This story about “The Summit of the Gods” first appeared in the special animation section in the Awards Preview issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Based on the manga by Jirô Taniguchi and Baku Yumemakura, the breathtaking French-language animated feature “The Summit of the Gods” searches for meaning at inhospitable heights. The drama set in the 1990s chronicles two quests, one of headstrong climber Habu (voiced by Eric Herson-Macarel) bent on conquering Mount Everest alone, and one involving photojournalist Fukamachi (Damien Boisseau) seeking grandeur by potentially finding a camera that belonged to George Mallory, the real-life mountaineer who disappeared in 1953 while attempting to climb the same peak. Inevitably, their paths overlap.
Director Patrick Imbert wasn’t familiar with the material until renowned producers Damien Brunner and Didier Brunner at Folivari approached him. He immediately appreciated the story’s potential for animation and began sorting through the passages to adapt it...
Based on the manga by Jirô Taniguchi and Baku Yumemakura, the breathtaking French-language animated feature “The Summit of the Gods” searches for meaning at inhospitable heights. The drama set in the 1990s chronicles two quests, one of headstrong climber Habu (voiced by Eric Herson-Macarel) bent on conquering Mount Everest alone, and one involving photojournalist Fukamachi (Damien Boisseau) seeking grandeur by potentially finding a camera that belonged to George Mallory, the real-life mountaineer who disappeared in 1953 while attempting to climb the same peak. Inevitably, their paths overlap.
Director Patrick Imbert wasn’t familiar with the material until renowned producers Damien Brunner and Didier Brunner at Folivari approached him. He immediately appreciated the story’s potential for animation and began sorting through the passages to adapt it...
- 1/26/2022
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
It’s been another strange year. Perhaps more so than ever, the way films have been released has been in a confusing state of flux. What’s coming to cinemas? If it makes it how many screenings will it actually have? What’s going to which streaming service, and when? There have been a lot of excellent movies released in 2021, but sifting through them has been challenging, even if you’re doing your best to keep up.
Here, the HeyUGuys team have a few suggestions for things that may have slipped through the cracks, but which we think you should catch up with.
Daniel Goodwin Recommends
The Summit of the Gods (Patrick Imbert)
Based on the Jiro Taniguchi manga, this visually breath-taking, staggeringly dramatic, 90s set, French animated feature tells the tale of Nepal based, Japanese photojournalist Makato Fukamachi (Damien Boisseau), who happens upon the old Kodak camera of a...
Here, the HeyUGuys team have a few suggestions for things that may have slipped through the cracks, but which we think you should catch up with.
Daniel Goodwin Recommends
The Summit of the Gods (Patrick Imbert)
Based on the Jiro Taniguchi manga, this visually breath-taking, staggeringly dramatic, 90s set, French animated feature tells the tale of Nepal based, Japanese photojournalist Makato Fukamachi (Damien Boisseau), who happens upon the old Kodak camera of a...
- 12/16/2021
- by Sam Inglis
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Adapted from Baku Yumemakura’s mid-‘90s manga series of the same name, Patrick Imbert’s “The Summit of the Gods” might reflect the awed and glassy tone of recent French animation (the similarly ethereal “I Lost My Body” comes to mind), but its most formative influence is fittingly Japanese: Studio Ghibli.
You might sense it in the structure of Imbet, Magali Pouzol, and Jean-Charles Ostorero’s screenplay, which unfolds through a series of nested memories à la Isao Takahata’s “Only Yesterday” — or “Citizen Kane.” More specific is how this film rustles with the same melancholic beauty that swirls through every frame of Hayao Miyazaki’s magnum opus “The Wind Rises.” Where that melodrama weighed the creative spirit against its most awful cost, this adventure story reaches even higher in its bid to understand why some men are compelled to climb the world’s tallest mountain and/or die trying.
You might sense it in the structure of Imbet, Magali Pouzol, and Jean-Charles Ostorero’s screenplay, which unfolds through a series of nested memories à la Isao Takahata’s “Only Yesterday” — or “Citizen Kane.” More specific is how this film rustles with the same melancholic beauty that swirls through every frame of Hayao Miyazaki’s magnum opus “The Wind Rises.” Where that melodrama weighed the creative spirit against its most awful cost, this adventure story reaches even higher in its bid to understand why some men are compelled to climb the world’s tallest mountain and/or die trying.
- 11/30/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
For the 4,000-plus people who have climbed Mt. Everest, it’s likely that no film will ever come close to capturing the reality of that once-impossible experience. For the rest of us, “The Summit of the Gods” and its ilk will have to suffice. And while it may not ascend to the same heights as the likes of “Free Solo” or the under-appreciated “Vertical Limit,” director Patrick Imbert’s animated adaptation of Jirô Taniguchi and Baku Yumemakura’s manga of the same name makes for an impressive trek.
Looming just as large in the narrative is a camera that may or may not have been recovered from the remains of George Mallory, a mountaineer who disappeared along with his climbing partner Andrew Irvine on Everest in 1924. To this day, whether they became the first to successfully reach the summit before meeting their end remains a matter of speculation and debate.
Looming just as large in the narrative is a camera that may or may not have been recovered from the remains of George Mallory, a mountaineer who disappeared along with his climbing partner Andrew Irvine on Everest in 1924. To this day, whether they became the first to successfully reach the summit before meeting their end remains a matter of speculation and debate.
- 10/22/2021
- by Michael Nordine
- Variety Film + TV
"For some, the mountain isn't a goal, but a path." Netflix has revealed the official trailer for the animated film The Summit of the Gods, a French production based on a Japanese manga that's about two Japanese mountain climbers. The film premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival this year, after showing as a "work in progress" at the Annecy Film Festival last year. It's one of my favorite films of the year - I love it so much and it has everything I adore: photography, mountains, Japan, Nepal. Photographer Fukamachi finds a camera that supposedly belongs to George Mallory, a mountaineer who went missing on Mt Everest, and goes on a mountain-climbing adventure with his friend Habu Joji, who also disappeared into the mountains a few years before. The voice cast includes Lazare Herson-Macarel, Eric Herson-Macarel, Damien Boisseau, Elisabeth Ventura, Kylian Rehlinger, François Dunoyer, Philippe Vincent, and Luc Bernard. With...
- 10/22/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
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