The last few months the selections for the blog have been heavily influenced by the various film festivals. Today is June 1st and we're going to put the film festival choices behind us and throw caution to the wind. To that end between now and July 1st all the choices (weekends excepted) are simply random ones. The order is the order that we here at Unseen ran across them or wrote them up. As I begin today I have no idea what tomorrow or any of this month's weekday posts will be. It's all being created on the fly. Consider it our film collections on random play.
First up a documentary on one of the best known auto races in the world, in Monaco.
This hour long film traces the history of the race from its start as a distraction to entertain and bring in tourists, on to its place now as one of the crown jewels in all of motor sports. It's a film that's full of great old footage and super interviews with some of legends of Formula One (Jackie Stewart, among others). It's a wonderful look at one of the last street races in motor sports and all that is attached to it.
My love of the sport is the result of my Uncle Frank. I always liked racing but because of his passion for all types of racing my feelings grew strong. It was through his tutelage that I learned about a variety of race types, not just Indy Car and NASCAR. It was because of his high regard for Formula One that I really took notice of the sport.
As an F1 junkie I was in heaven watching this short little film. No, it's not a nuts and bolts discussion of the race, but a really good cultural survey of what the race means. If you want to know how the race came about and why it's still with us when almost every other road course has disappeared this is for you.
If there is any real flaw it's that the film has no recent race footage. While some of the current slew of drivers, such as Michael Schumacher, are interviewed, we don't have any footage of them racing. On the other hand we do have some great old footage including a tour of the track done via one of the infamous six wheeled cars of the mid-1970's...
A must see for anyone with any interest in the race or motor sports.
Currently available as an import DVD from the UK.
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