TRIBUTES AND RETROSPECTIVES

Sport and cinema

Breaking Away

Peter Yates
1979 - United States - 1h41

Screenings : monday 22 - 10:30 am - Pathé - 1 - presented by Oscar Constantin - sportif thursday 25 - 4:30 pm - Pathé - 1

In Bloomington, a small town in Indiana, four working-class teenagers, Dave, Mike, Cyril and Moosher, overcome their boredom by scrapping, chatting up girls and swimming in the abandoned quarry. Dave is a massive fan of cycling and Italy, and is going to take part in a competition pitching him against students from a more privileged background.

British filmmaker Peter Yates made a series of detective films (notably Bullitt with Steve McQueen), before directing the coming-of-age film Breaking Away in 1979. This film received several Oscar nominations, winning Best Screenplay. The film was written by Steve Tesich, a Yugoslavian immigrant who settled in the US at the age of 14 and who took part in the Little 500 cycling race at the University of Indiana. Breaking Away is rooted in real-life experience and chronicles the life of four teenagers who have just graduated from high school but have not gone to the university. They are nicknamed “the cutters” in reference to labourers in the former quarry. Despite this bleak backdrop, the film's creators chose to make a comedy. Although these youngsters are living through a difficult, a sometimes violent, awakening (particularly when Mike recounts the shocking way his footballing career was nipped in the bud), and are in conflict with their parents, the tone of the film remains light-hearted. It is cycling and racing that show the cutters what their place in Bloomington is in a reconciliatory finale where the community still exists as an ideal in traditional Americana. Peter Yates revealed actors who would go on to long careers in American cinema, notably Dennis Quaid, but also Dennis Christopher who played Dave and whose wild energy is impressive. The cycling scenes give a euphoric feeling of speed, confirming Peter Yates's talent as an action filmmaker.

CAST AND CREW

Cast : Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley, Barbara Barrie, Paul Dooley, Robyn Douglass
Screenplay : Steve Tesich
Cinematography : Matthew F. Leonetti
Editing : Cynthia Scheider

Production : Twentieth Century Fox

French distributor : Park Circus