corten

This is a 26 minute documentary on the 1965 Tour de France by Claude Lelouch, partly in colour. It contains a series of non-chronological impressions and fragments relating to all aspects of the Tour. For insiders: there are images of the finish in Liège (stage 1a, Van Looy wins, unfortunately hardly visible), in Ax-les-Thermes (stage 10, Reybrouck beating Van Looy) and in Montpellier (stage 13, Durante beating Lute and Wright). You may also recognize Gimondi, Poulidor, Jimenez, Janssen, Reybrouck, Den Hartog, De Roo, Motta, Van Looy, Wright, Perez-Frances, Bahamontes and Simpson. And for the numerous Belgian Rik Van Looy fans: there is a glimpse of the 'Emperor' wearing the yellow jersey (in colour) at the end of the second stage in Roubaix! Historically interesting.

Right from the beginning in swinging London this film epitomizes the coolness of the sixties. Excellent performances by James to the power 3: Coburn, Fox and Mason. Especially Coburn appears to be not acting at all in his tailor-made dropout role, he is just being his natural self. The atmosphere, the images, the music and the plot each contribute to the overwhelmingly positive feeling this picture leaves me with every time I see it. Why can't they make movies like this anymore (sigh, sob)? Another thing that strikes me about this film is that there is no other film (at least that I know of) which bears only the faintest resemblance to this flick. It stands out, on its own. Incredibly, it is available neither on video nor on DVD. Please help, Mr. Duffy-owner!