Premium Members Erwin Landau Posted January 8, 2004 Premium Members Report Share Posted January 8, 2004 Not Steadicam related, but nice... While visiting the LA Autoshow, I came across a short film. For the guys in LA that want to check it out it's in the KENTIA Hall beneath the South Hall at the CASECAM booth. "C'est un Rendevouz" by Claude Lelouch Released by: Spiritlevelfilms It's 9 minutes long. Price: $27.71 (No I did not buy it...) Shot back in 1977, it's a high speed drive through downtown Paris (POV), shot of the hood of a Ferrari 275 with a 35mm camera, reaching speeds up to 140 mph. It was shot on a sunday at 5:30 AM, no streets were blocked or any permits pulled, you can see the driver run a couple of red lights, almost running over birds and pedestrians... With the surprise ending, that the driver was late for his date. Looked very impressive... check it out. Erwin"speed/film freak"Landau, SOC www.landaucamera.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Kareem La Vaullee Posted January 8, 2004 Premium Members Report Share Posted January 8, 2004 Yes, that short is impressive, and crazy also, I worked 3 times with one of Claude Lelouch's sons, he directs commercials, and on one of those 3 shootings, a huge commercial for a mobile phone company, that was one week of shooting in Portugal, the father came to play in the ad, all I can say is that madness is common in the family ! Kareem La Vaullée. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Lawrence Karman Posted January 10, 2004 Premium Members Report Share Posted January 10, 2004 I saw that film back in 1977 and I have been wondering just what it was called for years now. Thanks for reminding me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Thomas English Posted February 6, 2004 Premium Members Report Share Posted February 6, 2004 wicked... got told about that film (with no title etc) at a party and been looking for it since............... thanx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Dan Coplan Posted December 14, 2006 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=28...mp;q=lelouch%3E This video might be a bit boring were it not for the history. My favorite parts are the pigeons... 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 140mph/225kmh 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Afton Grant Posted December 14, 2006 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 Although somewhat idiotic, it's hard not to watch. I would've loved to have seen a simultaneous shot of the gauges as he was driving. I fear this video might be a little close in concept to an idea I had. My challenge was to see if someone could drive the 1.9 miles from the East side to the West side of Manhattan during the day in under an hour. So far, nobody has come close. Drive safe! Afton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Fabrice Maurel Posted December 14, 2006 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 This is a great classic and a cult film. Nobody knows for sure who was driving... probably a formula 1 pilot that Lelouche was friend with. It's also very interesting to have something from Lelouche on this forum, as he is often refer to the "camera man". because he was on of the first director to really take the camera off the tripod and into his hands. Actually most of his movies use hand-held and/or steadicam heavily. One of my favorite director for this very reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Erwin Landau Posted December 14, 2006 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 Looking familiar, Dan? It's just amazing that nobody cares about copyrights anymore... everything sooner or later ends up on these websites. And then people that actually did work on it, can't get a copy of it... like we, as operator, that need footage, can't get it... but anyhow. There are a bunch of similar movies on the market, racing through known cities at high speeds... like the Getaway series (http://www.minifilms.co.uk/otherfeatures.html) or the like. enjoy, Erwin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Eric Fletcher S.O.C. Posted December 14, 2006 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=28...mp;q=lelouch%3E This video might be a bit boring were it not for the history. My favorite parts are the pigeons... 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 140mph/225kmh 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. Ahhh The urban legend continues. It's not a Ferrari, it's not gyro stabilized he never hit 140 and it's not shot at 24fps. Infact there are several audio errors in this film and that's what busted him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Fabrice Maurel Posted December 14, 2006 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 Ahhh The urban legend continues. It's not a Ferrari, it's not gyro stabilized he never hit 140 and it's not shot at 24fps. Infact there are several audio errors in this film and that's what busted him. Actually if you knew his work and life you might think otherwise.... No urban legend there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Dan Coplan Posted December 14, 2006 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 Ahhh The urban legend continues. It's not a Ferrari, it's not gyro stabilized he never hit 140 and it's not shot at 24fps. Infact there are several audio errors in this film and that's what busted him. What do you know that the rest of us don't? On YouTube, where I saw the video, there's a "making of" video. All in French so who knows what the heck the guy is saying, but it looks/sounds like he's recreating the film for a reporter while they drive the streets in a Mercedes. Maybe the urban legend is that it's an urban legend. Ou peut-être il est juste moi? Je ne sais pas. Dan "1/2 Frog" le Coplan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Afton Grant Posted December 14, 2006 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 The original car was a Mercedes with a camera hard mounted to the front in a cage type rig. I believe the director, Claude Lelouch, was the driver. I'm not sure if it was glitches in the audio that busted the film, however, the audio did have something to do with it. It was added in post, and is definitely an excelent job by the sound engineers. As I understand it, by listening to the audio, in one or two places the car is heard to reach the top end of 5th gear. If the car were the Ferrari they speak of, this would have put the car's speed in the legendary 140mph range. The film was debunked when people familiar with Paris and the streets on which the film was shot began to look at the clock. By tracking certain landmarks the film passes, they