frtour1-9, Exercise 3: A cultural work as evidence

Model answer (check the details), using the animated film Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003):

What it shows about the Tour's image:
- The Tour as a symbol of obsessive devotion: the grandson trains for it as a way of life.
- The Tour as a spectacle with a crowd, a caravan and a hint of danger, seen with affectionate humour.
- A foreign audience's idea of a quirky French institution, which sells the image abroad.

What it cannot show about the race itself:
- Results, rules, tactics, money and doping are invented or exaggerated.
- It shows the director's vision, and was made for entertainment, not as a record.

How to use it: as evidence of attitudes in 2003 (the centenary year), alongside reviews and audience reaction, and not as evidence about what happened in the race.

Alternative choices: Kraftwerk's Tour de France (1983) as a musical image of the cyclist as machine; Malle's Vive le Tour (1962) as a document of the 1962 race, with a documentary's own viewpoint.

Care: titles and dates should be checked.