Rocky: the mind-blowing review of Première, in 1976

Spoiler: we weren’t very visionary on this one.

To get the year off to a good start, Arte is rebroadcasting this Monday evening Rocky. The film that launched Sylvester Stallone’s career 47 years ago is an undeniable classic of American cinema. And yet, when it was released, Première magazine was not really enthusiastic… Flashback.

Nominated in ten categories at the Oscars, the story created by Sylvester Stallone and directed by John G. Avildsen dominated the US box office at the end of 1976 and was about to win three statuettes (including best film and best director). Born a few months earlier, First draws his opinion… and rather misses the point.

The author uses a gonzo style to describe his feelings and the particular conditions in which he viewed it in New York. Film criticism is still a Wild West, and the author shoots without warning.

“Let’s tell the truth straight away! I saw Rocky in New York, in a Broadway cinema, near Forty-second Street, late at night, tired from jet lag and looked at sideways by a somewhat shady character. However, I left with a good prejudice, influenced by the warm opinion of our correspondent in the USA, Jocelyne Benzakin, and impressed by the ten Oscar nominations for this film.

The heavier was my disappointment. This story of a nerdy boxer, who finds glory by facing the World Heavyweight Champion, weighs fifteen tons. Sylvester Stallone, author and performer of the film, resembles Paul McCartney who, seeing himself gaining weight, decided to do bodybuilding. There are a few sentimental moments where the handsome Rocky makes the eyes of a dead-of-love boxer at a daphnia seller played by Talia Shire, but it’s still not worth it. Romeo and Juliet !

I must also admit, I left the room when the “Beast” trains against a bloody ox. But it seems, according to the latest news, that I missed the best part: the scene where, bloodied, after a grueling seventy-fifth round, he rejects Mr. Ramirez, to fall into the arms of the beautiful Adrian. Me who likes ‘happy endings’…”

After reading this, you must be wondering: how did this review get published in the magazine? Why not let the correspondent give her (positive) opinion on the film? Did the intern get fired?

The answer is simple. The author is none other than Jean-Pierre Frimbois, who had just founded First and was its editorial director. And if he wanted to pay himself Rockywith assumed bad faith, there was no one to censor him.

Sylvester Stallone and Mohamed Ali’s show at the 1977 Oscars