knew the exact distance the car travels. By simply counting how long it takes the car to get from one point to the next, you can determine the car's true speed. The car's average speed was around 45mph, and unfortunately never even broke 100mph. Still fun to watch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Kareem La Vaullee Posted December 14, 2006 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 Here's a picture of the set-up to show that Eric and Afton were right, no Ferrari... No Gyros as you can see (and that was pretty obvious) and FYI the camera is a french "Cameflex" And yes the Director was the driver. About the speed here is a bit of the Director's interview : Quand vous dites "Nous roulions vite" vous parlez de quelle vitesse ? La montée de l'avenue Foch, entre 150 et 180 km/h. Les Champs-Élysées à 130 à 150 avec une pointe à 160 km/h au niveau de Franklin Roosevelt. Puis jusqu'à la Concorde, comme c'était bien dégagé, j'ai dû monter à 200 km/h. J'ai pris la place de la Concorde à 150. Sur les quais, j'ai franchi les 200 km/h. J'ai pris les guichets presque normalement, c'est-à-dire à 80 ou 90 km/h. Even if it's in "who knows what the heck the guy is saying" I hope you can read the numbers... I won't discuss no more about this short as it was already discussed here some time ago (do a search) Because if I would, I would have to ask why your "favorite parts are the pigeons" and as I see, ear and read too much stupid things everyday I'm not going to ask for more... K. Edit : Now I see that Erwin merged the old and new threads, great work, thanks for your efforts to keep this place not too messy... Now that I checked back the whole thread, I'll add that he did not run just a couple of red lights but 18 And yes he also took several streets the wrong way... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Fabrice Maurel Posted December 14, 2006 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 I actually did a little research, and found an exerpt from his biography explaining what happened. For those of you that can speack french, you can read it at: http://www.vea.qc.ca/vea/articles/rendez-vous.htm Pretty interesting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Burton Posted December 14, 2006 Report Share Posted December 14, 2006 Or the babel fish translation - "I roll like Trintignant in "a man and a woman", foot with the floor, blistered meter with a hundred and eighty, taking all the risks. And even more, since I am not with the rally of Assembles-Carlo, but in full Paris. Beside me, my operator boss controls the speed of the camera fixed on the bumper. We burn all the red lights systematically. The streets and the avenues ravel at a terrifying speed. The future spectators will be stuck to their armchairs, crushing a foot of imaginary brake. Because it is a film, of course, which I make. A film which will last same time exactly as its turning. Last nine minutes thirty seconds. Last nine minutes thirty seconds of film, it is what remained me at the end of the turning of "If were to be remade", at the time of returned (final Stage of a turning, where one returns to the hirers out the cameras, the projectors and all the technical material which belongs to them). Finding damage to let lose these invaluable three hundred meters of celluloid, I benefitted from it to carry out a project which for a long time held me with heart: a film in only one sequence shot where the camera would cross Paris at high speed, its glance being that of a man who leads as insane because it is late with an appointment. I had this idea one day or, me which am always specific, I was in the same situation. As it was vital that I arrive per hour, I crossed Paris at an incredible speed, extreme of the red lights, borrowing prohibited directions, taking foolish risks. As I am even remaking it in this moment. Five hundred and seventy seconds, not one moreover, it is the time which I have to carry out the way carries Dauphine-place of the Hillock. With two principal technical problems. The first consists in coordinating the course of the car with the ten last seconds action, when Gunilla, my partner (who is also the mother of my Sarah daughter) advances towards the vehicle which will stop finally in front of it. It is the noise of the engine, with my approach of the place of the Hillock which will inform it that it is time to advance until in the field of the camera. The second problem lies in impossibility of ensuring the safety of the operation. I limited the risks while turning this film-cascades in August, at five hours thirty of the morning, at daybreak. Circulation is thus almost non-existent. I however could not obtain the authorization to block the streets leading to my course. A vehicle can thus uncouple in front of me at any time. If that occurs, I request to have the glance and the reflexes necessary to react to the quarter of second. The most dangerous stage of the course remains the passage of the counters of the Louvre. There is no visibility at the exit. If a car emerges at this time in front of my cap, the collision will be inevitable. I thus posted my assistant, Elie Chouraqui, has this strategic place. Thanks to its walkie-talkie, it will prevent me in the event of danger. I arrive at the height of the counters of the Louvre. No signal on behalf of Pet. I sink. The remainder of the course is achieved without problem. I slow down place of the Hillock, and Gunilla, with a perfect timing, advances with my meeting. Fifteen minutes later, I find Chouraqui, arranging his "talkie". - What occurs? - It is this filth! He says me by indicating the apparatus. He broke down at the beginning from the catch! J ' had a great retrospective shiver of anguish. Upright in the office of the prefect of police force, I have the feeling to be a punished child. Besides I prepare to be it. And severely. Of a voice of prosecutor, the prefect, who personally convened me, draws up with my intention the list of all the infringements which I made during the few minutes of turning of "For an appointment". It is interminable. When it finished, it raises on me an eye black and known as by advancing the hand: - Give to me your driving licence, please. The moment would be badly selected to discuss. I am carried out. The prefect of police force seizes the document, contemplates it rêveusememt during a few seconds, then returns it to me with a broad smile. - I had committed myself with you withdrawing it, says me it. But I did not specify for how long. In front of my amazement, it adds: - My children adore your small film! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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