Frank Simon – 1972 – England
Forgotten for forty years after
an initial festival screening, Weekend of
a Champion was rediscovered in 2013 and restored and reedited under
producer Roman Polanski’s supervision.
Shot cinema verite-style by
filmmaker Frank Simon – most known for 1968’s The Queen – the film follows Scottish Formula 1 driver Jackie
Stewart during and between several races in 1971’s Grand Prix in Monaco. The film doesn’t do anything particularly
groundbreaking, and it’s difficult not to think of other films of the same era
– like Grand Prix (1966) and Le Mans (1971), which were highly
notable for their incorporation of documentary elements – and yet it does have
some original details. Noteworthy is an
extensive conversation between Stewart and Polanski in a hotel room in which
the driver elucidates the myriad of intricate things he has to do and be aware
of in the middle of a race. Though in
public he seems a self-satisfied, rather typical sports hero, in the intimate
scenes it comes out how truly passionate and single-minded he is about his
profession. The updated version of the
film includes a coda comprised of Polanski and Stewart reminiscing about the
original film forty years later. This is
inserted into the body of the film in the last quarter, which I felt to be a
mistake as it disrupts the pace of what should be respected as Simon’s edit of
the film. It would have worked just as
well as a bonus feature on the DVD, but it is far too incongruous with the
older footage to flow well.
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