Marcel Ichac
Marcel Ichac (22 October 1906 – 9 April 1994) was a French alpinist, explorer, photographer and film director. Marcel Ichac was born in Rueil-Malmaison, France, Ichac was one of the first people to introduce electronic music in cinema using the ondes Martenot instrument for Karakoram (1936) and released the first French short in CinemaScope, 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, Louis Lachenal and Gaston Rébuffat.
Marcel Ichac

ManoSolo13241324 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Marcel Ichac
- Birth Name
- Marcel Leon Ichac
- Born
- 22 October 1906
- Birthplace
- Rueil-Malmaison, France
- Died
- 9 April 1994
- Place of death
- Ézanville, France
- Education
- École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs
- Occupation
- journalist, film director, photographer, mountaineer
- Known for
- documentary film
- Awards
- Oscar for Best Short Subject (1963) Cannes Short Film Palme d'Or (1962), Prix Spécial (1952) Trento Festival Golden Gentian (1955)
- Nationality
- France
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Marcel Ichac (22 October 1906 – 9 April 1994) was a French alpinist, explorer, photographer and film director. Marcel Ichac was born in Rueil-Malmaison, France, Ichac was one of the first people to introduce electronic music in cinema using the ondes Martenot instrument for Karakoram (1936) and released the first French short in CinemaScope, 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, Louis Lachenal and Gaston Rébuffat.
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Authority files
wikidata · Q1338253 · wikipedia · Marcel Ichac
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Marcel Ichac • Birth Name — Marcel Leon Ichac • Born — 22 October 1906 • Birthplace — Rueil-Malmaison, France • Died — 9 April 1994 • Place of death — Ézanville, France • Education — École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs • Occupation — journalist, film director, photographer, mountaineer • Known for — documentary film • Awards — Oscar for Best Short Subject (1963) Cannes Short Film Palme d'Or (1962), Prix Spécial (1952) Trento Festival Golden Gentian (1955) • Website — https: www.marcel-ichac.fr
Filmography
Filmography
Ichac directed documentary films of French explorations during the years 1930–1950. Expeditions he accompanied and documented on film include: • Karakoram, the first French expedition to the Karakoram (1936) • The first documentary film in the world about the Pilgrimage to Mecca (1940). • A l'Assaut des Aiguilles du Diable (1942). • Expeditions of Jacques-Yves Cousteau to the Mediterranean Sea (1948), the Red Sea (1955: preparatory to the realization of The Silent World), and Lake Titicaca (1968). • French Polar Expedition in Greenland with Paul-Emile Victor (1949). • Victoire sur l'Annapurna, film on the 1950 French Annapurna expedition, 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. • Le Conquérent de l'inutile (1967), a film he made about the life of his friend and mountain climber Lionel Terray. Additionally, Ichac captured images of mountain warfare in World War II and the liberation of Turin, Italy in Tempête sur les Alpes (1944-1945).
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1906–1994
The full dated record · 3 entries
1906
Marcel Ichac born at Rueil-Malmaison.
1953
Annapurna. First conquest of an 8000-meter peak [26,493 feet]. Translated from the French by Nea Morin and Janet Adam Smith. Cartographic and photographic documentations by Marcel Ichac. With an introduction by Eric Shipton. (1953) is digitised and catalogued by Open Library.
1994
Marcel Ichac died at Ézanville.
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1338253: Marcel Ichac
Unverified · Wikidata
reference work
- “Marcel Ichac”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Awards
• Silver Lion in the Venice film festival for Karakoram. • Directed winner of the Prix du documentaire at Cannes Film Festival in 1952. • Produced An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge which won an Academy Award for Live Action Short Film.

La tombe de l'explorateur et cinéaste Marcel Ichac au cimetière de Passy à Paris. (Division 1)
Antoine Rex
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.État civil sur le fichier des personnes décédées en France depuis 1970
- 2.Jean Tulard, Dictionnaire du Cinéma, 1992
- 3.Georges Sadoul, Dictionnaire des cinéastes, Microcosme, Le Seuil, 1965, mis à jour en 1977,
- 4.Georges Sadoul, Histoire du cinéma, page à retrouver
- 5.Cité notamment par Ulrich Hägele, Instrument der politischen Satire: Die Fotomontage in Frankreich 1930 bis 1940 , Monat der Fotografie 2004, Gropius-Bau Berlin, 15 novembre 2004 http://www.unicoaching.de/download/3-politischesatire.pdf
- 6.Exposition VU à la Maison européenne de la photographie à Paris en 2007 et [http://www.photosapiens.com/Regarder-VU.html, Une du Figaro début 2007, etc.
