“I Play Rocky” receives a standing ovation at its world premiere at TIFF

I Play Rocky, the film retracing the story of young Sylvester Stallone and his fight to make the feature film that would change his life, received a standing ovation at its world premiere on Saturday, September 12, at the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF).

For several minutes, spectators stood and applauded, chanting “Rocky!” Rocky! Rocky! ". A testimony to the intact cultural impact exerted by this character half a century after his creation. Directed by American Peter Farrelly, whose last feature film Green Book won the Oscar for best film in 2019, I Play Rocky tells the story of Sylvester Stallone's difficult beginnings in Hollywood. The biopic focuses on the turning point in his career: writing the script for Rocky, the story of a second-rate boxer from Philadelphia who gets a chance to enter the ring against the reigning world heavyweight champion.

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A mirror story of his own trajectory. Reduced to poverty to the point of having to sell his dog to survive, the actor at the time refused to sell his script without the guarantee of playing the title role. “Stallone's journey before making this film, and the fight he went through during filming (...) all of this touched me deeply, because I knew nothing about it,” Peter Farrelly explained to AFP on the red carpet in Toronto. The director says he wanted to convey the same message as in Rocky: “Hold on, be strong, you will take hits, but if you have integrity, you will end up triumphing. »

Shot on a modest budget, Rocky became the biggest box office success when it was released in 1976. The film catapulted Stallone to international stardom and won three Academy Awards out of its ten nominations, including Best Picture.