Didier Lafond | WatchedThis
Didier Lafond
Directing
Biography
Didier Lafond, originally from Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, where he still lives, was a pioneer of alternative sports films in the early 1980s. He focused on sports like freestyle skiing, climbing, and skydiving, which he also practiced. He directed the very first short film about monoskiing ever broadcast on television, "Skieur rêveur" (Dreaming Skier), in 1981. He also directed numerous action sports films broadcast during the heyday of "La Nuit de la Glisse" (Night of the Glide) from 1982 to 1987; "Ski Symphonie" (Ski Symphony), "Opéra Blanc" (White Opera), "Juste pour le plaisir" (Just for Pleasure), "La Créature du Professeur Glissenstein" (The Creature of Professor Glissenstein), to name just a few. Some sixty awards garnered at festivals worldwide attest to his talent; no other director has ever achieved such a record in sports cinema, and he has become an ambassador for French sports films globally. But it was the legendary "Apocalypse Snow," which Didier filmed in 1983, that would forever leave its mark and become a worldwide hit with snowboarder Régis Rolland. This now-cult classic, released in 1984, featured snowboarding on screen for the first time. The film has influenced every generation of snowboarders to this day and helped launch snowboarding globally. "Apocalypse Snow" garnered seven international awards, and few sports films have remained as memorable. Twenty-five years later, Didier set himself a new goal: to make "Apocalypse Snow: The Return" with the world's greatest riders. Filming for this short film took place from 2007 to 2008, with its official release in the fall of 2008. An American Period Didier traveled the world alongside some of the greatest adventurers and most accomplished athletes, such as Mike Horn, Boivin, Profit, Gouvy, and Patrick de Gayardon, to name just a few. Exiled for a time in the United States, he worked with Patrick de Gayardon on a Reebok commercial in 1994. This was unprecedented at the time, as the ad featured Patrick de Gayardon skydiving (freefalling while wearing a surfboard). This commercial was pivotal, as it sparked the trend of extreme sports advertising in the US, a market that had become enormous. Building on his success, Didier took on a wide range of film projects: short films, medium-length films, feature films as second unit director, television series, and commercials for diverse clients such as ski and cosmetics brands, and even the US Air Force. Still riding the wave of the action sports world, Didier was also the first Frenchman to sell a television series to the United States. Specifically, he co-produced the extreme sports series "Extreme" with Universal ABC. With an international reputation, he worked on numerous feature films, shooting as second unit director and choreographing stunts. Among them, “Terminal Velocity” (1994) with Charlie Sheen and Nastassja Kinski, “The Extremist” (2002) by Christian Duguais, “Origin of Evil”, “Snowboarders” (2003) by Olias Barco with Nicolas Duvauchelle and finally “Bridget Jones 2” (2004) with Renée Zellweger and Hugh Grant.
Filmography Movies
Production
Christophe
It is 1 p.m. on June 30, 1982, when Christophe Profit, 24, shows up at the foot of Les Drus with his pof bag, his climbing shoes and nothing else. He will try the west face of Les Drus in "solo", in the Mont Blanc massif by "Directe Américaine", 1100 meters of vertical and smooth rock. Christophe will achieve the feat of climbing the wall in free solo, without using a rope or any belaying technique. At 4:10 p.m., barely more than three hours after the start of his ascent, the new climbing star can embrace the Virgin of the Drus at the same time as the career of a high-level mountaineer. Three years later, on July 25, 1985, he climbed the north faces of the Matterhorn, the Eiger and the Jorasses in the same day. Awarded at many mountain film festivals, this great documentary is a magnificent testimony to one man's passion for climbing, the mountains and adventure.
Apocalypse Snow
Villainous monoskieurs try to capture the hero snowboarder to steal the secrets of skiing.
Apocalypse Snow
Villainous monoskieurs try to capture the hero snowboarder to steal the secrets of skiing.
Latitude 0⁰
One spring day, Mike Horn left his beloved wife and two daughters on a shore to circumnavigate the globe alone, following the equator. On foot, by dugout canoe, by sailboat, or by bicycle, across three oceans and two continents, Mike Horn journeyed along this invisible thread, never straying more than forty kilometers from it. Here, he recounts how a solitary man manages to blend into nature, choosing whether or not it will let him pass. In the Brazilian rainforest, bitten by a snake, he remained blind for four days, semi-conscious. But the greatest danger is humanity and its wars. In Africa, rebels arrested Mike Horn and sentenced him to death. He escaped by the skin of his teeth. Why all this? Because he wanted to fulfill his dream, to delve deeper into the encounter between nature and humanity. In this extraordinary story, we discover a man who is afraid, who marvels, who is in pain, but who moves forward, always.
Extreme Ops
While filming an advertisement, some extreme sports enthusiasts unwittingly stop a group of terrorists.
Torrent du Mont Blanc à la nage
A documentary about André Payraud's descent of the Mont Blanc torrent by swimming down it. "I've always had a thirst for adventure. At 19, I was in a diving club and I loved Jacques Martin's show, 'Incroyable mais vrai' (Incredible but True). I dreamed of participating in this hit program." After careful consideration, André Payraud had the idea of the century, an idea that would attract media attention: to descend the Grands-Montets glacier on his stomach, wearing a full wetsuit (mask, snorkel, fins, and neoprene suit). A crazy idea that drew a flood of press coverage. The film, "Swimming Down the Mont Blanc Torrent," directed by Didier Lafond, was broadcast twice on France 2 and even won an award.
André Payraud, le nageur de l'impossible
André Payraud, born in 1948 in Passy, Haute-Savoie, nicknamed "the swimmer of the impossible," is a major figure in French whitewater swimming, known by the nickname "Dédé the Carpet." He is renowned for his daring descents of large mountain rivers and for having helped popularize the sport from the 1980s onward. His achievements include swimming down the Mont Blanc torrent in 1980, the first in a long series of filmed feats: swimming Everest in 1982; the Ganges in 1985; the Colorado; Annapurna; the Jordan River—no river can stop Dédé in his quest for adventure. For his whitewater exploits, André Payraud was made a Knight of the National Order of Merit and received the Silver Medal for Youth and Sports. Alongside his exploits around the world, Dédé set up the first rafting company in Haute-Savoie in 1982, in Domancy, Session Raft, Aventures Payraud mont-Blanc..
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