- 7.Lire à ce sujet Collectif (Jean Escarra, Henri de Ségogne, Louis Neltner, Jean Charignon), Karakoram, expédition française à l'Himalaya, Flammarion, 1938 et réédité 1951.
- 8.Harvsp texte=Quand brillent les Étoiles de Midi Marcel Ichac 1960 p=16-20 loc= id=Marcel_Ichac1960 .
- 9.Maurice Herzog, Annapurna, premier 8000 et autres
- 10.Quand brillent les Étoiles de Midi. 24-27.
- 11.Écouter France culture : https://www.radiofrance.fr/chaines/france-culture2/emissions/fabriquenew/fiche.php?diffusion_id=39072
- 12.Une étude critique sur la place de l'Annapurna dans lé mémoire française http://chaps.canalblog.com/docs/H_ros_Annapurna.pdf
- 13.Annales du GHM en 2000, dossier sur l'expédition de l'Annapurna http://www.ghm-alpinisme.com/textes/annales_2000.pdf
- 14.Sur cette expédition, lire notamment Michel Bouché, Groenland, Station Centrale, Grasset, 1952 et autres
- 15.Quand brillent les Étoiles de Midi. 24.
- 16.Lire notamment Une histoire de la plongée, revue Subaqua hors-série , page 856, introduction à la Filmographie http://www.histoireplongee.com/documents/Livres_films_TV.pdf
- 17.Jacques-Yves Cousteau et Frédéric Dumas, Le Monde du silence, 1953, édition ??
- 18.Sur cette expédition, lire aussi Philippe Diolé et Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Trois aventures de La Calypso, Flammarion, 1973
- 19.Jacques Chabert, Histoire du Spéléo-club de Paris, in Grottes&Gouffres, , juin 1996 et sur http://francis-leguen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=157&Itemid=34 et Philippe Morverand, Le Spéléo-club de Paris aura 60 ans... in Grottes&Gouffres , juin 1995
- 20.Jacques Chabert, Le spéléo-club de Paris, 60 ans au service de la spéléologie in Grottes&Gouffres, , juin 1996 passage sur "Les images souterraines" et sur http://membres.lycos.fr/scp/historic.htm
- 21.Quand brillent les Étoiles de Midi. 22-23.
- 22.Lire notamment Pierre Leprohon
- 23.Quand brillent les Étoiles de Midi. 21-22.
- 24.. Le livre est en grande partie consacré au tournage du film
- 25.Quand brillent les Étoiles de Midi. 23.
- 26.Archivio Nazionale Cinematografico della Resistenza https://www.ancr.to.it/Tool/Card/?id_card=467
- 27.sur ses premiers films de ski
- 28.Frédéric Potet, Marcel Ichac, Le cinéaste-alpiniste, in La Croix, 13 avril 1994
- 29.Pierre Minvielle (écrivain de montagne), Marcel Ichac, Le Maître incontesté du cinéma de montagne in La Montagne et Alpinisme, 3-1994,
- 30.Citation reprise notamment dans Le Monde, 12 avril 1994 et probablement dans le livre Quand brillent les étoiles de midi
- 31.Yves Ballu (historien de la montagne), Hommage à Marcel Ichac, in ? vers 1986
- 32.Marc Fenoli, Marcel Ichac, Histoire d’un pionnier in Montagne magazine , mai 1994
- 33.Jacques Ertaud, Adieu Matha in Montagne Magazine, , juin ? 1994
- 34.Jean-Jacques Meusy (CNRS), Le Scope fait son cinéma, in La Recherche , http://www.larecherche.fr/special/comp/scope359.html
- 35.Fiche de Maurice Jarre de la BiFi http://cinema.encyclopedie.personnalites.bifi.fr/index.php?pk=47814
- 36.Interview de Robert Enrico par Stéphane Lerouge, sur le site http://www.francoisderoubaix.com/temoin/enrico/enrico.htm
- 37.Fiche de Gérard Oury à l'Académie des Beaux-Arts http://www.academie-des-beaux-arts.fr/membres/actuel/cinema/Oury/fiche.htm et son autobiographie, Mémoires d'éléphant (1988)
- 38.Voire par exemple sa biographie sur Prisma.de http://www.prisma-online.de/tv/person.html?pid=jean_louis_trintignant
- 39.https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/program/calendar/event/cd89jz
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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