Just saw A Sunday In Hell for the first time...

afx237vi

Absolutely brilliant. One very minor quibble was the lack of subtitles, but I guess that just adds to the ambiance.

What struck me most was how little the race has changed in 31 years. Ignore the woolen jerseys and the lack of helmets, and you coulda been watching O'Grady emerging from the dust clouds instead of Demeyer* or Moser. Other sports evolve, sometimes very quickly (watch a rugby match from 1976 and then re-watch the world cup), but cycling essentially stays the same. I like that.

*who I had to look up on Wikipedia

vermooten

It's surprisingly unavailable on DVD in the UK. Would like to see it.

afx237vi

FWIW, I got my copy from eBay for about £15.

And when I said about subtitles, I should have said that you don't actually need subtitles because a) there's an English narrator and b) most of the film is of the race, so there's not much dialogue. There's just a small part at the beginning of a team meeting, the winner's interview at the end and various small snippets in between. Like I said, it adds to the ambiance.

timoid.

afx237vi wrote:

Absolutely brilliant. One very minor quibble was the lack of subtitles, but I guess that just adds to the ambiance.

What struck me most was how little the race has changed in 31 years. Ignore the woolen jerseys and the lack of helmets, and you coulda been watching O'Grady emerging from the dust clouds instead of Demeyer* or Moser. Other sports evolve, sometimes very quickly (watch a rugby match from 1976 and then re-watch the world cup), but cycling essentially stays the same. I like that.

*who I had to look up on Wikipedia

Thanks for the spoiler

Bronzie

I love the bit when the riders get held up by a strike protest..............Eddy Merckx spends the entire time fiddling with his saddle height to get it just so. Class.

iainf72

This is also worth checking out IMO

LangerDan

Bronzie wrote:

I love the bit when the riders get held up by a strike protest..............Eddy Merckx spends the entire time fiddling with his saddle height to get it just so. Class.

Merckx seriously damaged his back after a track crash that claimed the life of his derny pacer and kept adjusting the height of this saddle to alleviate back pain. Allegedly. Maybe he did, but I think he was probably just mind-phuqing with the opposition, the way that Nigel Mansell would make up all sorts of car problems, even if he won, to make him appear the master of any situation.

reverendmark

vermooten wrote:

It's surprisingly unavailable on DVD in the UK. Would like to see it.

Bromley Video has it. Not cheap, though:
http://www.bromleyvideo.com/shop/shop.php?c=viewproduct&pid=26&cat=5

Monty Dog

There's one scene filmed in a cafe in somewhere like Compiegne with garish 60's wallpaper - from having ridden through these place, I expect there are still quite a few bar-tabacs exactly as they were back then. If you ever get the chance to ride the sportive, you ride along through the same timeless roads and scenery - it's 5am in the morning, the sun's just rising and you can smell the bakery in the village and there's nobody else on the raod except a long line of cyclists. That's what appeals to me so much about the classics races - they've got this sporting legacy stretching back 100 years and when riding the event you can still feel a part of it - unlike many sports which feel hopelessly dated.

phil s

Great film but not as good as American Flyers

iainf72

phil s wrote:

Great film but not as good as American Flyers

Pah, Breaking Away is where it's at.

Made me sling my leg over a bike anyway.

girofan

:shock: phil s, are you American by any chance?
That film is the biggest load of crap. The worst film ever produced about any sport bar none!

vermooten

American Flyers is so gay.

Kléber

Here's a taster:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mB5a_H4k9sc

grape72

If you like "sunday in hell" then" stars and their watercarriers" would be right up your street.

phil s

girofan wrote:

:shock: phil s, are you American by any chance?
That film is the biggest load of crap. The worst film ever produced about any sport bar none!

No I am not American, and no you obviously do not understand the concept of irony

BigSpecs

Monty Dog wrote:

There's one scene filmed in a cafe in somewhere like Compiegne with garish 60's wallpaper - from having ridden through these place, I expect there are still quite a few bar-tabacs exactly as they were back then. If you ever get the chance to ride the sportive, you ride along through the same timeless roads and scenery - it's 5am in the morning, the sun's just rising and you can smell the bakery in the village and there's nobody else on the raod except a long line of cyclists. That's what appeals to me so much about the classics races - they've got this sporting legacy stretching back 100 years and when riding the event you can still feel a part of it - unlike many sports which feel hopelessly dated.

Monty, monty, monty...how is a man supposed to concentrate on his work of an afternoon when you go conjuring up images like that?? Makes my office look pretty dull I'll tell you...

