and 1,500 pages by Jiro Taniguchi (republished by Kana). This animated fresco, presented in preview at the Cannes Film Festival, offers a moment of great cinema.
Frenchman Patrick Imbert cut his teeth as artistic director on
Benjamin Renner's
Le Grand méchant renard
et
Ernest et Célestine
before signing his first production between France and Luxembourg.
“I have never practiced mountaineering, admits the director to
20 Minutes
, but I had the impression of climbing Everest during the production.
He follows in the footsteps of an adventurous reporter leading the investigation into a mystery dating from the 1920s with a seasoned climber.
Adventure by proxy
The 8,848 meters of climbing to the “Roof of the World”, Patrick Imbert only crossed them by proxy, documenting himself and questioning mountaineering aces. "I was able to better understand why they always go further in the risks they take," he recalls. I experienced the same kind of sensations during production, except that I didn't risk my life. However, he manages to give the impression to the public that he is climbing following heroes ready for all imprudence to offer themselves beautiful thrills.
One of the strongest scenes in
Summit of the Gods
confronts an experienced guide with a terrible case of conscience when a teenager is suspended in a vacuum.
"This sequence is very difficult to achieve because it had to be realistic enough to avoid the aesthetics of comics like
Tintin in Tibet
", specifies Patrick Imbert.
To say that he has succeeded is an understatement.
The spectator forgets that it is about animation to find himself seized with vertigo in front of an icy abyss.
Determination and unconsciousness
For Patrick Imbert, extreme mountaineers and animation film professionals have in common “the same determination and that grain of madness, even unconsciousness, that cannot be found anywhere else.
He put these characteristics to the service of a thrilling work, so intense and sometimes terrifying that it is recommended only to viewers over 10 years old.
They will not regret having taken part in the adventure.
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