A Sunday in Hell

The "Hell of the North", the infamous annual bike race from Paris to Roubaix, is an epic sporting contest; and Joergen Leth, a film-maker with a long-term love of professional cycling. Yet Leth's 1976 film of the race is a documentary that seems quaint with age. In a world where sporting events are everywhere on television, there's no-where Leth's film takes us we can't see everyday live on our screens; and the quaint English commentary dissipates the tension of a sporting event through it's use of a tone that is one part anthropology, one part an episode of 'The Clangers'. It's also surprisingly light on relevant sporting detail: the challenge of the great Belgian, Eddy Merkkx, is described without any reference to the fact that this was the tail end of his great career, when his powers were in decline and he was in fact never again to win a big race. When made, this might have been revolutionary; as it is, it pales besides the live action you can see alongside side it.