"On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris. The film was limited for technical reasons to 10 minutes; the course was from Porte Dauphine, through the Louvre, to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur. No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit. The driver completed the course in about 9 minutes, reaching nearly 140 MPH in some stretches. The footage reveals him running real red lights, nearly hitting real pedestrians, and driving the wrong way up real one-way streets. Upon showing the film in public for the first time, Lelouch was arrested. He has never revealed the identity of the driver, and the film went underground until a DVD release a few years ago."
The film is in real time! No tricks were used to simulate high speed... that IS high speed, through tiny, winding ancient Parisian streets clearly meant more for horse-drawn carriages than for Ferraris!! As if you could manage to tear your eyes away, don't miss the ending... True to all things French, after all that bravado, the ending's rather sweet! :-)
Click to watch: Rendezvous! (Be sure to click on the little rectangle on the right bottom side of the viewscreen to see it in all its full-screen glory!!)
(via The Presurfer)
1 comment:
Talk about a French Connection!
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