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Jean-Jacques Languepin

Jean-Jacques Languepin

Directing

Biography

Jean-Jacques Languepin, born in Paris on November 12, 1924 and died on April 7, 1994, is a French director. Coming from the Louis Lumière school in Paris, Jean-Jacques Languepin trained in directing while filming "Karakorum" (1937) by Marcel Ichac. Following this experience, he will make films far from neocolonial and nationalist themes, such as "Terre de Glace" (1948) and "Groenland: Twenty thousand leagues on the ice" (1952), under the leadership of the explorer Paul-Emile Vittoria. . Through his films, "he tries to be an actor in countries undergoing reconstruction, at the end of the Second World War". His cinema aims to be both curious and benevolent towards the outside world, in the manner of the English director John Noël. His role as a cameraman is noteworthy in the film "A L'Assaut De L'Himalaya", where close-ups and wide shots of mountainous landscapes alternate. The ascent is recounted in his book "Himalaya, Cruel Passion" (1955) which includes a testamentary poem by Roger Duplat, a mountaineer who disappeared during the expedition. He was a member of the Cannes Film Festival jury in 1964. Jean-Jacques Languepin also held various positions: president of the film research and essays group, director of studies at IDHEC, external relations at La Fémis.

Known For

The Conqueror Of The Useless
9.5

Biography of ski instructor, mountain guide, mountaineer and filmmaker-lecturer Lionel Terray. Film-portrait of an emblematic figure of French mountaineering in the 1950s and 1960s, reconstructing the life, the great races and the expeditions of the "conqueror" of the most difficult walls and summits of Europe, the Himalayas, the Andes and North America. Marcel Ichac produced in 1966, the day after the Gerbier accident, this illustrated tribute by bringing together personal archive documents, unpublished animated sequences or extracts from expedition images as well as comments taken from the autobiographical texts of Lionel Terray " The Conquerors of the Useless" and "Battle for Jannu". This film, presented at the Cannes Film Festival, has won numerous awards at specialized film festivals, including the Trente Festival and the Banff Festival.

The Conqueror Of The Useless

1966Movie