12 replies to this topic

[Mohican]

This new film will be in Swedish cinemas from next week; hope there will be international distribution.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6047030/

https://youtu.be/OgeATGfzL_4

[John Ginger]

Me too, can't wait

[arttidesco]

Moi trois !

[JacnGille]

[Gary C]

a v.quick plug for my next documentary then;  www.lotus72dvd.com

[Lennat]

Definitely seeing it the next time I am in Sweden!

[doc knutsen]

This new film will be in Swedish cinemas from next week; hope there will be international distribution.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6047030/

https://youtu.be/OgeATGfzL_4

 

Really do not know if I am going to watch that movie.I know it has been almost 39 years, but his loss is still...such an awful memory. Living not too far from the Swedish border, having some Swedish family, and racing in Sweden from the mid-Seventies I grew up with a great deal of admiration for Ronnie. He was a true sporting hero.

Edited by doc knutsen, 10 August 2017 - 17:05.

[Dick Dastardly]

Will it be available on DVD? If so, I'll  buy a copy....Ronnie was my favourite driver of all time

Edited by Dick Dastardly, 11 August 2017 - 09:26.

[Myhinpaa]

Will be available on Blu-Ray and DVD eventually. https://www.discshop...eterson/P153676

 

Very good radio documentary from '08 on national broadcaster SR P3 here : http://sverigesradio...?programid=2519  (Entirely in Swedish I'm afraid)

 

Lots of period interviews/commentary and current with his manager Staffan Svenby, his good friend and mechanic Åke Strandberg and Reine Wisell ++

Staffan passed away at the end of '09 and Åke in April last year. 

 

http://teknikensvarl...avliden-127245/

 

http://www.classicte...d-and-mechanic/

 

Some conflicting views emerges on Niguarda Hospital and the treatment carried out, Reine Wisell is very critical, Staffan is not.

 

Åke's stories gives us a very good impression of Ronnie's character both as a racing driver and person. Funny story about when Åke lived in the cottage at Ronnie's

place in Terrys Lane and they bought 6 Koi carps each for the garden pond. Mysteriously they started to disappear one by one. One early morning Åke was waiting to be

picked up by Harvey Postlewaithe (They were with Wolf in '78) and saw this Heron taking off with one.

 

When he later told Ronnie he replied : "It's your carps that have been taken".  (Ronnie was known to be careful with money, instilled by his mother. )

 

Everyone in the documentary have nothing but praise and admiration for him and miss him a lot.

 

A very emotional moment at the end when Åke tells about the greenhouse on the property him and Ronnie repaired and planted tomatoes in.

Åke thought that Ronnie would take no further interest but he became very enthusiastic and he came over to the Wolf pits on that fateful Monza weekend.

He told Åke that just before he left home he checked and watered the tomatoes and they looked great and looked so forward to tasting them on his return.......

 

Åke is obviously overcome by emotion at that stage and is not able to continue. For those who want to listen it is at 1:31.40

[Myhinpaa]

Found an article here in the Australian "Wheels" magazine, some first hand observations from Dr. Pierangelo Varolo is quoted.

 

Very sad if what he says is correct, which is quite likely.....

 

https://www.wheelsma...1-death-scandal

 

Also mentioned is the strange telephone call Barbro received before she left Monaco for Milan.

 

In that Swedish radio documentary a reporter from Swedish Television - Jan Svanlund - tells how he and Gunnar Palm met Barbro at Malpensa airport. They had been sent there in case the helicopter  was diverted  from Linate because of the fog.

 

The main reception party was at Linate, Jan and Gunnar had been instructed not to tell her about Ronnie's death. So they sat with her for an hour trying to comfort her waiting for the main party to arrive. She cried her heart out with them and it was so desperately sad and the most difficult thing they had ever encountered..

 

When that agonizingly slow, painful hour had passed Emerson Fittipaldi entered the room first. he just froze and looked at Barbro with a sad expression in his intensive eyes.     She  realized  immediately that Ronnie was dead and just collapsed.

 

Sid Watkins entered the room soon after and gave her some tranquilizers. Poor Barbro never got over Ronnie's death.

[doc knutsen]

Really do not know if I am going to watch that movie.I know it has been almost 39 years, but his loss is still...such an awful memory. Living not too far from the Swedish border, having some Swedish family, and racing in Sweden from the mid-Seventies I grew up with a great deal of admiration for Ronnie. He was a true sporting hero.

 

I am just back from the movie theatre in the Swedish town of Stroemstad. I am glad that i overcame my reluctance, and went to see the film. It turned out to be excellent. Poignant, touching...to my mind, the most worthwhile motor racing themed film I have ever seen. Do not miss it!

