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Fausto Coppi Story / Jacques Anquetil, The
World Cycling Productions // Unrated // January 1, 2002 // Region 0
List Price: $49.95 [Buy now and save at Worldcycling]
World Cycling Productions' DVD of The Fausto Coppi Story / Jacques Anquetil is a combined edition of two programs on one DVD; each program had previously been sold separately on VHS. This DVD "double feature" offers an interesting documentary look at two of the legends of professional bicycle racing: the Italian Fausto Coppi and the French Jacques Anquetil.
The Jacques Anquetil film is a fast-paced 60 minutes, covering the life and racing career of French cycling star Jacques Anquetil, who won the Tour de France a record total of five times. (No more than a handful of other racers have even equaled his number of Tour wins, and only the Spanish champion Miguel Indurain managed to "beat" the record by winning all five of his Tours in a row.) Anquetil was a genius on the bicycle, who invented a new, tremendously effective riding style and used it to win not only the Tour de France, but also the Giro d'Italia and many of the challenging one-day Classic races.
What makes the story of Jacques Anquetil interesting to watch is that it's more than a narrative about his racing wins. It's a look into the character of a racing champion, with many interviews and insights from the people who knew and loved him as a person as well as an athlete. When Anquetil raced, his toughest opponent was his own state of mind; superstitious, shy, yet craving the accolades of his fans, Anquetil was often lonely and driven. He rode hard, and he also lived hard: determined to get the most out of every moment in life, Anquetil would often drink, smoke, and carouse all night... and then get up and win a race on the next morning.
The Fausto Coppi Story tells the story of another of cycling's greats, this time of Italy's "campionissimo", or "champion of champions." With an extraordinarily long and successful career as a professional cyclist, Coppi dominated the racing scene in the 1940s and 1950s. He was so strong that he would literally leave his opponents behind in the dust as he took off up the mountains for signature lone victories. Nowadays, the highest peak that the cyclists climb in each year's Giro d'Italia is labeled as the "cima Coppi" in honor of the campionissimo's climbing ability. But Coppi's private life was not as straightforward as his racing ability, and he was haunted by scandal for his love affair with the "White Lady."
At 110 minutes long, the Coppi piece has a more drawn-out feel than the snappily-paced Anquetil film; at times it gets a little repetitive with its coverage of yet another race that Coppi entered and won. On the whole, however, the piece is enjoyable and is a very informative look at one of cycling's legends.
Video
Both The Fausto Coppi Story and Jacques Anquetil are presented in their original aspect ratios of 1.33:1. All in all, the video quality is quite good for both of the films. In addition to the color interview footage, both films, especially the Jacques Anquetil one, use considerable black and white footage dating from the 1930s through the 1960s. Of course, the image quality of fifty-year-old TV broadcast footage reflects its age, but the DVD transfer does a good job of presenting it as cleanly as possible. There is some noise in the image (hardly avoidable given the source material), but the prints are in good shape without scratches or marks. Most importantly, the contrast is excellent, making the black-and-white images pleasant to watch.
Audio
The Fausto Coppi Story is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, which is more than adequate for the soundtrack; given the narrative nature of the material, there's no need for surround sound. The sound quality is good, with both the interviews and the voiceover narration of Phil Liggett coming across clearly and without distortion. If I were to rate the audio quality of The Fausto Coppi Story by itself, I'd give it three stars.
The soundtrack is less satisfactory for the Jacques Anquetil film, though more because of a production decision than because of a technical problem. The original film is in French; for the English-language version, WCP's Phil Liggett provides the voiceover. The soundtrack keeps the original French narration track in the background with the English voiceover on top at full volume. This in itself isn't a bad choice, as many translated documentaries do this; however, the French track isn't turned down enough, and is somewhat distracting. Whenever the film shows interviews, however, the original French is put at full volume with English subtitles, which is much more satisfactory.
Other than the odd handling of the voiceover, the actual sound quality of the Jacques Anquetil film is adequate. For some reason, the soundtrack is presented in Dolby 5.1, which is rather a waste since there's no need for any surround (and no surround is used). If I were to rate the Jacques Anquetil film by itself, I'd give it two stars because of the voiceover; so, averaged with the Fausto Coppi program, I've awarded two and a half stars to the DVD overall.
Extras
The DVD is bare-bones, but since WCP has put two programs on one DVD, the lack of extras is certainly nothing to quibble about. On the other hand, I do think it's worth a quibble to note that neither of the two films have any chapter stops. That's right: each one is a single giant chapter, obviously the result of being a direct "port" from VHS. It's particularly noticeable because each of the films is divided up into fairly obvious "chapters"; The Fausto Coppi Story is even presented as Part I and Part II. For the future, I hope that WCP's production staff will make sure that their historical films as well as their stage race coverage is properly transferred over to DVD; the 2001 Tour de France DVD is properly set up with a chapter per stage.
Final thoughts
World Cycling Productions is to be applauded for their choice of putting two of their historical programs on one DVD; this makes for a very content-rich disc and is a great motivation to buy the DVD instead of two VHS tapes (as if the DVD quality wasn't enough of an argument already, of course!) WCP has done well in choosing this pair to go together. The Fausto Coppi Story and Jacques Anquetil offer an intriguing and entertaining look at the international cycling scene in the 1940s through the 1960s. It's a must-buy for any serious cycling fan, and definitely worth watching for anyone who is interested in the history of a very exciting sport.
