{"id":2988,"date":"2011-06-03T15:04:20","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T19:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2988"},"modified":"2013-01-28T02:24:11","modified_gmt":"2013-01-28T07:24:11","slug":"br-grand-prix-1966","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2988","title":{"rendered":"BR: Grand Prix (1966)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>G<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Excellent\/ DVD Transfer: Excellent\/ DVD Extras: Excellent<\/p>\n

Label: Warner Home Video\/ Region: All \/\u00a0Released: May 24, 2011<\/p>\n

Genre: Drama \/ Car Racing<\/p>\n

Synopsis: The dreams and fears of three Formula One drivers come alive during the 1966 Grand Prix season.<\/p>\n

Special Features: 5 Featurettes: \u201cPushing the Limit: The Making of Grand Prix\u201d (29:09) + \u201cFlat Out: Formula One in the Sixties\u201d (17:26) + \u201cThe Style and Sound of Speed\u201d (11:40) + \u201cBrands Hatch: Behind the Checkered Flag\u201d (10:36) \/ Vintage 1966 promo featurette: \u201cGrand Prix: The Challenge of Champions\u201d (12:45) \/ Theatrical Trailer<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Oscar Winner for Best Effects, Sound Effects; Best Film Editing, and Best Sound.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Putting a former live TV director in charge of a multi-camera production about Formula One racing may seem like a nutty idea, but the reality is that John Frankenheimer was the perfect choice. The director was well-experienced with precise multi-camera filming, meeting rigid deadlines, and a need to get as much right on the first take \u2013 all mandatory for anyone managing a crew amid the chaos of live TV.<\/p>\n

Add a knack for handling multi-generational actors \u2013 stars, method, and veteran character actors \u2013 and a wonderful visual sense, and you have perhaps the only director who could\u2019ve balanced action, drama, egos, and fulfilling his own passion for fast performance cars.<\/p>\n

As the making-of featurette explains, from an early age Frankenheimer loved cars, and there are few racing films that capture the sheer beauty of machines in motion, the fetishistic details of a machine\u2019s entrails, and the power and danger of speed without weighted melodrama; the apex is Le Mans<\/strong>, with its minimalist design (virtually no dialogue), but Grand Prix<\/strong> [GP] delivers the excitement of racing like no other motion picture.<\/p>\n

That admittedly sounds like vintage ad pap, and GP has its share of flaws, but each of the film\u2019s racing sequences was designed with a slightly different visual and editorial style, neither of which took away from the experience of being in a vehicle at 120 mph and beyond. To further push the envelope and give audiences a ride like no other racing film, 70mm Super Panavision cameras were rigged to vehicles, and the actors were driving their own cars \u2013 essentially racing at high speeds in a manner no studio today would allow due to impossible insurance premiums.<\/p>\n

The POV shots cover the car\u2019s bending suspension and bouncing wheels, as well as trees and roads passing along the peripherals; reverse angles of an actor have other cars passing without a cut; and the most ingenious rig has camera zooming out, in, or panning from the driver to a wide POV shot without a single edit. On the big screen (and in custom Cinerama engagements), the impression must have been magnificent, and 45 years later the racing sequences in GP are unrivaled.<\/p>\n

When there are cuts, the successive images still add to the effect of being in the moment; when there are long takes, the audience vicariously experiences sharp turns, banks high on corners, and passes slow-pokes.<\/p>\n

The sound montages and editing are superb; the sound recordists captured the engines and shifting sounds of every vehicle, and in keeping with the docu-drama feel, few racing sequences are scored with music. Audio \u2018interviews\u2019 with the drivers are sometimes overlaid onto montages, and the film was actually shot during the 1966 Grand Prix \u2013 capturing the vehicles, and a far less gaudy, commercialized environment that dominates most televised sports.<\/p>\n

As one of the racing consultants admits in the featurette, the film captures a fleeting innocence when the Grand Prix and its racers were less media stars because the media wasn\u2019t so much in the face of everyone, and the event was about racing rather than filling every side panel, hood, helmet, sleeve, audience barrier and rooftop with a logo or slogan. There\u2019s also no digital mucking about: the streets look more dangerous because there\u2019s less advertorial signage cluttering the racetracks: it\u2019s just cars weaving in and around ordinary buildings.<\/p>\n

