28 minutes that'll make you quit your job and touch rock.
Climber Patrick Edlinger visits various climbing areas in the American West, including Joshua Tree (routes and bouldering), Yosemite (bouldering), Hueco Tanks (bouldering), and Smith Rock (routes). He is seen climbing alongside Russ Clune, Ron Kauk, Jean-Paul Lemercier, and Todd Skinner in numerous sequences accompanied by Native American-inspired music composed by Benoît Fromanger. Less well-known than his two previous films, "La Vie au bout des doigts" and "Opéra Vertical," it remains a benchmark for all climbing enthusiasts and admirers of Edlinger, the world's most famous climber. His familiar voice provides narration throughout many sequences with iconic phrases that encapsulate the man, such as: "Climbing, this useless thing to which I dedicate my life."
Cinematography
35mm glory shots that invented climbing porn.
Score
Pan flute madness that somehow works perfectly.
Acting
Edlinger's voice: French philosopher meets dirtbag.
Director
Maurice Rebeix
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Edlinger's 'useless thing' quote became climbing's unofficial manifesto, embraced precisely because it rejects utility.
This 28-minute film helped establish the 'send video' format decades before YouTube—pure climbing as cinema.
FR
