John the Monkey
Frivolous Cyclist
- Location
- Crewe
Road to Roubaix - anyone else pre-order?
- Thread starter John the Monkey
- Start date
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mondobongo
Über Member
Have you watched it yet John?? Worth a punt??
OP
OP
John the Monkey
Frivolous Cyclist
- Location
- Crewe
I've watched it once, and I'll preface my impressions with the caveat that I was being interrupted quite frequently by no.1 son, my daughter, and the missus throughout.
First impressions are;
1) It's not *just* an account of the 2007 race. There's at least as much emphasis on the build up to it, and the history of it.
2) The race coverage is ok, but there's no commentary (it's more or less a series of vignettes, at least as I remember it) and the makers made the slightly odd decision to render most, if not all of it, in black and white.
3) Overall, I really liked it though - the score is great, the talking heads are knowledgeable and have interesting things to say, and the rider interviews were good. (One of my favourites was the interview with Eddy Merckx' former mechanic, who jokingly tries to get out of the interview by saying "Paris-Roubaix? I was never there...") The talking heads are well chosen and well edited.
4) I've not watched the special features yet, so there could be more good stuff in there.
5) I think it's a worthy companion to "A Sunday in Hell", myself, and I think it's slighlty better than that film in giving the history of the race, and building up to the race itself. It's less good in showing the action from the 2007 race, and tying it in to the people interviewed in the first third or so. Thinking about that, it strikes me as being more complete as a film per se than "A Sunday in Hell" (the latter being pretty much a documentary for cyclists, with Road to Roubaix having, perhaps, a wider appeal.
6) I really liked Paul O'Brien's score, and the camera work seemed to me to be very good.
First impressions are;
1) It's not *just* an account of the 2007 race. There's at least as much emphasis on the build up to it, and the history of it.
2) The race coverage is ok, but there's no commentary (it's more or less a series of vignettes, at least as I remember it) and the makers made the slightly odd decision to render most, if not all of it, in black and white.
3) Overall, I really liked it though - the score is great, the talking heads are knowledgeable and have interesting things to say, and the rider interviews were good. (One of my favourites was the interview with Eddy Merckx' former mechanic, who jokingly tries to get out of the interview by saying "Paris-Roubaix? I was never there...") The talking heads are well chosen and well edited.
4) I've not watched the special features yet, so there could be more good stuff in there.
5) I think it's a worthy companion to "A Sunday in Hell", myself, and I think it's slighlty better than that film in giving the history of the race, and building up to the race itself. It's less good in showing the action from the 2007 race, and tying it in to the people interviewed in the first third or so. Thinking about that, it strikes me as being more complete as a film per se than "A Sunday in Hell" (the latter being pretty much a documentary for cyclists, with Road to Roubaix having, perhaps, a wider appeal.
6) I really liked Paul O'Brien's score, and the camera work seemed to me to be very good.
mondobongo
Über Member
Cheers John sounds like a worthwhile investment of some of my pennies.
