Marcel Ichac (22 October 1906 - 9 April 1994) was a French alpinist,

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

and

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

. Born in Rueil, France, Ichac was one of the first people to introduce

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

in cinema using the

ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , ) or ondes musicales () is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a lateral-vibrato Keyboard instrument, keyboard or by moving a ring tied to a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. D ...

instrument for ''Karakoram'' (1936) and released the first French short in

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic format, anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its cr ...

, ''Nouveaux Horizons'' (1953). He also accompanied the French Alpine Club's 1950 expedition that climbed Annapurna led by Maurice Herzog, which included climbing luminaries

Lionel Terray Lionel Terray (25 July 1921 – 19 September 1965) was a French people, French climber who made many first ascents, including on the 1955 French Makalu expedition in the Himalaya (with Jean Couzy on 15 May 1955) and Fitz-Roy, Cerro Fitz Roy in ...

, Louis Lachenal and

Gaston Rébuffat Gaston Rébuffat (; 7 May 1921, Marseille – 31 May 1985, Paris) was a French Mountaineering, alpinist, mountain guide, and author. He is well known as a member of the first expedition to summit Annapurna Massif, Annapurna 1 in 1950 and the f ...

Filmography

Ichac directed

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

s of French explorations during the years 1930–1950.Rège, Philippe (2009
''Encyclopedia of French Film Directors''
Volume 1:515 Scarecrow Press Expeditions he accompanied and documented on film include: * ''Karakoram'', the first French expedition to the

Karakoram The Karakoram () is a mountain range in the Kashmir region spanning the border of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwestern extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range is withi ...

(1936) * The first documentary film in the world about the

Pilgrimage to Mecca Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...

(1940). * ''A l'Assaut des Aiguilles du Diable'' (1942). * Expeditions of

Jacques-Yves Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA), called the A ...

to the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

(1948), the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

(1955 : preparatory to the realization of ''

The Silent World ''The Silent World'' () is a 1956 French documentary film co-directed by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle. One of the first films to use underwater cinematography to show the ocean depths in color, its title derives from Cousteau's 1953 book ' ...

''), and

Lake Titicaca Lake Titicaca (; ; ) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. Titicaca is the largest lake in South America, both in terms of the volume of ...

(1968). * French Polar Expedition in

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

with Paul-Emile Victor (1949). * ''Victoire sur l'Annapurna'', film on the

1950 French Annapurna expedition The 1950 French Annapurna expedition, led by Maurice Herzog, reached the summit of Annapurna I at , the highest peak in the Annapurna (mountain range), Annapurna Massif. The mountain is in Nepal and the government had given permission for the ex ...

, with the first 8000m summit being reached by Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal. * '' Les Etoiles de Midi'' (1959). Entered into the

9th Berlin International Film Festival The 9th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 26 June to 7 July 1959. The festival welcomed the cinematic movement known as the French New Wave and screened the work of directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda and Franç ...

. * ''Le Conquérent de l'inutile'' (1967), a film he made about the life of his friend and mountain climber

. Additionally, Ichac captured images of mountain warfare in World War II and the liberation of

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in ''Tempête sur les Alpes'' (1944-1945).

Bibliography

*''A l'assaut des Aiguilles du Diable'' (1945) *''Regards vers l'Annapurna'' (1951) *''Quand brillent les Etoiles de Midi'' (1960)

Awards

* Silver Lion in the

Venice film festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

for ''Karakoram''. * Directed winner of the Prix du documentaire at

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

in 1952. * Produced '' An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge'' which won an

Academy Award for Live Action Short Film The Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film is an award presented at the annual Academy Awards ceremony. The award has existed, under numerous names, since 1957. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate awards, ''Best Short Subject, On ...

References

External links

www.marcel-ichac.fr

Marcel Ichac filmography
at calindex.eu
Movies of Marcel Ichac
from bfi.org.uk

at masse-fr.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ichac, Marcel 1906 births 1994 deaths French documentary film directors French mountain climbers 20th-century French explorers French photographers École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs alumni