The Alpinist (2021)

[djross]

One of the interviewees in this documentary states that about half of the top figures who have participated in the kind of activity depicted here have been killed by doing so: there are obviously a variety of perspectives one might have about this, given that, for instance, one might well say (as the philosopher Bernard Stiegler said) that for human beings ‘pleasure is the fruit of desire, and desire is itself essentially a process of ascendance, of elevation’. Nevertheless, that percentage is awfully high. While the filmmaker states that filming Leclerc was a terrifying experience, and acts as if he has been reflecting for many years on the questions raised by this level of danger, there is little evidence in this film to suggest that any of those reflections have affected in any significant way his desire to idolise and document the biggest risk-takers. In this case, the subject does come across as a gentle and sympathetic young man, whose mother and girlfriend seem to have accepted the tradeoff between a “free” and a short life that was the result of his pursuit of these kinds of perilous goals and ascents. Still, films of this kind have power, and seem bound to produce more risk-takers, who may all really be involved in a form of denial. At one point, Leclerc states before a climb that the possibility of not returning from the mountain tomorrow means that one has to enjoy the pleasures one has today, but, for myself, it is not necessary to experience the threat of imminent death hanging over my head in order to be able to enjoy the taste of blue cheese or chocolate cake, and it’s difficult not to feel that, if it is necessary, there must be something wrong. The quotation from Bernard Stiegler offered above is taken from ‘Pleasure, Desire and Complicity’, which is the title of a lecture he gave in Mexico City in 2015 (available here: https://www.academia.edu/12693814/Berna ... city_2015_).