''Wrestling'' (Original French title: ''La lutte'') is a 1961

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

about

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. It was produced by

Jacques Bobet Jacques Bobet (born Saumur, France, June 29, 1919–died Montréal, March 7, 1996) was a French filmmaker who played a key role in the National Film Board of Canada's move into French language filmmaking. Following a brief stint teaching literatur ...

for the French program branch of the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

(NFB). The film was co-directed by

Michel Brault Michel Brault, OQ (25 June 1928 – 21 September 2013) was a Canadian cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He was a leading figure of Direct Cinema, characteristic of the French branch of the National ...

Marcel Carrière Marcel Carrière (born April 16, 1935) is a Canadian film director and sound engineer. Biography Marcel Carrière joined the NFB in 1955 after studying electronic engineering and developed his skills as a sound engineer while working on wildli ...

, Claude Fournier and

Claude Jutra Claude Jutra (; March 11, 1930 – November 5, 1986) was a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter.

, with Jutra and Fournier as cinematographers. (Due to confusion with the wrestling promotor Don Owen, film scholars have incorrectly credited the NFB's Don Owen as being the cinematographer or assistant director on ''Wrestling''; the latter did not work on the film.) ''Wrestling'' was shot in the

Montreal Forum Montreal Forum (french: Le Forum de Montréal) is a historic building located facing Cabot Square in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Called "the most storied building in hockey history" by ''Sporting News'', it was an indoor arena which served as the h ...

, 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 Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...

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. Persuaded by Barthes, the filmmakers set out to make a film that captured the spectacle of the sport, without judging it. 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 Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Awards

* American Film and Video Festival, New York: Blue Ribbon, Sports, Recreation, Physical Education, 1962 * Electronic, Nuclear and Teleradio Cinematographic Review,

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

: Second Prize, Documentary 1962 * International Sports Films Festival,

Cortina d'Ampezzo Cortina d'Ampezzo (; lld, Anpezo, ; historical de-AT, Hayden) is a town and ''comune'' in the heart of the southern (Dolomitic) Alps in the Province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the Boite river, in an alp ...

, Italy: Diploma of Honour, 1962 * The Flaherty Film Seminar, New York: Honorable Mention, 1962

References

External links

Watch ''La lutte'' at NFB.ca
(in French) * 1961 films 1960s short documentary films Black-and-white documentary films National Film Board of Canada documentaries 1960s French-language films Films directed by Michel Brault Films directed by Claude Jutra Anthropology documentary films Professional wrestling documentary films Documentary films about Montreal Canadian short documentary films Professional wrestling in Montreal Films produced by Jacques Bobet Films directed by Marcel Carrière 1960s Canadian films Canadian wrestling films {{1960s-Canada-film-stub

Awards

See also

References

External links