Jacky Stewart seen intimately by Roman Polanski

On December 16th, at 8PM, the Archives Audiovisuelles de Monaco will organize together with the Automobile Club de Monaco contest a special screening of the documentary film "Weekend of a Champion," with Roman Polanski in attendance.This film was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013.

Filmmaker Roman Polanski, a motorsport enthusiast, befriended the Scottish racing driver Jackie Stewart, world Formula 1 champion, in 1969, while he was working towards his second title. He obtained the permission to follow him during one Grand Prix weekend. It is during the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix, which Stewart would in fact win, that the filmmaker's camera got inside the private space of the champion, who was then at the height of his glory both on and off the track. In 1972, the film, which was then called Afternoon of a Champion, won the award for Best Documentary at the Berlin Film Festival. However, the film was never commercially released. Found in the archives of a London laboratory, where it was nearly destroyed in 2009, the negative of this forgotten film was rebuilt by Polanski and his current team, including the editor Hervé de Luze, and was completed by his reunion with Jackie Stewart, 40 years later. The result is a rare moment in the intimate company of a gifted athlete at the peak of his glory. 40 years later, Polanski and Stewart met, and discussed this sport that has changed so much with the years in a manner that is natural, unique, and incomparable.