Articles - REVIEW: Between the Trees

Between the Trees is the new and much anticipated film by Keith Bradbury, aka Unclesomebody Productions. The feature length film (running time: 67min) chronicles hard-bouldering enthusiasts Tyler Landman and Keith Bradbury’s trip to the magical forest of Fontainebleau. Like Keith’s previous film L’Etranger, Between the Trees features a plethora of classic Fontainebleau problems, a vast bulk of which soar into the high Font 8 grades thanks to Tyler’s phenomenal climbing ability. And to top it all off, it's is available in glorious, eye-bleeding High Definition.

 

The film opens with a series of beautifully edited shots of a chalkbag being seemingly thrown right across the entire forest, before diving straight into the hard ascents. The tick-list is extensive and the film does a brilliant job of letting the aesthetic beauty and natural quality of the climbs shine through. In between the ‘crushing of problems’ we are treated to Tyler’s musings on the nature of climbing in Fontainebleau, as well as the eccentric actions of the pair together (deciding to have a day of tweed-cap wearing for example). I liked this: many climbing films have a tendency to take themselves way too seriously, but Between the Trees largely avoids this pitfall though its playful oddities and little quirks.

 

The music is distinctive, catchy and fits well to the footage. Rather than taking the place of mere background filler, the wide array of songs really do come to the forefront of the mind, complimenting the nature of the problems being shown perfectly. However the choice in music has been somewhat of a double-edged sword, as the music-rights of the songs have meant that only a limited number of the DVD version of the film can be produced.

 

I don’t have many criticisms of Between the Trees at all really. The only thing that I would have liked to see included in the film would have been the addition of a few classic, easy problems. As Tyler put it: “All the same qualities that make the hard test-pieces good here, they also apply for Font 5a's and 4 +s”. I think the inclusion of a number of the easier classic lines could have helped me relate just that little bit better, their hardcore version of Fontainebleau to the bumbling, easier one I recall from my own visits.

To purchase a copy of Between the Trees, please visit the Unclesomebody Website. To download a free version of Keith’s previous film L’Etranger, visit his blog.