The Summit of the Gods · reception & legacy
2021 · Patrick Imbert
How The Summit of the Gods has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
It premiered quietly at Cannes 2021 and could have vanished into the Netflix scroll, but word-of-mouth turned it into one of the platform's best-reviewed animated pickups — capped by the César for Best Animated Film in 2022. It's since become a go-to answer to 'underrated Netflix gem'.
What's debated
The recurring fan debate is whether it out-climbs live action — reviewers love arguing that this 2D animated film conveys altitude, ice and vertigo better than any actual Everest movie, and whether 'adult animation' this austere gets unfairly overlooked next to anime and Pixar.
Its footprint
Its frames of tiny climbers against vast blue-white faces are endlessly screenshotted, and it's become shorthand in 'animation is cinema' threads — the film people cite to prove French animation can do quiet, grown-up realism. It also revived interest in Jirô Taniguchi's revered manga and the real George Mallory mystery that frames the story.
Where it stands
A Letterboxd favourite in the making — one of the highest-rated animated features of its year on the platform and a reliable 'trust me, watch this' recommendation among animation fans.
Named by the director
Influences Patrick Imbert has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.
- Yasujirō Ozu — Imbert said his main influences were live-action, citing Ozu's colour films as a visual reference.
- The Revenant (2015) — He pointed to Emmanuel Lubezki's naturalistic camerawork on The Revenant as a touchstone for the film's look.
- Raymond Depardon — Imbert cited the photographs of Raymond Depardon among his key visual inspirations.