C’etait un Rendezvous

[twobjshelbys]

I'd previously bought Spirit Level Film's The Snake and the Stallion, and had seen this on their site. I got an email from them and was going to order it from them but European shipping takes a while so I got it from Amazon.

This 9-or-so minute film is by Claude Lelouch of an early morning drive through the streets of Paris. Many stories exist of what the car really was. One version is that it was a Mercedes 6.9 with the sound track of a Ferrari. In any case he'd just used a gyro-stabilized camera in another film and mounted it on the front bumper with one roll of 35mm film, so the entire drive is one shot - no retakes, no pauses, no cuts. Just a wild drive. Supposedly the car is driven by a professional F1 driver, although some claim Lelouch himself is the driver. Legend has it he was arrested when the film was shown.

The legends are part of the intrigue of the film. True or not the drive is what it is about. No matter. It's an insane run. Traffic and pedestrians cross. Red lights are all ignored. The view of the city from ground level is spectacular. There are a lot of Citroens parked on the streets

I would put this totally unstaged drive as one of the best "chase" scenes on film.

I've watched it twice and will study it more.

[John Owen]

Try watching it without the sound - the illusion of great speed is mostly created by the overdub...
Still a good show

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by John Owen

Try watching it without the sound - the illusion of great speed is mostly created by the overdub...
Still a good show

I'd heard that too. Someone has calculated time between some of the landmarks and figure that the speed in some of the places never exceeds a paltry 100MPH. Still pretty good for those narrow cobblestone and brick paved streets.

[mr0077]

Yeah, turn off the sound and imagine riding in a French police car with the blue lights flashing...watch for buses and taxis getting out of the way, and cars stopping at green lights to let you through...cool video, but not for real.

[86Sebring]

If you like fast street driving, google "GT 40 Sunday drive" on youtube. Turmn up the volume