Cycling films for Christmas

[Getopardo]

I would gladly buy a few cycling films or dvds for Christmas, any idea ?

Two very good examples :
- le vélo de Ghislain Lambert, really excellent, manu scenes inspired from real cycling in the 1960's ;
- Stars and Watercarriers, from World Cycling Productions.

Thank you.

[martin]

I would gladly buy a few cycling films or dvds for Christmas, any idea ?

Two very good examples :
- le vélo de Ghislain Lambert, really excellent, manu scenes inspired from real cycling in the 1960's ;
- Stars and Watercarriers, from World Cycling Productions.

Thank you.

basically all films by Jorgen Leth, who has done "stars and watercarriers", in particular "a sunday in hell" about Paris Roubaix, still the best bike racing film i ever saw.

"Overcoming" is nice, as is "Höllentour".

I personally love "Le triplettes de belleville", an animation flick about champ, novice racer at le tour.

also worth seeing: "Breaking away", and (not so good but funny) "American flyer"

since you are in france, i also recommend "un affaire d'hommes" starring Claude Brasseur and Trintignant, if you can get it on DVD. Its a nice twised plot about a wealthy real-estate broker who starts cycling to befriend a detective, so he can get away with killing his wife. There's plenty of riding scenes who are very nicely integrated in the plot. Also some memorable piecs of dialogue... "Campagnolo... is just great"

[Joe S]

Hey!

Since Jørgen Leth's films have been mentioned I thought I would let you all know that a box containing all his sportsfilms (including "A Sunday in Hell" on Paris-Roubaix and "Stars and Watercarriers") has just been released. I don't know if it's available outside Denmark, though. The box also contains films about notorious tennis player Torben Ulrich and on table tennis (haven't seen that one yet!!) Be warned, we're talking about an artistic exploration of sport!

This is what I'm writing about (unfortunately the page is mostly in Danish): http://eshop.dfi.dk/Shop/ItemList.php?CategoriSelect=8

[lite pete]

the flying scotsman, great film about a great man. if only the uci wasnt such a*rs£oles god knows how fast he could have gone.

[evenfasterson]

I watched the Flying scotsman for the first time last night and it is a great film, I just wish the budget had been bigger, there are certain things that were'nt right for the early 1990's but I suppose a film about a cyclist is never going to have a big budget.

[Roobay]

the flying scotsman, great film about a great man. if only the uci wasnt such a*rs£oles god knows how fast he could have gone.

I was dissapointed with that film
jr

[DC41]

How about the film that should have won the 2003 Oscar for best animated film... Les Triplettes de Belleville. I still laugh when I think of the TDF publicity caravan girl stuck in the bridge.

[jipperd]

Since we are talking about film anyway. I seem to remember that there was supposed to be a contract for making a film of Lance Armstrongs live a few years ago (SONY). Matt Damon was supposed to be the actor who should take the role of Lance. Does anybody knows if there is any news about this film?

[jekyll man]

Flying Scotsman is OK, it has been tailored to fit a 90 minute format. Rent it, its not worth seeing more than once.
Belleville rendevous is also good.
My vote is A sunday in Hell, closely followed by, "La tete de la course"??, which follows EM's struggle in the Giro. 1971, I think.

[jipperd]

amarican flyers is a option aswell, quite a nice movie in my opinion

[drjones96]

I have american flyers on DVD. Coincidentally I just watched it a few nights ago. Seeing Ted Danson in his role is hillarious.

I'm disappointed to hear that American Flyers gets better reviews than the Flying Scotsman I had high hopes for the film. I havn't seen it yet but I really want to.

[HammerTime2]

Seeing Ted Danson in his role is hillarious.

Are you somehow thinking of Kevin Kostner? I don't believe Ted Danson was in American Flyers.

[drjones96]

You know what? You're right. I thought it was Ted Danson but I looked it up and it was actually a guy named Luca Bercovici. But he looks and acts just like Ted Danson. He was played the part of Muzzin, Kevin Costner's Arch nemisis and former team mate on the 7-Eleven team. Watch it again and you'll see what I mean.

[drjones96]

Since we are talking about film anyway. I seem to remember that there was supposed to be a contract for making a film of Lance Armstrongs live a few years ago (SONY). Matt Damon was supposed to be the actor who should take the role of Lance. Does anybody knows if there is any news about this film?

If I were to guess I'd say this is having a hard time getting off the ground due to the doping allegations and the whole of doping in cycling. They may have issues making a movie about a guy who could later be uncovered as the king of all dopers.

Did he dope? I don't know for a fact that he did.

Did he cheat his cheif competitors? If he did dope I wouldn't say that he did because they all doped just as much as he did and used the same doping technology that he did. So really it was a level playing field.

[martin]

I don't think the doping accusations had anything to do with the movie being dropped - if so, only because the interest in cycling has dropped because of the sport as a whole being in a bad reputation atm (looking at the Omerta still in the trade, talk about a whole industry sawing on the branch that it sits on...).
A few years ago, a film abut Coppi was being produced and even filmed (i remember seing stills of it in magazine "tour", and even the repro-jerseys made for the film were marketed), but as far as i know, it never saw release. Something od about cycling movies, it seems. Strange, when i think of it, as racing has everything in it you need for a good movie, determination, drama, tragedy, comedy... nevertheless it seems hard to find the right people to make it into a great movie and the audience for it. Maybe the real thing is too dramatic in itself to make a good movie off it, that might be the reason why documentaries are still the best eforts, like "a sunday in hell" or the eurosport documentary about team bianchi 2003.