Waltham Forest Cinema Project presents a cycling classics that capture tour cycling in its 1970s heyday, a film that show the poetic highs and punishing lows of the sport.
About the film
A Sunday in Hell – hailed as “arguably the best film ever made about professional cycling” – captures three titans of tour cycling at the peak of their game. Eddie Merckx, Roger de Vlaeminck and Freddy Maertens were all world-conquering talents when they competed in 1976 race. But their skill becomes nothing against the feat of the brutal horror of the 168 miles of the Paris–Roubaix race: cobbled, tire-shredding roads; enveloping dust and slick mud; and racers crashing in churning chaos.
Director Jørgen Leth (who was also a noted cycling commentator) sought to capture the genuine experience of cycling the race, removed from cliché, combining technical precision, lyrical beauty and the riders’ dogged charisma to make this a brilliant portrait of the best of the sport.
We will be screening the Danish version of documentary, an extended cut with Leth’s own commentary.
A Sunday in Hell (1977) / Directed by Jørgen Leth / 111 mins / Advised 12A certificate
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