Pierre Mazeau has managed to unite three of his passions which seem to have nothing in common, at a very high level: mountaineering, jurisprudence and policy. The Everest mountaineer, rescued from the Freney Pillar, the passionate jurist, the former sports minister, privy counsellor, and president of the French Constitutional Court is a charismatic personality. This sensitive film portrait follows a line, which Pierre Mazeaud himself has quoted: “Alpinism belongs to those who provide themselves with means to reach their goals, to those who are fully committed to a goal, to those, who know the value of solidarity of men, and to those who are aware that true human existence can only be fulfilled by proceeding with a team of roped-partners.”
Guido Magnone's incredible adventure begins strangely on the banks of the Ourcq canal among a group of kids who dream of swimming. Guido, the solitary son of "rital", dives to get noticed, succeeds, takes a liking to it, breaks his first record, collects medals. At the same time, he draws, attends the Beaux-Arts, is accepted with open arms and befriends the sculptors César and Féraud. At the end of the war, during a health stay in Chamonix, it is love at first sight for the mountains, climbing. Guido's ascent is now dizzying. He stormed the west face of the Drus, then the Fitzroy and the Tour de Mustagh, summits reputed to be impossible. He rubs shoulders with the greatest, Lionel Terray, Maurice Herzog, and participates in the Makalu expedition, camera in hand, or those of Jannu and Chacraraju. Later, in his fifties, Guido hangs up the carabiners and participates in the foundation of the UCPA
Terray. This name sounds like a challenge and evokes deep respect in the memory of every mountaineer. For all, Lionel Terray remains forever the "Conqueror of the useless", the example of a generous and mature mountaineer, far from any egocentrism and any ambition. Not only a pioneer and witness to the history of mountaineering, Terray is also remembered as a man and a master more than an athlete. Forty years after the tragic death of this extraordinary mountaineer and guide, who liked to think of himself as a "simple mountaineer", his former friends and the youngest generation of mountaineers come together in this film to celebrate and remember his legacy.
Paragot and Bérardini: two climbers who fill all climbing enthusiasts with admiration. In Fontainebleau, Saussois, the Alps, the Andes, the Himalayas, and all over the world, they have left their names attached to the most difficult routes and the most prestigious peaks. Here, they recount only the climbs they completed together: famous expeditions to Aconcagua and Huascarán, firsts in the Alps and the Dolomites. An unwavering friendship, comical and tragic adventures—this is what they share with us in the warm atmosphere of their memories. "La Cordée des Voyous" will be included in Jean Afanassieff's film "La Grande Cordée," which deals with post-war proletarian mountaineering.
Guido Magnone designs cardboard boxes by hand for his parents' small business. A painter friend loves his brushwork and pushes him to attend the Beaux Arts. He takes an external competition, wins it, befriends the sculptors César and Féraud, surrealists, a handful of bohemians. He then discovered the mountain and quickly became one of the best climbers of his generation. He made prestigious conquests such as the west face of the Drus in the Alps, the first ascents of Fitz Roy in Patagonia with Lionel Terray or Makalu in the Himalayas... Magnone also participated in the creation of the UCPA and will be president of the Groupe de Haute Montagne from 1961 to 1965. From 1977, Guido returned to his first passion: sculpture, to devote himself fully to it around 1990. He began to exhibit again in 1996. In 2002, he exhibited his sculptures in Paris , Bourg-la-Reine, Aosta then in Etroubles in 2009.
History of the first ascent of Aconcagua by the south face in February 1954 by the French shock team led by René Ferlet and composed of Lucien Bérardini, Adrien Dagory, Edmond Denis, Pierre Lesueur, Robert Paragot and Guy Poulet. In seven days of combat, they extricate themselves from the mountain in a pitiful state; all except Robert Paragot will be victims of severe frostbite which earned them amputations, some important as for “Lulu” Bérardini who lost part of his left hand.
Lucien Bérardini, born September 24, 1930 in Martigues and died October 13, 2005 in Montpellier, was a French mountaineer. Lucien Bérardini learned the art of climbing on the rocks of the forest of Fontainebleau then on the cliffs of Saussois. Faced with aristocratic mountaineering with personalities such as Henri de Ségogne, and professional mountaineering of which the guides are the emblematic figure, a new form of amateur mountaineering stemming from the Parisian popular circles is developing: "rogue" mountaineering. ". The Robert Paragot-Lucien Bérardini team is the most striking illustration of this. Insolent, iconoclastic, non-conformist, they symbolize the post-war climbers of modest origin who, making fun of conventions and rules, overthrew the stereotypes of the “perfect mountaineer”. Bold, tenacious, driven by a tremendous desire to be and to surpass themselves, Lucien Bérardini and Robert Paragot have found in climbing the way to release their energy. He entered the circle of great mountaineers by making the first ascent of the west face of Les Drus on July 19, 1952 in the company of Guido Magnone, Adrien Dagory and Marcel Lainé, with intensive use of artificial climbing. The same year he completed the first route without a bivouac on the Walker spur (4,208 m, the highest point of the Grandes Jorasses), in the company of Michel Dufranc. In 1953 he opened a route to the south-east face of Mont Mallet, then the following year he was part of a French expedition to the south face of Aconcagua, a 6,962-metre summit located in Argentina. This expedition, led by René Ferlet, also includes Guy Poulet, Robert Paragot, Pierre Lesueur, Edmond Denis and Adrien Dagory. This enterprise was a success, but the harsh conditions of the ascent and the bad weather caused Lucien Bérardini severe frostbite on his hands and feet, which necessitated amputations. It was with his friend Robert Paragot that he nevertheless returned to the summits. This rope, which has become famous, will succeed in many firsts in the Dolomites or the Mont-Blanc Massif, such as the north face of the Grand Capucin in 1955. Bérardini was not a guide, but he liked to lead the way, to open the way. Take his friends Pierre Mazeaud and Robert Paragot to climb the Jonte gorges again this summer. Introduce young people to climbing on the cliffs of the Cévennes. He did not like labels either, but there is one that he willingly let himself stick to, that of professional climber, spokesperson, he laughed recently, of "France from below on the summits".
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