nthomas1
Rebel Poster
Posts: 860
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« on: 01 January, 2016, 05:39:01 PM » |
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I’d like to make Forum participants aware of a superb film about the legendary Targa Florio. It is called “A Sicilian Dream”, and was given a limited cinema release back in October, and then released on DVD and Blu-ray in December, presumably for the Christmas market. It chronicles the history of the Targa Florio, and includes some terrific footage ranging from pre-WW1 black and white to sequences from the final races in the early 1970s.
The film features a blend of new on-location film, newsreel and archive footage, interviews and some period re-enactment. The featuring of a Series 1 Fulvia 1300 HF in some of the documentary sections makes the film of special interest to Lancia enthusiasts, and there are a couple of fleeting sequences of Fulvia coupes and a Fulvia Sport in the actual race. The HF that is featured is credited to Erasmo Bologna and Rosadele Facetti.
The story is told by racing driver Alain De Cadenet, who I greatly enjoyed in the “Victory by Design” seres of DVDs, and the charismatic Francesco Da Mosto, a Venetian of noble birth who made the TV travel programmes “Francesco’s Venice” and “Francesco’s Italy”.
A poignant section covers De Cadenet’s near fatal accident in the 1971 race when he was pulled unconscious from his burning car after a heavy crash. I subsequently learned that De Cadenet had thought for 40 years that he had been thrown clear when the car crashed, and only found out about his heroic rescue when he returned to Sicily to make this film.
The real stars of the film are the Sicilian countryside and the cars. De Cadenet took his own 1931 Alfa 6C with him for the film. A group of pre-WW1 cars are driven on the circuit….. Nazzarro, Fiat, Daimler, Lorraine-Dietrich, Straker-Squire, Sunbeam etc. Vaccarella is shown in his Ferrari, and the blindingly fast Porsche 908 and Alfa T33 that were way too fast for the course are also shown, among many others.
All in all, the best automotive-related DVD I’ve ever watched. It is listed by Amazon for £12.99 as a DVD or £14.99 as Blu-ray. I have no connection to the film, I’m just a Fulvia owner who was glad to come across it! Norm Thomas (Ormskirk, Lancashire)
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