Pitch Sorbet
(Doco) Short film on Ice Climbing from Petzl Charlet Moser

Format	DVD	Category	Non-Fiction
Title	Pitch Sorbet	Mins	26
Starring	Aljaz Anderle, Harald Berger, Kirsten Buchmann, Daniel Dulac, Stephane Husson, Anthony Lamiche, Francois Lombard, Liv Sansoz	RRP	$6.00 AUD
Director	Laurent de la Fouchardiere, MedeO Productions	Reviews	1
Edition	Oct 2002	Ave Rating	(3.50 of 5)

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Comments

Mike 7/2/2003

This is a good, short film primarily about ice climbing from Petzl Charlet Moser and including members of and footage from the world ice climbing championships. It's only 26 minutes long, so I've had to dock it half a star for that, given that I'm comparing it to longer movies, but it really is fun to watch. It follows a team of french climbers. English subtitles can be turned on in the DVD options. You also get some additional stuff for PC access (see pics below), such as screen savers and wallpaper. The movie is sharp and camera work good. It begins with a "teaser", basically clips from the movie, then launches into it. It can be a little hard to read the subtitles and watch the moves, but I solved this by watching it twice. I'd never seen competition ice climbing, which features heavily in this movie, so I was very interested to see exactly what went on at one of these events. (We don't get much ice down here in Aus). Above Left: Screen saver on the DVD-Rom extras. Cartoon ice climber ascends your screen. Above Right: Wallpaper example. I haven't got any shots of the actual movie to show you. It's good to see everyone wears a helmet. They also wear a lot of Petzl labels, but I guess that's part of the intent of the film. ie, promotional. Certainly can't complain about the price - you can, apparently, order one free (or near enough) from Petzl, though exactly how I'm not sure. It was advertised in Rock mag recently, but I missed it. Anyway, It's mainly about ice climbing, but there are short bouldering sections thrown in here and there to break it up. There is basically no route rock climbing. The content of the film is as follows: - Daniel Dulac bouldering. - Haffner Creek, Alberta, Canada. Dry tooling and mixed rock & ice. - Polar Circus, Alberta, Canada. Lead ice climbing with packs over vertical terrian. - More bouldering. "Meaning of life" kind of comments from climbers are always interesting and kinda funny. - A few seconds of skiing, really just the team playing about, trying to do back flips over jumps. - A little more bouldering - Val Daone, Italie. Competition ice climbing on man made ice structures, with gym rock holds here and there. Interesting to watch, given I'd not seen this before. They paint the sections of ice that are allowed to be used. Climbers do wild one arm hangs off an ice axe, with a leg crossed over their supporting arm, while they strike with the other tool. Looks very strenuous indeed. This is one of the longer segments. - Musashi, Canada. Dry tooling an overhanging sport route? What the? I'd not seen this done before either. Dude does this move where he places an axe then lets go and toe hooks the axe handle instead. Takes some falls. Must be scary falling with all those sharp points attached. I notice they don't use wrist straps on their axes. - Kirov, Russie. Competition ice climbnig. Here they have what look like 44 gallen drums of frozen ice, hanging suspended by chains. The climbers traverse across them as they swing and sway. Not sure how this translates to real climbing, but interesting to watch. - Weeping Wall, Alberta Canada. Multi-pitch ascent of vertical ice. A nice long segment. Shows close ups of ice screws being set, etc. Makes me want to find ice to climb. - Festiglace, Pont Rouge, Quebec. Mixed rock and ice climbing. At one point a climber is tooling over very thin ice. Good top down camera angles and close ups of pick placements. - Another short bouldering section, then it finishes with another ice competition, again on made made structures. DVD Extras include: Team - Identifies each climber and gives a short quote. Teaser - Replays the opening scene. Goodies - PC stuff like screen savers and wallpaper. Tech Tips - Basically a discussion of the redesign of an ice axe handle. All up a seriously watchable movie. My only negatives were the short duration, and the subtitles, and some of the scenes kind of look like an advert for crag clothes. However, I'm not an ice climber (geographical limitations), but if I was I'd probably rate this movie much higher.

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