Return to Mont Aiguille – The story of a film

In 1492, Captain Antoine de Ville de Domjulien climbed the “inaccessible mountain” on the orders of King Charles VIII. Why did a king want to take on a mountain? How could such an undertaking be accomplished?

The Mont Aiguille – Carmo – Corps armé en montagne project aims to understand the relationship between ancient societies and verticality, in particular through the political uses and military knowledge of mountains during the Renaissance.

The experimental archaeology approach enables us to reconstruct vanished equipment, in this case 15th-century assault ladders, in order to rediscover their contextualized uses by restoring their actual conditions of use: “climbing” proper, at least as it was practiced in the 15th century.

Ludovic Veltz’s 40-minute documentary follows the progress of the scientific project from start to finish, and in particular the historian’s work, from the archival source to experimentation both in the laboratory for biomechanical tests and in the wild on Mont Aiguille. It recounts the researcher’s trial and error, and the slow work of informing and working with local players: craftsmen, enthusiasts, schoolchildren, elected representatives…

The use of drones and photogrammetry enabled us to create a 3D model of Mont Aiguille, visually recreating the ascent as it may have taken place in 1492, while providing an immersive experience for the viewer.

Already past

As part of the Rencontres Montagnes & Sciences tour:

March 22, 2024, Le Châble (Switzerland)
7:45pm, Espace Saint-Marc

February 15, 2024, Tignes (73)
Tignespace

January 26, 2024, Modane (73)
Salle des fêtes

January 23, 2024, Lyon (69)
ENS, Amphi Mérieux

January 16, 2024, Clermont-Ferrand (63)
House of Culture

December 15, 2023, L’Argentière-la-Bessée (05)
Foyer culturel

December 7, 2023, Valence (26)
Cinéma Le Navire

November 28, 2023, Le Bourg d’Oisans (38)
Foyer municipal

November 21, 2023, Chambéry (73)
Le Manège

November 10, 2023, Grenoble (38)
Palais des Sports – Screening for young audiences

November 11, 2023, Grenoble (38)
Palais des Sports

Free tour :

December 13, 2024
6:30pm, Jean Renoir cinema, Pontcharra (38)

November 10, 2024
4pm, as part of the Rio Mountain Festival (Brazil)

October 20, 2024, La Côte d’Aime (73)
8pm, salle des fêtes, as part of the 4th Xplore Alpes festival

June 14, 2024, Chamonix (74).
8pm, Vox Chamonix cinema, part of the Chamonix Film Festival.
→ with Ludovic Veltz (director), François Martin Saint Léon (producer) and Stéphane Gal (scientist).

March 27, 2024, Saint-Martin-d’Hères (38)
Archives départementales de l’Isère, Nocturnes de l’histoire From archives to 3D

March 23, UGA/MJK (38)
projection to new UGA retirees

February 17, 2024, Clelles (38)
5.30pm and 8.30pm, Clelles cinema

January 26, Saint-Égrève (38)
Cinema