Has anyone ever seen........
27 September 2006, 10:49 PM
#1
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Has anyone ever seen........
The greatest drive you've never seen
One morning in the '70s, a film director strapped a camera to his Ferrari and drove hell for leather through Paris. The result was a cult movie that needs to be seen to be believed: Rendezvous
One morning in the '70s, a film director strapped a camera to his Ferrari and drove hell for leather through Paris. The result was a cult movie that needs to be seen to be believed: Rendezvous
Sorry, not seen this one
. bit naughty to be doing it on public roads though 
28 September 2006, 07:00 AM
#7
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Originally Posted by Scoobymonkey
Will have to check this out then....I take it its not a chick flick!
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28 September 2006, 07:01 AM
#8
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You’d be hard-pressed to find a film as steeped in myth as C’était un Rendezvous. Filmed in 1976 by seminal French director Claude Lelouch, it is regarded as the ultimate in cinéma-vérité.
For many years, it has been enjoyed as an almost Masonic secret among car enthusiasts. Whisper the words, "Have you seen Rendezvous?" and you’ll receive either a knowing, "No, but I’ve heard it’s unbelievable", or a smug, "It is un-be-lieve-able."
Lack of distribution has only fuelled the myths surrounding the film. Was Lelouch really arrested when it was first shown? Who drove the car? Was it Lelouch or a hired Formula One driver? What was the car? Was it really a Ferrari 275 GTB? How on earth did he do it?
A composite version of the rumours and myths - garnered by word of mouth and from the web - would read something like this:
For many years, it has been enjoyed as an almost Masonic secret among car enthusiasts. Whisper the words, "Have you seen Rendezvous?" and you’ll receive either a knowing, "No, but I’ve heard it’s unbelievable", or a smug, "It is un-be-lieve-able."
Lack of distribution has only fuelled the myths surrounding the film. Was Lelouch really arrested when it was first shown? Who drove the car? Was it Lelouch or a hired Formula One driver? What was the car? Was it really a Ferrari 275 GTB? How on earth did he do it?
A composite version of the rumours and myths - garnered by word of mouth and from the web - would read something like this:
28 September 2006, 07:03 AM
#9
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Thread Starter
Lelouch had made enough money from his classic Un Homme et une Femme to buy himself a Ferrari, which he proceeded to drive with “enthusiasm” in his native Paris.
Whilst shooting another film, a new bit of equipment was being used – a gyro-stabilised camera mount. Lelouch decided it might come in useful for an idea that’d been gestating for some time. At the end of the film shoot, Lelouch found himself with an unused 1,000 feet of film (9 minutes and 30 seconds). It was too good an opportunity to miss and C’était un Rendezvous was born. Lelouch decided to make it an all or nothing run - no edits, one shot, one chance. If they didn’t make it before the film stock ran out – well, so be it.
On first showing, Lelouch was arrested. In his defence, he proclaimed he had taken all possible precautions. This included convincing a Formula One driver to helm the car (he refused to name him). Subsequently, the film went underground - occasionally shown in front of a Lelouch full-length feature on theatrical release. Outside of this, only poor quality pirate copies on VHS or a badly worn print were available. These would be played at car club meetings and, slowly, the film attained its mythical status, with the arrival of the internet helping to spread the word.
What we do know is that there are no special effects or speeding up the film - Lelouch simply mounted the camera on the front of the car and shot it. This is what separates C’était un Rendezvous from other car films - it is "vérité".
Today, the audience walks into a movie safe in the knowledge of computer-generated special effects or a production where there’s enough money to block off streets and control the traffic. Lelouch had none of this. Lelouch’s brilliant ending only adds to this - making a beautiful sense out of the preceding nine minutes of insanity.
Richard Symons, a documentary film-maker, came to hear of it and managed to acquire a very poor second-generation VHS copy. He wasn’t disappointed.
"I’d never seen anything like it, nine minutes of adrenalin that simply leaves your jaw on the floor, but the quality was so poor I decided to re-film it.
"I brought in a team of experienced stunt drivers all of whom felt you could only redo it with a full team. The cost would’ve been in the region of $3m. Then Nissan came along and filmed the same thing in Prague, The Run, with an enormous budget and it didn’t even come close to the original, it had that vital ingredient missing - reality.
"That’s when my wife began to get upset with me. If we were going to redo this thing, we were going to have to do it for real. I went ahead with some dummy runs and that made me appreciate the scale of Lelouch’s achievement.
