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Sidste tour

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254 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2022

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About the author

Jørgen Leth

54 books35 followers
Jørgen Leth is a Danish poet and film director who is considered a leading figure in experimental documentary film making. Most notable are his epic documentary A Sunday in Hell (1977) and his surrealistic short film The Perfect Human (1967). He is also a sports commentator for Danish television and is represented by the film production company, Sunset Productions.

Biography

Born on June 14, 1937 in Århus, Denmark, he studied literature and anthropology in Århus and Copenhagen and was a cultural critic (jazz, theatre, film) for leading Danish newspapers from 1959 to 1968. His interest in Polish anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski had a profound influence on his work. He travelled in Africa (1961), South America and India (1966) and Southeast Asia (1970–71). His first book was published in 1962 and he has written 10 volumes of poetry and eight non-fiction books. He made his first film in 1963 and has since made 40 more, many distributed worldwide. His most acclaimed is a 1967 short, The Perfect Human, which also featured in the 2003 film The Five Obstructions made by Leth and Lars von Trier. Leth's sports documentaries bring an epic, almost mythic, dimension to the field, as seen in Stars and Watercarriers (Stjernerne og Vandbærerne) (1973) and A Sunday in Hell (En forårsdag i helvede) (1977).

He has been a creative consultant for the Danish Film Institute (1971–73, 1975–77) as well as chairman of the Institute's board (1977–82). He has also been a professor at the Danish National Film School in Copenhagen, at the State Studiocenter in Oslo and has lectured at UCLA, Berkeley, Harvard and other American universities.

Leth covered the Tour de France for Denmark's TV 2 from 1988 until 2005 as the expert commentator in partnership with journalist Jørn Mader. In 1999, he was appointed Danish honorary consul in Haiti.

He attracted controversy in Denmark after publication of his autobiography Det uperfekte menneske (The Imperfect Man). It included a graphic account of sexual relations with the 17-year-old daughter of his cook in Haiti.[3] This created a media storm in Denmark,[4] partly because of his plan to make a film called Det Erotiske Menneske ("The Erotic Man"), funded by the Danish Film Institute, in collaboration with DR (Danmarks Radio) and Nordisk Film and TV Commission. The controversy upset several groups in Denmark. In October 2005, due to the controversy, he resigned his post as Danish consul in Haiti and was dismissed as commentator with TV2, but was reappointed in 2009. The film Erotic Man, Leth's homage to his sexual encounters with young women in third world countries, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010. The film received lacklustre reviews which deemed it "dirty-old-man cinema" and colonialist exploitation.

Leth has had retrospectives at the National Film Theatre, London (1989), in Rouen, France (1990), at the American Film Institute, Washington D.C. (1992), in Mumbai, India (1996), New York (2002), Sao Paulo (2003), Toronto (2004), Florence (2005), Rome (2006), Sao Paulo (2008), Warsaw (2008) and Teheran (2008) and Athens International Film Festival, Athens (2009).

He lived in Jacmel, Haiti from 1991 to 2010 where the Haiti earthquake destroyed his house.

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5 stars
17 (22%)
4 stars
41 (54%)
3 stars
15 (20%)
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2 (2%)
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
29 reviews
December 10, 2023
Cykeldanmark skylder Mader og Leth så meget. Hvilket fantastisk farvel til en legendarisk duo.
Profile Image for Morten Bundgaard Schou.
2 reviews
July 24, 2025
Overraskende god bog, en samtale medlem de to legendariske kommentatorer på tour de france, hvor man næsten kan høre dem sidde og snakke om deres oplevelser gennem hele beretningen.
Profile Image for Ulla Jeppesen.
51 reviews9 followers
June 26, 2024
Man kan ikke undgå at blive grebet af Mader og Leths fortællelyst, ærlighed og ikke mindst passion for cykelsporten og i særdeleshed Tour de France
19 reviews
January 22, 2025
Fantastisk samtale bog omkring cykelsporten, særligt i 90’erne. Det personlige afsæt og islæt gennemsyrer samtalerne og tager læseren med ind i de forskellige settings: fra Maders tidlige ungdomstid i Svendborg, til Leths tid som anmelder for Politiken. Kulminationen: deres fælles romance med Tour de France og dusinvis af røvere.
41 reviews
July 13, 2025
Jeg læste den i sommeren 2025 mens jeg var i Frankrig under TdF. Den er da meget hyggelig hvis man kan huske de år. De undervurderer i hvert fald ikke sig selv ...
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews