Wrestling

Wrestling (1961)

La lutte

A candid-camera view of professional wrestling as seen in the Montréal Forum, where some of the biggest bouts are staged, and in back-street wrestling parlours where the warriors practice their art.

Date of release
1961-12-01
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (9)
Runtime
28m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Michel Brault, Claude Fournier, Claude Jutra, Marcel Carrière

Casting

Interesting facts

Wrestling is a 1961 documentary film about professional wrestling in Montreal. It was produced by Jacques Bobet for the French program branch of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

Production

Wrestling was shot in the Montreal Forum, where major bouts were staged, as well as wrestling parlors where would be wrestlers learned and practiced their craft.

The filmmakers had intended to make a film exposing, in slow motion, the fakery of professional wrestling, until a chance encounter with French philosopher Roland Barthes changed their minds. Barthes was appalled by what they were planning to do, and spoke urgently about the beauty and social role of pro wrestling in the lives of ordinary people.

The film shows the wrestling arena to be a sort of modern-day shrine, with wrestling and its rituals taking the place of religion in the then-recently secularized Quebec.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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