Tour de France 1997

Year after year hundreds of thousands of fans line the route of the Tour de France, cheering on their heroes and willing them to victory, while millions of viewers worldwide tune in on their televisions. Academy Award-winning director Pepe Danquart, fascinated by the spectacle of the three week race, chose to focus on the courage, the pain and the fear of the riders of the Tour. Training his lens on German superstar sprinter Eric Zabel and his loyal domestique Rolf Aldag, Danquart captures the thrill of the race and the teamwork behind the stars of the peleton. He also shines light on the Tour's supporting cast - the director sportifs, masseurs, and, of course, the wildly enthusiastic fans. Reveling in the stunning landscape - from the Alps to the Pyrenees to the Massif Central to Paris - and with a nice dollop of Le Tour's history, HELL ON WHEELS transcends the sport it celebrates to reveal an astonishing human endeavor.

Almost all of this episode of the Carnets filmés, with the evocative title, Tout est Brisé is devoted to the misdeeds of the storm of 26 December 1999 on the Bois de Vincennes, whose forest extends at the foot of my building. For several months, I was the cinematographic witness of this disaster which brought down more than half of the 130,000 trees in the Bois.

By adding his name to the list of Tour winners in 1999, Lance Armstrong had overcome adversity and earned the admiration of all. By winning again in 2000, the champion took on a whole new dimension. This time, all the greats were there. Like the others, Ullrich, winner in 1997, and Pantani, winner in 1998, had to admit the superiority of the American, who won one of the most spectacular Tours in recent years. An exceptional winner, a race full of action... All the ingredients were there to write some of the most beautiful pages in the history of the Tour...

The 1998 edition will occupy a special place in the history of the Tour. Not only because it was marred by doping scandals, but also because it reached new heights in sporting terms. The Deux Alpes stage and the rise to power of Marco Pantani, the winged climber, will remain one of the greatest moments in the sport. Impressive in his victory in 1997, Jan Ullrich went on to show admirable spirit in defeat by winning two more stages. This passing of the torch between two great champions made the 1998 Tour so memorable and provided us with some exceptional images.

The brutal murder of a retired judge draws detectives Lola Kraft and Jasmin Stein into the case. Was a former "client" of the victim out for revenge? Meanwhile, Chief Inspector Karl Jäger faces entanglements within his own family that escalate into a direct confrontation with a drug lord. The explosive finale unfolds at the "Badischer Hof".

A supermarket is robbed. Commissioner Karl Jäger, who happens to be present, shoots the robber and is subsequently suspended from duty because the attacker’s weapon is not found. The incident also plunges Jäger into deep psychological problems. As a result, commissioners Lola Kraft and Jasmin Stein are called in when two bodies are discovered during the night of a class reunion at the Calw Hermann Hesse High School. All 29 party guests are considered suspects. When the investigators find out that their suspended colleague was a former classmate, his memories help advance the solution to the case, which has its origins in their school days.