The Jacques Anquetil film is a fast-paced 60 minutes, covering the life and racing career of French cycling star Jacques Anquetil, who won the Tour de France a record total of five times. (No more than a handful of other racers have even equaled his number of Tour wins, and only the Spanish champion Miguel Indurain managed to "beat" the record by winning all five of his Tours in a row.) Anquetil was a genius on the bicycle, who invented a new, tremendously effective riding style and used it to win not only the Tour de France, but also the Giro d'Italia and many of the challenging one-day Classic races.
What makes the story of Jacques Anquetil interesting to watch is that it's more than a narrative about his racing wins. It's a look into the character of a racing champion, with many interviews and insights from the people who knew and loved him as a person as well as an athlete. When Anquetil raced, his toughest opponent was his own state of mind; superstitious, shy, yet craving the accolades of his fans, Anquetil was often lonely and driven. He rode hard, and he also lived hard: determined to get the most out of every moment in life, Anquetil would often drink, smoke, and carouse all night... and then get up and win a race on the next morning.
The Fausto Coppi Story tells the story of another of cycling's greats, this time of Italy's "campionissimo", or "champion of champions." With an extraordinarily long and successful career as a professional cyclist, Coppi dominated the racing scene in the 1940s and 1950s. He was so strong that he would literally leave his opponents behind in the dust as he took off up the mountains for signature lone victories. Nowadays, the highest peak that the cyclists climb in each year's Giro d'Italia is labeled as the "cima Coppi" in honor of the campionissimo's climbing ability. But Coppi's private life was not as straightforward as his racing ability, and he was haunted by scandal for his love affair with the "White Lady."
At 110 minutes long, the Coppi piece has a more drawn-out feel than the snappily-paced Anquetil film; at times it gets a little repetitive with its coverage of yet another race that Coppi entered and won. On the whole, however, the piece is enjoyable and is a very informative look at one of cycling's legends.
Video
Both The Fausto Coppi Story and Jacques Anquetil are presented in their original aspect ratios of 1.33:1. All in all, the video quality is quite good for both of the films. In addition to the color interview footage, both films, especially the Jacques Anquetil one, use considerable black and white footage dating from the 1930s through the 1960s. Of course, the image quality of fifty-year-old TV broadcast footage reflects its age, but the DVD transfer does a good job of presenting it as cleanly as possible. There is some noise in the image (hardly avoidable given the source material), but the prints are in good shape without scratches or marks. Most importantly, the contrast is excellent, making the black-and-white images pleasant to watch.
Audio
The Fausto Coppi Story is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, which is more than adequate for the soundtrack; given the narrative nature of the material, there's no need for surround sound. The sound quality is good, with both the interviews and the voiceover narration of Phil Liggett coming across clearly and without distortion. If I were to rate the audio quality of The Fausto Coppi Story by itself, I'd give it three stars.
The soundtrack is less satisfactory for the Jacques Anquetil film, though more because of a production decision than because of a technical problem. The original film is in French; for the English-language version, WCP's Phil Liggett provides the voiceover. The soundtrack keeps the original French narration track in the background with the English voiceover on top at full volume. This in itself isn't a bad choice, as many translated documentaries do this; however, the French track isn't turned down enough, and is somewhat distracting. Whenever the film shows interviews, however, the original French is put at full volume with English subtitles, which is much more satisfactory.
Other than the odd handling of the voiceover, the actual sound quality of the Jacques Anquetil film is adequate. For some reason, the soundtrack is presented in Dolby 5.1, which is rather a waste since there's no need for any surround (and no surround is used). If I were to rate the Jacques Anquetil film by itself, I'd give it two stars because of the voiceover; so, averaged with the Fausto Coppi program, I've awarded two and a half stars to the DVD overall.
Extras
The DVD is bare-bones, but since WCP has put two programs on one DVD, the lack of extras is certainly nothing to quibble about. On the other hand, I do think it's worth a quibble to note that neither of the two films have any chapter stops. That's right: each one is a single giant chapter, obviously the result of being a direct "port" from VHS. It's particularly noticeable because each of the films is divided up into fairly obvious "chapters"; The Fausto Coppi Story is even presented as Part I and Part II. For the future, I hope that WCP's production staff will make sure that their historical films as well as their stage race coverage is properly transferred over to DVD; the 2001 Tour de France DVD is properly set up with a chapter per stage.
Final thoughts
World Cycling Productions is to be applauded for their choice of putting two of their historical programs on one DVD; this makes for a very content-rich disc and is a great motivation to buy the DVD instead of two VHS tapes (as if the DVD quality wasn't enough of an argument already, of course!) WCP has done well in choosing this pair to go together. The Fausto Coppi Story and Jacques Anquetil offer an intriguing and entertaining look at the international cycling scene in the 1940s through the 1960s. It's a must-buy for any serious cycling fan, and definitely worth watching for anyone who is interested in the history of a very exciting sport.
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