Fontainebleau is Mecca for boulderers.  Don’t believe me?  Bleau.info has a log of 245 sectors and almost 30,000 boulder problems listed for Font. 

Speaking of famous forest, Neil Hart has made a three (so far) film series, Out of Sight, about Font, and best of all he was kind enough to recently upload it to YouTube for free.  We’ll review all three films in turn, but I’ll space them out between a few others in the coming weeks.

What you notice immediately about this film is that its very professionally done – the opening credits are artful with tasteful music and beautiful shots of the surrounding area and each climber in turn.  The problems not only get a name and grade onscreen as they appear, but also the location and the name of the first ascentionist.  Font is a place with history, and its on full display. In addition to the editing, the cinematography is equally professional, with smooth sweeping tracking shots that follow the action, and well framed cuts that capture the moves in meaningful ways.

Out of Sight makes its mission to document the lesser seen parts of the forest, far off boulders in the outreaches with no crowds in sight, lending the sort of solitude that might not come to mind when you think of Fontainebleau.  Less popular does not mean lower quality, with Nalle claiming one of the ‘unknowns’ as his favorite of the grade in the forest, and one of his favorite of the grade overall.  Even though there are some heavy hitters on the list, don’t expect a film stacked full of super-human climbs, the large majority of whats shown falls into the hard-but-attainable 7th grade (V6-V10 for those that only speak Hueco), with a few harder and easier sprinkled in. Jo Montchausse and Jacky Godoffe show that folks into their 50s and 60s can still have fun on the stone and make me feel terrible for whining about being into my 30s.

It feels very much like an art-piece, balancing the climbing with the climbers and paying tribute to this Mecca.  I am a bit taken aback, much more used to punchy punk-rock jump-cut psyche pieces when a film chooses to focus on bouldering.  It’s a nice change of pace, and while it’s not going to be my go-to before a session, it would be something nice to unwind with after.

Verdict: Undeniably pretty. I’ll be honest, I come to bouldering with a desire and an expectation to turn on the aggro 90% of the time, and turn my nose up at those that would bring ‘sophistication’, but this film is artful in a way I can’t ignore.

The Who:
Caroline Sinno
Nico Favresse
Jackie Godoffe
Chris Schulte
Daniel Olausson
Guillaume Glairon Mondet
Jo Montchausse
Simon Kook Newstead
Olivier Lebreton
Nora van Wassenaer
Kees Mak
Nalle Hukkataival
Gerald Coste
Bart Raaij
Sandeep Kumar Maity
Barnaby Ventham


The What:
Hotline 7C
Papillon 8A
Le Kraken 7B/C
Le Proeptologue 8A
Alien 7C
Forêt Noire 7A
Freak of the Weak 8A
52 Gerard 7C
La Théorie des Jeux 8B
Coup de Force 7C+
Satan m’Habite 7A
Pancras Assis 7C
Pirouette Cacaouette 7C
L comme Irun 7C/B_
Futebol Assis 7C/7B+
Maître â Tribord 7C+
La Tour de Babel Assis 7C+
Haine Ordi Nerf 7B+
Grains de Poussiére Prolongé 7A
Encore Bellement 6B+
Misti 8C Trav
Blocage Violent 8A/7C+
Pagota 8A
La Cage aux Fauves 7C+
Encore un Coup de Ju 7A+
Sale Affaire 7A
Jakari droite assis 7C