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The Script, Music, & the Look<\/strong><\/p>\n

The key comparison for contemporary audiences is Sylvester Stallone\u2019s Driven<\/strong> (2001) which its star \/ co-producer \/ co-writer wanted so badly to be the definitive, modern racing movie, but ruined it with bad scripting and an editing style that substituted flash and digital sweetening in place of any documentary elements.<\/p>\n

GP\u2019s script and story came from Robert Alan Authur, a veteran Emmy-nominated writer from live TV whose film work also included the striking western Warlock<\/strong> (1959), and later the darkly satirical (and Oscar-nominated) All That Jazz<\/strong> (1979).<\/p>\n

The structure is no different than Driven<\/strong> \u2013 soap opera dramatics of blossoming and disintegrating relationships are scattered between several death-defying races \u2013 but the scenes are less reliant on the egos of stars, fast quips, and prankish humour. It\u2019s still evocative of Grand Hotel <\/strong>(1932), in and around racing cars, but the mini-dramas feel more realistic because the characters tend to speak very little, and often seem to be holding back deep-rooted emotional conflicts. It doesn\u2019t make GP Shakespearean, but less dialogue reduces the scent of melodrama significantly.<\/p>\n

The basic storylines: Pete Aron (James Garner) causes team member Scott Stoddard (Brian Bedford) to crash, and moves in on the latter\u2019s wife Pat (Jessica Walter) during a separation.<\/p>\n

Frenchman and world champion Jean-Pierre Sarti (Yves Montand) is growing weary of racing and feels this will be his final round, and perhaps he can end the miserable faux marriage to manipulative wife Monique (Genevieve Page) and move an affair with racing journalist Louise Frederickson (Eva Marie Saint) towards something permanent. His fellow team Ferrari mate Nino Barlini (Antonio Sabato) is a free-flowing playboy who absorbs every moment in the spotlight with glee at the expense of long-suffering girlfriend Lisa (Francoise Hardy).<\/p>\n

Blendered into the mix are Aron\u2019s boss Izo Yamura (Toshiro Mifune), trying to prove the worth of Japanese engineering with his hand-crafted cars; Agostini Manetta (Adolfo Celi), who heads team Ferrari and awaits Sarti\u2019s fall from grace to add some new blood into the team; and Wallace Bennett (Donald O\u2019Brien), the Brit team leader who fired Aron and stuck with Stoddard as the busted racer nursed himself back from crutches to the driver’s seat of his Formula One machine.<\/p>\n

To support the Grand Hotel<\/strong> segments is Maurice Jarre\u2019s score, which works surprisingly well considering the composer\u2019s odd harmonies are transposed to romantic and light pop-jazz theme arrangements. The source marches are fine (Jarre\u2019s style always seemed to suit military marches), and the score is given more prominence in a dynamic racing sequence that employs complex split-screen montages which buffer the docu-realism of the surrounding racing sequences.<\/p>\n

A key talent involved with the film was Saul Bass, who had previously designed the title sequence for Frankenheimer\u2019s abstract sci-fi classic Seconds<\/strong> (1966), as well as montaged the shower murder and titles for Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s Psycho<\/strong> (1960).<\/p>\n

Bass\u2019 contributions went much further in GP, extending to the split-screen montages (arguably directly influential towards Norman Jewison\u2019s The Thomas Crown Affair<\/strong>), and the visual design of the film, which is quite extraordinary: long lenses to compress the distance between cars and audiences, and more particularly, soft or unfocused backgrounds for driver close-ups which resemble slick sixties commercial photography; James Garner\u2019s driving close-ups could easily have been designed to sell men\u2019s cologne, cigarettes, or \u2018the sense\u2019 of being in control of the latest Ford Mustang coupe.<\/p>\n

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The Extras<\/strong><\/p>\n

Warner Home Video\u2019s Blu-ray replicates the content of the 2006 DVD and (now obsolete) HD-DVD editions, and should please racing and car fans with big 1080p setups. In an ideal world, the film should exist as a 70mm print for cinematheque rental, but for home venues, a projection system ought to turn anyone\u2019s wall into a Grand Prix portal. The image is crisp, the 5.1 surround mix beautifully sends engine roars across the room, and Jarre\u2019s sparse score sounds smooth and clean in uncompressed 5.1. (Pity it\u2019s not available in an isolated 5.1 music mix, but there is an expanded CD.)<\/p>\n