[PiperPa42]

I concur. It is very well made with some beautiful footage from the era. I'm glad I decided to go see it as well, even though it was a bit of a trip to get to a cinema showing it. 

[Myhinpaa]

Finally got to see the film on DVD a few times and start to digest it. The old 8mm footage and photographs from the Peterson family archives from Tommy and Nina are amazing. Another highlight was David Brodie and his insight into Ronnie as a person and racing driver. Sadly no mention of the lunatic race on the M1 back from Mallory Park in '73. The one that resulted in Beltoise and Jarrier being arrested just before the North Circular junction, Ronnie and Dave had turned off towards Maidenhead well before the two Frenchmen passed on their way to Dover.

 

Niki's contributions was very interesting but also way too brief.His story about how he studied Ronnie left foot braking his silver Mercedes on their

regular commuter "races"  from Maidenhead up to March in Bicester was interesting, more of such stories would have made a great contribution to the film.

 

Also I think we saw the closest we will get to see Niki emotional (!?) when he described Ronnie as "someone you never forget". Ronne seemed to have

made a much deeper impression on people than they realised at the time, as seen when his good friends Lars & Helene Berntson recollects the sad aftermath

of Ronnie's last race. In addition to being a good friend Lars was MD of Plastic Padding for which Ronnie did a few commercial campaigns as a favour.

 

John Watson is also overcome with emotions talking about that very sad day at Monza  and how it affected Barbro for the remainder of her life.

 

A bit puzzled and sad over how the film makers seems to use Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda's negative comments on Chapman and Lotus to almost hint

that Ronnie's death was due to the Lotus was "unsafe and fragile"!? However no mention of Patrese's kamikaze antics and little on Hunt's brave rescue efforts.

Or the very unjust and biased Italian court ruling that blamed James Hunt entirely for the accident!? Plenty of archive footage of Hunt recollecting

this is plentiful and should have been included I feel. Also no current interview of Reine Wisell!? He was very close to Ronnie and even spoke to him

to him while he was on the stretcher at the track, later he was very critical of the hospital and the treatment carried out there, a very strange omission??

 

(OT. F1 was a high risk sport in the 60s and 70s but Stewart's claim that in his time there was a 2/3 chance of getting killed over a 5 year period seems high??

I've seen calculations by a statistic professor indicating 0.35% pr race, 4.4% over a season and "close to" 20% if a driver took part in every GP over 5 years.

But many F1 drivers in Stewart's era took part in many other races and quite a few died in those non-GP races.)

 

In an ideal world a lot of the footage used should only have been among "extras" on the DVD, like when Nina meets Emerson, the arrangement in Örebro etc. 

However Nina herself and her contributions are 100%, especially when she decided to share all that very private and personal film and photo collection of Ronnie and Barbro.

 

Shame the film makers couldn't have combined the approach of John Tipler's brilliant book and the almost equally good radio documentary from Sweden's SR P3 from '08. Back then Staffan Svenby, Åke Strandberg, Jan Svanlund and a few others who could have brought much to this film was still alive.

 

Despite all this, after all it's a good effort and much needed, maybe there will be a "director's cut" coming out or someone else that will fill in many of the gaps?

To get the most out of this film one needs to know quite a lot about Ronnie and that period in Formula 1.

 

One very poignant period interview is of Francois Cevert's girlfriend (?, name??) at Anderstorp in '73 when she says:

 

"Nothing is never certain with a racing driver.....When he goes to his car...., you never knows  if he comes next time.....

And you.., in some way you have a feeling...."

 

Before concludiing with : "You are always nice to them!" while smiling away the uncomfortable thoughts.

 

Not much of a mention of Gunnar Nilsson either, despite his presence on many of the private photographs. We have all seen the sad photographs

of Gunnar just being able to walk behind Ronnie's coffin at the funeral. But on a much brighter note in the film we can see him visiting Barbro and Ronnie

at the hospital after Nina's birth. Unique material like that proves how much more there is of a story to tell about Ronnie & Barbro, and Gunnar too!

 

Likewise George Harrison which we see in private footage could have been mentioned too, and the song he made as a tribute to Ronnie, "Faster"

Here's an interview with Harrison many years later.

 

Luckily very few clips from a very hostile and confrontational interview by the Swedish national broadcaster from '76. The interviewer is clearly

very anti-capitalist/motorsport and is very dismissive of F1, Lotus, JPS and Ronnie and is also very unpleasant to Barbro while constantly hinting

at the risk of death and asking how long she will "allow" Ronnie to continue.

 

On a brighter note I recently came across a great photograph which I imagine is from the '75 RAC Rally(!?) But it could be a year or two earlier.

 

http://www.ointres.se/rallykungar.JPG

Edited by Myhinpaa, 29 January 2018 - 23:34.