Matthias Giraud has, in his own words, dedicated his life to the combined arts of skiing and base jumping to “promote adventure,” in the belief that “you cannot let fear stand in the way of your dreams.” If the fear in question is the fear of death or injury, then this new documentary certainly demonstrates that he has, so far, practiced what he preaches. 

Giraud is the first person to ski-base jump off the Matterhorn, which we see him do, yet this statistic is almost irrelevant when faced with the abundance of footage of him doing what he loves best. If, occasionally, he considers consequences, or grapples with the risks before him, his ebullient, irrepressible desire for his flights through the air is much stronger. Even when he’s in the hospital, in understandably low spirits after having injured himself and coming close to death, he insists he knows he’s going to get back out there again, in spite of everything. 

Super Frenchie aims to bring us intimately into his life and career, and I’m guessing that it will satisfy many fans of extreme sports. The footage is excellent and ostensibly detailed. Not only are we shown astonishing vistas in state-of-the-art photography, but there is also a camera placed on his body so that we have a sense of what it is like for him as he falls through the air.

Furthermore, Giraud’s chosen sport is taken quite seriously, with attention toward its technicalities. Talking heads assure us that you do not just fall through the air; this extreme sport requires technique, and we witness Giraud do things I, at least, would not have predicted, like examining the Matterhorn on Google Earth so that he can jump responsibly. For anyone who aspires to follow Giraud into the sport, or at the very least to huff some of his fumes, this film should be a fun ride. 

When the documentary attempts to create a portrait of Giraud the man, I will not say that it fails exactly. His infectious love of what he does, and the sense of meaning it gives him, are communicated clearly, and those interviewed give the impression that he is lovable (though one of them lightly alludes to the fact that he might be a madman as well as a genius). Viewers might be inclined to judge his actions where his wife, Joann, and child are concerned, though she insists that he really needs to jump, as frightened as she is that he might die. Whether or not this is the whole story we will never know, yet to Giraud’s credit, he addresses these concerns himself. 

Viewers hear a lot of Giraud’s commentary, and it would be an exaggeration to say that he’s brimming with insight. There is a compelling, short passage alluding to some difficulties at home and a sister who committed suicide in a way that chillingly mirrors Giraud’s profession (she jumped out a window), struggles which fed his desire to pursue his passion. Yet there is too much of his earnest but unenlightening comments on how important it is to keep fear from interfering with one’s desires, how good it feels to ski, how it gives his life meaning, and so on. His father says that Giraud is both an athlete and a philosopher, yet after nearly 80 minutes of Giraud saying things like: “Being yourself gives meaning to your existence. Jumping off stuff… is just part of me,” one’s patience wears thin. 

Arguably, it is both unfair and unreasonable to ask this of an athlete. His experiences flying through the air probably need to be felt rather than talked about. Athletes are sometimes notoriously inarticulate in post-play interviews, and it is wrong to expect them to wax philosophical. Yet the filmmaker might not have given quite so much space to such banal thinking. Still, for ski fans, Super Frenchie will deliver.