"As hard as I might try, there was no way I could accelerate through red lights, cut across the wrong side of the road against oncoming traffic. Stunt drivers wouldn’t touch it, either. "Apart from all that, the original was filmed at dawn, in Paris, in the Seventies - and we were never going to get anything even approximating the beauty of that cityscape - 21st century Paris just doesn’t have the same feel or romance.
"To cut a long story short, it all made me realise the genius of the original. There’s nothing like it, and there never will be.
"We got in touch with Lelouch, talked him into dusting down the original 35mm negative, restored and remastered it for re-release - we’ve brought out all the details and colours and it looks stunning," Symons said.
Whilst shooting another film, a new bit of equipment was being used – a gyro-stabilised camera mount. Lelouch decided it might come in useful for an idea that’d been gestating for some time. At the end of the film shoot, Lelouch found himself with an unused 1,000 feet of film (9 minutes and 30 seconds). It was too good an opportunity to miss and C’était un Rendezvous was born. Lelouch decided to make it an all or nothing run - no edits, one shot, one chance. If they didn’t make it before the film stock ran out – well, so be it.
On first showing, Lelouch was arrested. In his defence, he proclaimed he had taken all possible precautions. This included convincing a Formula One driver to helm the car (he refused to name him). Subsequently, the film went underground - occasionally shown in front of a Lelouch full-length feature on theatrical release. Outside of this, only poor quality pirate copies on VHS or a badly worn print were available. These would be played at car club meetings and, slowly, the film attained its mythical status, with the arrival of the internet helping to spread the word.
What we do know is that there are no special effects or speeding up the film - Lelouch simply mounted the camera on the front of the car and shot it. This is what separates C’était un Rendezvous from other car films - it is "vérité".
Today, the audience walks into a movie safe in the knowledge of computer-generated special effects or a production where there’s enough money to block off streets and control the traffic. Lelouch had none of this. Lelouch’s brilliant ending only adds to this - making a beautiful sense out of the preceding nine minutes of insanity.
Richard Symons, a documentary film-maker, came to hear of it and managed to acquire a very poor second-generation VHS copy. He wasn’t disappointed.
"I’d never seen anything like it, nine minutes of adrenalin that simply leaves your jaw on the floor, but the quality was so poor I decided to re-film it.
"I brought in a team of experienced stunt drivers all of whom felt you could only redo it with a full team. The cost would’ve been in the region of $3m. Then Nissan came along and filmed the same thing in Prague, The Run, with an enormous budget and it didn’t even come close to the original, it had that vital ingredient missing - reality.
"That’s when my wife began to get upset with me. If we were going to redo this thing, we were going to have to do it for real. I went ahead with some dummy runs and that made me appreciate the scale of Lelouch’s achievement.
"As hard as I might try, there was no way I could accelerate through red lights, cut across the wrong side of the road against oncoming traffic. Stunt drivers wouldn’t touch it, either. "Apart from all that, the original was filmed at dawn, in Paris, in the Seventies - and we were never going to get anything even approximating the beauty of that cityscape - 21st century Paris just doesn’t have the same feel or romance.
"To cut a long story short, it all made me realise the genius of the original. There’s nothing like it, and there never will be.
"We got in touch with Lelouch, talked him into dusting down the original 35mm negative, restored and remastered it for re-release - we’ve brought out all the details and colours and it looks stunning," Symons said.
28 September 2006, 07:03 AM
#10
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Thread Starter
C’était un Rendezvous has come to represent something more than an adrenalin rush. It uniquely captures a time and spirit that seems a long way away from today.
Politically incorrect, anti-establishment and overflowing with a primitive passion, it is everything the authorities despise. Which perhaps explains the cheers and whoops of delight at recent test screenings - contrasting strongly with the controversy it was met with at first release. It has become the road users' two fingers up to bureaucracy.
"You can’t condone the driving. Indeed, Lelouch is the first to put his hands up to the charge of irresponsibility," says Symons. "But it has struck a chord with audiences.
"It captures a *****-out exuberance, a freedom, a spirit that seems a long way away from sitting impotent in traffic and hoping some local authority will figure it out ."
Politically incorrect, anti-establishment and overflowing with a primitive passion, it is everything the authorities despise. Which perhaps explains the cheers and whoops of delight at recent test screenings - contrasting strongly with the controversy it was met with at first release. It has become the road users' two fingers up to bureaucracy.
"You can’t condone the driving. Indeed, Lelouch is the first to put his hands up to the charge of irresponsibility," says Symons. "But it has struck a chord with audiences.
"It captures a *****-out exuberance, a freedom, a spirit that seems a long way away from sitting impotent in traffic and hoping some local authority will figure it out ."