All Entries Tagged With: "C’etait un rendezvous"
TGIF: Now Get Your Rendezvous Fix
Remember, this was one take. And one take only!
Leno’s Rendezvous: Car Guy Extraordinaire Drives Mercedes SLS AMG Through LA
By Gunnar Heinrich | Youtube
JAY Leno is really making his mark.
Whether he’s unveiling a Jaguar, writing a foreward for a gear head text, or dropping by Top Gear- he’s everywhere.
Which makes it unsurprising that the former NBC Late Night and car collector extraordinaire has just finished a video that pays homage to the Lelouch classic thriller C’etait un Rendezvous.
Piloting the new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG – courtesy MBUSA- through Mulholland Drive’s twists, Mr. Leno suggests slyly that every city has a hidden race track in its road network and that traffic clogged LA is no exception.
There’s no music to this piece. Just Mr. Leno and the SLS’ soundtrack, which barks and crackles with each dual clutched turn of gear.
A simple video; simply well done.
Many thanks, John!
Rendezvous: Lelouch Benz Visible In Film
I spy…
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG via IMCDB.org
CLAUDE Lelouch, the French director-turned-stunt driver extraordinaire who shot the 1976 cult classic C’etait un Rendezvous, has long since confirmed that the car in the extra-legal race-through-Paris short was not a Ferrari 275GTB (as the film’s sound dubbing implies) but rather a Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9.
The benefits of using the W116 Benz as the stunt / camera car are clear.
Thirty years ago, Mercedes’ flagship produced Ferrari-grade speed while maintaining a hydropneumatically suspended ride that provided the fixed camera rig a smooth platform as Lelouch (the driver) raced over Paris’ lumpy 19th century streets.
However, because our P.O.V. is facing out from the front bumper, we never actually see the car in action from a roadside perspective (hence the Ferrari illusion).
…Or have we?
The above and highlighted screengrab posted on IMCDB.org claims to show the Benz’s headlights reflecting in the street-level windows of some magasin on the corner of l’Avenue Opéra and Rue d’Antin.
According to Google Street View map that same storefront today is home to a Serge Blanco boutique.
What makes this interesting is that it’s akin to catching a magician’s turn of hand – mid act. Equally notable is the dedicated sleuthing of one fan who took time to find this proof. Such discovery only compels us to further admire the original feat.
Because It’s That Kind of Day
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Les Films 13
SOUVENEZ-vous that in this short director/driver Claude Lelouch is manning a 450SEL 6.9 with a tricked out bumper rig for a 35mm camera. He’s not, in fact, driving a Ferrari 275 GTB as the soundtrack would have you believe.
What else besides a hydropneumatically sprung Citroen in the 70s could roll as delicately over Paris’ cobblestones streets providing us with such clear shots?
Aside from that, the speed demons in each of us can thrill at those pre-speed camera days and the pure brass of this one Frenchman. It’s ten minutes of cult classic magic.
C’était un Rendezvous
An iconic journey through Paris mapped.
Watching the movie C’était un Rendezvous on YouTube might have certain drawbacks.
Chief among them is that with any film or video, YouTube’s compression machine takes original content and compacts it into a small file for easy distribution.
In quality terms, the process is akin to taking an Aberdeen Angus fillet and grinding it into the BK Whopper. From practiced experience, I can say with confidence that it hurts the brain.
That said, there’s a certain rawness to the original (digitally remastered) 35mm, 70s cult classic. So, I’m not sure that YouTube’s grainy broadcasts do anything to harm the Rendezvous experience, per se.
Needless to say, I watched the iconic flick for the first time and truly enjoyed it.
EXPOSITION
A recap exposition from Wikipedia:
“The film shows an eight-minute drive through Paris in the early hours of the morning, accompanied by sounds of a high-revving engine, gear changes and squealing tires. It starts in a tunnel of the Paris Périphérique at Porte Dauphine, with an onboard view from an unseen car exiting up on a ramp to Avenue Foch.
Well known landmarks such as the Arc de Triomphe, Opéra Garnier, and Place de la Concorde with its obelisk are passed, as well as the Champs-Élysées.
Pedestrians are passed, pigeons sitting on the streets are scattered, red lights are ignored, one-way streets are driven up the wrong way, centre lines are crossed, the car runs on a pavement to avoid a rubbish cart.
The car is never seen as the camera seems to be attached below the front bumper, judging from the relative positions of other cars, the visible headlight beam and the final shot when the car is parked in front of curbstones on the Sacre Coeur hill.
Here, the driver gets out and embraces a young blonde woman as bells ring in the background.”
SETTING THE STAGE FOR FEAR
The opening moments of the film start us off in the dark of a tunnel with the audio of loudly beating heart. The effect seems like something of the same ilk as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Indeed, for the bulk of the uncut short, there’s an expectation of carnage as the driver powers a 450SEL 6.9 (to the soundtrack of a Ferrari 275GTB) through the streets of Paris.
It’s only at the film’s conclusion when the driver exits the car and embraces the femme fatale that we are assured that the man behind the wheel isn’t completely psychotic.
An interesting paradox ensued for me. Part of me wanted to shake the man’s hand while the other wanted to deck him.
What’s film for if not to move the viewer?
RENDEZVOUS MAPPED
Check this out > it’s a page that posts Rendezvous and a Google map that charts the car’s path through Paris in perfect time with the film itself.
Follow the instructions and a great guide through the City of Light is assured.
Tap The Links > C’était un Rendezvous, Les Films 13
Your Favorite Car Flick
Choosing my favorite car flick is easy.
It’s John Frankenheimer’s Ronin with Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno, Jonathan Pryce (remember him from the Infiniti commercials?), and the achingly beautiful Natascha McElhone.
Of course the rolling stars of the show are an Audi (D2) S8, BMW (E34) M5, and a Mercedes-Benz (W116) 450SEL 6.9 – to name a few.
There’s one tyre smoking chase scene through Provence replete with rocket launcher and exploding Peugeot that checks just about all the gear head points that readily come to mind.
But enough about my favorite, the purpose of this post is to know your favorite car flicks.
Sound them off in comments. Who knows? Perhaps some of us will learn of the next must see car guy’s movie.