Monty Dog

Happy to oblige and now you understand what keeps me motivated on these cold, wet days - probably be there again on 8th June, just hope it's not quite as hot as last year.

afx237vi

grape72 wrote:

If you like "sunday in hell" then" stars and their watercarriers" would be right up your street.

Now I've seen this too. Not as good as ASIH. Obviously, it's harder to fit a three week race into 90 minutes than it is a single-day race, and it definitely shows.

ASIH had narrative... a plot line, even. But Stars and Watercarriers was all over the place. There were very little explanations of what was going on, and some parts were just bizarrely edited.

All the way through we watch as the Spanish climber Jose Manuel Fuente battles to win a stage, and when he finally does get a victory with an epic breakaway over four mountain passes, the film cuts away without showing his win! Annoying!

Overall, it was 90 minutes of pretty pictures of a peloton streaming through some amazing scenery, but that was pretty much it. ASIH has focus, tension, and a plot. S&WC is really something that only true cycling geeks would enjoy.

Still, it came with The Impossible Hour on the same dvd, a 45 minute documentary about Ole Ritter's attempt at the hour record in Mexico City. I enjoyed that a lot more than the main feature.

Matchstick Man

Paaaaaaaa-reeeeeeeeeeee

Rooooooooo-baaaaaaaayyyyyy

Excellent film. Best bit? The beginning where Moser's mechanic cleans his bike and fettles the brakes with a hammer handle to get them right. Ahhhh bliss, I could watch that sort of s**t for hours :oops:

hommelbier

Having just watched A Sunday in Hell again, then tonight's news about continuing iindustrial unrest in France it seems a real case of "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose". The film now seems very dated - like the wallpaper in the cafe - but I still enjoy it except perhaps (like Matchstick Man?) for that background choir.

Ken Night

Monty Dog wrote:

Happy to oblige and now you understand what keeps me motivated on these cold, wet days - probably be there again on 8th June, just hope it's not quite as hot as last year.

On your disc braked Ti crosser?

Here is some more romance. ignore the schmalzzy melodramatic Yank commentator
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QvAdfqo43s0&feature=related

Matchstick Man

hommelbier wrote:

but I still enjoy it except perhaps (like Matchstick Man?) for that background choir.

are you mental??? That's the best bit!!!!!
That's got us through many a tough winter training run, with the spray kicking off rear wheels, splattering us with sh*t, wind howling, cold temperature, heavy rain,etc and then some bright spark (usually me) starts up the chorus.........everyone hunkers down and gives it a bit of stick and we're there duelling it out in the Arenberg forest.
As for it being dated - hell yeah! Gotta love those sideburns they're all sporting

secretsqirrel

Agreed the music is fab, it gives the film a spooky 'other-worldly' atmosphere.

vermooten

There's a torrent of this film on The Pirate Bay now, I downloaded it in about 4 hours!

Yes the music's great, like a Werner Herzog film.

Ken Night

vermooten wrote:

There's a torrent of this film on The Pirate Bay now, I downloaded it in about 4 hours!

Yes the music's great, like a Werner Herzog film.

Thanks Andy-I downloaded it together with three other films-some really lovely scenes, just flicking through-can't wait to see it properly

le_patron

I got my copy here http://www.worldcycling.com/merchant.mv ... gory_Code=

Not cheap, but not ridiculous. Watched it last week, agree I like the choir and the horrendously dated interior shots are cool. It's a bit strange watching it, almost hypnotises you. The sheer physical effort required of the riders never really comes across, (almost makes it look easy, just along a road a bit, then some cobbles, then a track) but it's quite trance-like as a result.

Ken Night

I got to watch it last night-love the jerseys and the kit, but not what I expected (slush and muck, lots of falling off and a really tactical finish, rather than the track sprint

Very enjoyable all the same, I'm going to watch "Overcoming" next

Martin Van Nostrand

girofan wrote:

:shock: phil s, are you American by any chance?
That film is the biggest load of crap. The worst film ever produced about any sport bar none!

I beg to differ. "Cobbles baby" is a documentary by a chubby guy from San Francisco who goes to Europe for the first time and to Paris-Roubaix. He manages to mispronounce everything, even "pavees". He meets up with Frenchmen and blathers incoherently then is surprised when they can't offer him directions. It's like Mr. Bean goes to PR.
Best scene: Sean Kelly walks into the pub at Compeigne, and the producer says, "my god, it's Stephen Roche".
Documentarian then strips naked at showers in Roubaix-it gets worse from there.