Dernier stade

In French,"dernier stade" has two meanings :last stadium and last stage.The title of the movie is entirely adequate.

Although it tackles a taboo subject,this movie held neither the critics' nor the audience's attention.Okay it is made-for-TV quality ,it should appeal to people interested in the world of sport.

An athlete ,who has been injured,wants to continue her career at any cost:she falls into the hand of a shady coach and his sidekick an irresponsible doctor.It's her downfall:drug abuse,-"your female champion will pretty soon turn into a male one"the girl's boyfriend says to the coach-, dope tests,ways of passing these tests , uncontrollable behavior,nothing is spared the audience.The "training " makes the athlete a miserable human wreck ,at her last stage.

To my knowledge,it's the only movie which deals with this harsh subject,and although it's far from being a masterpiece,it does show the dark side of sport,warts and all:generally people prefer success stories with a happy end.Hence the failure of the film.