Bike Forums - good trainer fodder - stars and watercarriers

Stars and Watercarriers is an interesting film. You can see elements of the formula that made A Sunday In Hell such a fantastic cycling documentary, but it's a lot less polished and not unified in the way A Sunday In Hell is. Stars and Watercarriers comes off more as a series of vignettes than a real narrative. Even though I think that's a big part of what makes it a weaker film (it's incredibly obvious that S&W was made earlier), the major components all there, and the vignettes are generally good. Of course, the structure is intentional, I just don't think it works as well. But it's a good one to watch. The thing about Stars and Watercarriers that really bums me out is the abysmal visual quality of the film. Italy looks like a drab and dreary place because of the yellowed, washed-out film. It's too bad.

I have to say, by the way - even though the Trial of Truth bit with Ritter doing the TT comes in for a lot of praise in these parts, I actually think that the narration is really goofy and overwrought. That's the other part of A Sunday In Hell that works much better: the writing.

EDIT: Forgot to add: one aspect of what makes ASIH so interesting is very much intact, and that's the way that it follows its subjects in a way that is at once intimate, yet remote. Maybe it's the lack of interviews; maybe it's that I can't understand what is being said. Anyway, it works for me.