Title: A Sunday in Hell
Director: Jørgen Leth
Release date: 1976
The plot: The Paris-Roubaix cycle is a journey to hell. This classic documentary follows some of cycling’s greats at the time as they battle the many natural and man-made elements in this test of endurance. The film captures the events of the 1976 edition and reveals the atmosphere of a professional race. Leading riders Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck (the previous year’s winner), Freddy Maertens, and Francesco Moser are put into focus as they tackle the narrow, cobbled roads and muddy tracks. Not only that but the film gives views of the team director, protester, spectator and mechanic. By the finish in the velodrome in Roubaix only a few riders are in contention. Post-race the exhausted riders, caked in dirt, give interviews in the velodrome’s showers. They look as if they’ve only just returned from hell.
YouTube credit: becomearobot
That was great, got any more?
Impressed you digged that one out Shane. Director Leth have enjoyed quite a eccentric media, film & poetry career and resided at Haiti (!) for years before the quake (not sure if he’s returned). He was a cycling commentator on national Danish TV for years before a controversy about his sex life (as depicted in his autobiography) forced him out.
Highly recommends his co-work with Lars von Trier “The Five Obstructions”, not that sporty though, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0354575/