The featurettes manage to cover most of the production minutia, and director Frankenheimer, who died in 2002, is back from the grave via some archival interviews, vintage production featurette extracts, and rare on set interviews.<\/p>\n

The most amusing interview bits have Frankenheimer reflecting on his alleged abrasiveness, which co-star Walter elaborates in the making-of featurette. James Garner (nearly 80 when interviewed) is also on hand, and recalls an argument with a greedy Monte Carlo fisherman; we subsequently see the actual exchange from the same archival news source. There\u2019s also some discussion of Steve McQueen originally being sought for the role eventually played by Garner, and McQueen\u2019s later effort to make his own racing film, Le Mans<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Gary Chang, who scored many of the director\u2019s later films, also provides some comments on Frankenheimer, as well as Jarre\u2019s score in the separate featurette, \u201cThe Style and Sound of Speed.\u201d The drivers and racing historians also return for the remaining featurettes, discussing the Brands Hatch racetrack where one of the film\u2019s racing sequences was shot, and for a nostalgic tribute to the late drivers who reflected the no-nonsense cars which contained no safety features. (Indeed, modern audiences ought to be shocked by the clear visibility and deceptive elegance of the cars which have no roll cages, safety bars, or seatbelts.)<\/p>\n

The contributions of Saul Bass are modestly detailed, although it\u2019s a shame WHV\u2019s special features production team weren\u2019t able to get any archival interviews with Bass, such as the Q&A Elwy Yost conducted in the eighties for TVOntario. (The interview, incidentally, is available <\/a><\/em>for streaming via TVO\u2019s website, beginning :58 seconds into the show, and ending at 8:47.)<\/p>\n

Also included is the vintage 1966 MGM promo \u201cGrand Prix: Challenge of Champions,\u201d with plenty of behind-the-scenes footage, overhyped narration, and some glimpses of Monaco\u2019s Princess Grace with her family.<\/p>\n

Frankenheimer\u2019s next film was the more immobile, period drama The Fixer<\/strong> (1968), but he returned to fast-moving cars and Monaco for his second-last theatrical film, Ronin<\/strong> (1998). Screenwriter Authur wrote the For Love of Ivy <\/strong>(1968) for Sidney Poitier, and directed the actor in the Odd Man Out<\/strong> remake The Lost Man<\/strong> (1969) before stepping away from films until All That Jazz <\/strong>(1979).<\/p>\n

Cinematographer Lionel Lindon strangely went back into TV, with just a handful of feature films left before his death in 1971, whereas Jarre, who had previously scored Frankenheimer\u2019s The Train<\/strong> (1964), also score the director\u2019s next film, The Fixer<\/strong>. Bass, perhaps emboldened by the experience of directing material for the racing montages, made the Oscar-winning short Why Man Creates<\/strong> (1968), and his lone feature-length film, Phase IV<\/strong> (1974).<\/p>\n

Other racing films include The Crowd Roars<\/strong> (1932), Winning<\/strong> (1969), Le Mans<\/strong> (1971), Days of Thunder<\/strong> (1990), and Driven<\/strong> (2001).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2011 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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Related external links (MAIN SITE):<\/em><\/p>\n

DVD \/ Film: \u00a0Grand Hotel <\/a><\/strong>(1932) — Le Mans<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (1971) —\u00a0Phase IV<\/a><\/strong> (1974) —\u00a0Why Man Creates<\/a><\/strong> (1968)<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Buy from:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.com<\/strong> \u2013\u00a0Grand Prix [Blu-ray]<\/a><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/strong> –\u00a0Grand Prix [Blu-ray]<\/a><\/p>\n

Amazon.co.uk <\/strong> –\u00a0Grand Prix [Blu-ray] [1966] [US Import]<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em><\/em><\/em>\/\u00a0G<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ G . Film: Excellent\/ DVD Transfer: Excellent\/ DVD Extras: Excellent Label: Warner Home Video\/ Region: All \/\u00a0Released: May 24, 2011 Genre: Drama \/ Car Racing Synopsis: The dreams and fears of three Formula One drivers come alive during the 1966 Grand Prix season. Special Features: 5 Featurettes: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[510,509,508,512,507,511],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-Mc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2988"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6086,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988\/revisions\/6086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}