My attitude to physical effort is simple : I like to watch it from the sidelines, preferably with an alcoholic beverage in my hand. In winter the drink should be hot, in summer the drink should be cool, and that's it. This has always struck me as a nicely Belgian attitude. Sadly even here in Belgium we have spoilsports who wake up at five in the morning, take a bracingly cold shower, eat a healthy breakfast of fruit and rye bread, and go train for some demanding activity. We've got cyclists, tennis players, athletes - it's all very discouraging, but what are you going to do about it ?
Still, if you want to meet the better kind of masochist you need to travel north, to the Netherlands, where vast amounts of people actually LIKE skating through freezing mist. The Netherlands, and especially Friesland, harbour one of the most daunting skating races known to mankind, the "tour of 11 cities". The tour can only be organized if all weather conditions are favourable (or rather, unfavourable) enough. Each individual tour is greeted with the sort of fervent extasy rarely seen outside a mystical context, with thousands of Dutchmen flocking to the sacred territory and hoping to write history.
"The hell of 1963" is devoted to one of the harshest, cruelest tours in history, the tour of 1963. It's a nice enough movie with a nostalgic and typically Dutch feel. It's at its best when showing the beautiful landscapes and towns one meets along the route. There are also a number of fine skating scenes. On the other hand it's not a daring or innovative work : the characters and storylines are familiar, and the ending is unlikely to surprise anyone who has ever seen a traditional sports movie.
Here and there the movie is marred by weird little missteps. There's a handful of characters, for instance, who are supposed to represent reporters and journalists : God knows who wrote their roles or lines, it's all pointless nonsense. But as a whole the movie is entertaining enough.
Also a welcome occasion to hear our fine sister language Frisian.
Still, if you want to meet the better kind of masochist you need to travel north, to the Netherlands, where vast amounts of people actually LIKE skating through freezing mist. The Netherlands, and especially Friesland, harbour one of the most daunting skating races known to mankind, the "tour of 11 cities". The tour can only be organized if all weather conditions are favourable (or rather, unfavourable) enough. Each individual tour is greeted with the sort of fervent extasy rarely seen outside a mystical context, with thousands of Dutchmen flocking to the sacred territory and hoping to write history.
"The hell of 1963" is devoted to one of the harshest, cruelest tours in history, the tour of 1963. It's a nice enough movie with a nostalgic and typically Dutch feel. It's at its best when showing the beautiful landscapes and towns one meets along the route. There are also a number of fine skating scenes. On the other hand it's not a daring or innovative work : the characters and storylines are familiar, and the ending is unlikely to surprise anyone who has ever seen a traditional sports movie.
Here and there the movie is marred by weird little missteps. There's a handful of characters, for instance, who are supposed to represent reporters and journalists : God knows who wrote their roles or lines, it's all pointless nonsense. But as a whole the movie is entertaining enough.
Also a welcome occasion to hear our fine sister language Frisian.