Deep in a dark trench of his life, Roman Polanski spent the early 1970s grieving for Sharon Tate and producing his most cynical movies, Macbeth and Chinatown. During this time, the amateur racer also burned a lot of time at the track with his buddy, Scottish Formula One giant Jackie Stewart. Their conversations make up the majority of this meandering quasiprofile, shot at Monaco’s Grand Prix; the doc feels more like an escape valve for pent-up pressures than a serious study.
Novel for the time, we see Stewart interacting with superfans, and take a high-speed tour with him around the circuit in his car. But even racing aficionados might find the chitchat a little vague. This recut version appends a new interview with Polanski and Stewart, returning to the same hotel room to wax nostalgic. Essentially, they liked going fast and big; this film feels slow and minor.
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