A 50-day solitude in Alaska, involving climbing peaks and skiing down their steep slopes, could make a rather dramatic, even epic, film. But that's another story. "Wild Days" by Yohan Guignard, France, makes you laugh and stare at the screen without taking your eyes off it till the end. It’s characters become so likable that you would want to meet them, to talk to them, to touch this very subtle energy they carry, this humanity that has proven resilient even in the harsh conditions around.
The tourists who are dropped there by helicopter and meet the four guys as part of their adventure – they photograph them with their cameras like animals in a zoo (while the 4 guys laugh, realizing this). Because what the four ski mountaineers do is something unusual, exotic, "going away" with time - they are alone in nature and cope alone with the circumstances that it offers them. This is “psycho”, this is “insane”, would the tourists say, shooting the four bearded, shaggy creatures, „discovered“ by the invaders of this distant land.
Hélias Millerioux, Alexandre Marchesseau, Aurélien Lardy and Christophe Tricou argue, cry, seem comical (while putting glitter on their faces), stay human in the middle of the wild, spending the most gruelling 50 days. Wild days.
I watched the film as a jury member at the Festival gorniškega filma in Slovenia. This is what we wrote giving the “Wild Days” The Grand Prix of the City of Domžale:
“Walking for fifty days in the Arctic regions of Alaska, carrying everything needed to survive, climbing, and then returning by sea to the capital: this is what four French friends did, reaching the summit of Mount McKinley and Mount Wittaker in the process without any outside assistance. A true adventure, filmed with plenty of humor, where the characters are well-developed and allow us to experience genuine emotions. A real adventure film, which is a genre we are recently seeing less and less, unfortunately”.
And here's what the film's director told me afterwards:
Interview with Yohan Guignard
If you didn't have to film all of this, among other things, how long would the whole adventure have lasted? 25 days?
Yohan: First of all, you need to know I was not part of the expedition, the four guys filmed themselves naturally and with some of my instructions. And they decided to make this 50-days expedition, they had approximately 54 days of food.
The guys "acted" more convincingly than actors. Were those their lines, their words, or did you have some kind of script?
Yohan: I told them, as a documentary filmmaker, to film themselves all the time, even when nothing is happening, even when the situation is bad, even when they disagree and some tension appear between them. I ask them to trust that it would give the best part of the movie: their personality and the social experience they created - four guys in 50 days in a tent.
Such an experience in Alaska requires a lot of gear and a lot of luggage. Was transporting it the most difficult part?
Yohan: Each of them had 110 kg in their sledge, most of it was food, but also all the gear for alpinism part and the river part. I think each of them had difficulties - the beginning, the crevasses, the river, and the last part with the mud.
What do people like most about this film? What do they tell you?
Yohan: I think the audience likes the characters the most, these four are really true to each other, and all the argue, the fact they are crying, putting glitter (on their faces). All their natural behavior and the fact that they have no problem showing their emotions.
I will do an interview with Hélias - the guy with the hard-to-spell surname (a joke with a scene from the movie). What do you want me to tell him? Do you have a message?
Yohan: Haha thank you, I talk to him often.
The film already has 6 awards. I am fascinated. You will be too.
Official teaser - here.
Photo: Christophe Tricou
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If you like the article, you can see the "If you want to support me" section in the main menu of this site. Thank you!
The tourists who are dropped there by helicopter and meet the four guys as part of their adventure – they photograph them with their cameras like animals in a zoo (while the 4 guys laugh, realizing this). Because what the four ski mountaineers do is something unusual, exotic, "going away" with time - they are alone in nature and cope alone with the circumstances that it offers them. This is “psycho”, this is “insane”, would the tourists say, shooting the four bearded, shaggy creatures, „discovered“ by the invaders of this distant land.
Hélias Millerioux, Alexandre Marchesseau, Aurélien Lardy and Christophe Tricou argue, cry, seem comical (while putting glitter on their faces), stay human in the middle of the wild, spending the most gruelling 50 days. Wild days.
I watched the film as a jury member at the Festival gorniškega filma in Slovenia. This is what we wrote giving the “Wild Days” The Grand Prix of the City of Domžale:
“Walking for fifty days in the Arctic regions of Alaska, carrying everything needed to survive, climbing, and then returning by sea to the capital: this is what four French friends did, reaching the summit of Mount McKinley and Mount Wittaker in the process without any outside assistance. A true adventure, filmed with plenty of humor, where the characters are well-developed and allow us to experience genuine emotions. A real adventure film, which is a genre we are recently seeing less and less, unfortunately”.
And here's what the film's director told me afterwards:
Interview with Yohan Guignard
If you didn't have to film all of this, among other things, how long would the whole adventure have lasted? 25 days?
Yohan: First of all, you need to know I was not part of the expedition, the four guys filmed themselves naturally and with some of my instructions. And they decided to make this 50-days expedition, they had approximately 54 days of food.
The guys "acted" more convincingly than actors. Were those their lines, their words, or did you have some kind of script?
Yohan: I told them, as a documentary filmmaker, to film themselves all the time, even when nothing is happening, even when the situation is bad, even when they disagree and some tension appear between them. I ask them to trust that it would give the best part of the movie: their personality and the social experience they created - four guys in 50 days in a tent.
Such an experience in Alaska requires a lot of gear and a lot of luggage. Was transporting it the most difficult part?
Yohan: Each of them had 110 kg in their sledge, most of it was food, but also all the gear for alpinism part and the river part. I think each of them had difficulties - the beginning, the crevasses, the river, and the last part with the mud.
What do people like most about this film? What do they tell you?
Yohan: I think the audience likes the characters the most, these four are really true to each other, and all the argue, the fact they are crying, putting glitter (on their faces). All their natural behavior and the fact that they have no problem showing their emotions.
I will do an interview with Hélias - the guy with the hard-to-spell surname (a joke with a scene from the movie). What do you want me to tell him? Do you have a message?
Yohan: Haha thank you, I talk to him often.
The film already has 6 awards. I am fascinated. You will be too.
Official teaser - here.
Photo: Christophe Tricou
===
If you like the article, you can see the "If you want to support me" section in the main menu of this site. Thank you!
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