A Couple Of New Reviews
1st Mar 2011
Ed Douglas has just reviewd a couple of the big films screening at ShAFF this weekend.
A Life Ascending.
This low-key but quietly devastating film from Stephen Grynberg tells the story of Ruedi Beglinger, a Swiss-born mountain guide living in the Selkirks in British Columbia. In winter Beglinger leads skiing trips from the chalet he built and now shares with his wife Nicoline, their two daughters Florina and Charlotte, and various support staff. Read more.
The Swiss Machine.
You may recoil on instinct from a film entitled ‘The Swiss Machine’, just as you would from one called ‘German Bureaucracy’. Life in Switzerland may go like clockwork, but how exciting can that be? As it turns out, as exciting as it gets. Although, while the alpinist Ueli Steck may be Swiss, there’s little automatic or predictable about what he does. He does have a ferocious training regime, and clearly prepares thoroughly for his astonishing solo climbs, but you would, wouldn’t you? Otherwise you might die. And as this film makes clear, he's about as close to the edge as you can get. Read more.
