Jorgen Leth's film takes us back to the 1976 Paris-Roubaix spring classic cycle race, notable for its cobbled streets which were seldom used - except for this race. The film concentrates on several of the stars of the time, including Eddy Merckx and the then up-and-coming star Freddy Maertens. With commentary provided by the late David Saunders, at the time the major figure in cycling journalism, A SUMMER Sunday IN HELL is a treat for cycling nostalgics. However Leth transforms the event into something more than just a race: through skillful use of different types of shot - close-ups, aerial shots of the pack of racers passing through chocolate-box French towns, slow-motion shots - he makes aware of the aesthetic beauty of the event. To watch racers passing through streets in geometric shapes, or to watch an individual cyclist pedaling so hard like an automaton, is to understand why the sport exerts such a fascination for mass audiences. Leth is also concerned with the race as a social occasion: we see several shots of spectators passing the time in bars by singing, drinking, or eating; or small groups of village people passing the time of day on a glorious summer's day; or panning shots of spectators lining the route and cheering as the cyclists speed by. The film is a social history of the time, showing the hair-styles, clothes and mannerisms characteristic of the mid-Seventies. Saunders' commentary is sparse; on several occasions all we hear are the cyclists, their team-members and other officials talking in a variety of languages - French, Flemish, Italian. No subtitles are provided; but this is deliberate, as Leth wants to emphasize the internationality of the occasion, that contrasts with the rural settings in which the race takes place. The world of professional cycling was (and still is) a self-enclosed world, whose riders move from race to race; they live in a sporting bubble, which takes little or no account of the different venues in which the events take place. Unlike the spectators watching the event, the cyclists themselves are divorced from the 'real' world of daily life. A SUMMER Sunday IN HELL is a fascinating sociological document that works on several levels. Definitely worth a look.
