Route during the "Rendez-vous" movie: dda's Pics and Story (1/1)

On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a ... all » 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 movie (bad quality)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2851488008488190547&pl=true

hate to rain on your party but it was done in lelouche's merc.

I have heard various things about this film, speculation as to what car it was, how fast it was going and whether or not it was Claude himself driving.

Often it is hard to believe that the whole thing is real and he was hitting speeds of 100mph+ but a large part of me wants to believe. It is a very passionate film, set in paris with the sounds of a ferrari and about a man meeting his lover.

This is a link to a website which has tried to estimate the speed that the car was travelling at. http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2005/Rendezvous.shtml

I have seen some of the Getaway in Stockholm series but for me this does it so much better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C'%C3%A9tait_un_rendez-vous

It s hard to beleive that was done on a old merc, looking like the picture...http://www.axe-net.be/rdv/presentation.php
the stability of the car in some certain corners and the confidence on certain approch tell me or the driver was drunk or the car didn t weight 1.7 tonnes...the camera on the merc looks like a set up done on a test run...checking angles, weight and stability...
perfect for shoot all day and record data, the final will be done on the real car after bypassing all tech problems
i guess lelouch had a race vision and not a school run to shoot
i ll go for a sport car with short gearing and a huge publicity if i will survive

Let's look beyond the debate over the car or driver. Regardless of these details, it's simply a really cool short film about a guy racing through famous parts of Paris to go on a date. What captivates us is not only the "boy-racer" perspective, but also the power of romantic notions that can make us irresponsible and irrational about the way we conduct ourselves at times - all for the sake of love!!! (8899666@gmail.com)

I just saw this film today before hearing about all the fuss. Clearly the audio is dubbed and it came off of a Ferrari same age as the film. Then I noticed the vehicle was not accelerating like the sounds hinted. By focusing on objects at the perimeter of the frame one can easily see that the speeds are not that excessive, maybe 90mph, not sure, somewhere there. Also when the vehicle goes onto the curb to avoid the truck you can clearly see the headlights' effect upon the wall - one sees a 2x2 headlamp layout, very similar to the Mercedes rumored to be the vehicle, and very dismilar to the headlamp layout found on the proclaimed Ferrari.

I just viewed the film again to check the headlight patterns after reading the 8/22 posting. There are a number of places where they can be seen, but I did not see a definite 2x2 pattern anywhere.

LeLouche only says the film wasn't faked or accelerated. As for driver and vehicle, there are many possibilities, but it seems like it would violate his front-end assertion to drive one vehicle and dub in the sound of another.

I'm not a filmmaker, but it also seems that in 1975 it would have been considerably harder than it is today to do a good job of matching the sound of all the changes and braking with the picture. It could be done, but it would be a lot easier to just use the Ferrari.

I forget so quickly. Right after I first saw this film I sat down with a map and a stopwatch to see how fast he was going. Then I learned about lenses and their effect on apparent speeds at different points in the viewing field. Eventually I decided I was being a geek. This film is meant, as others have said, to appeal to our hearts and other organs. It does, and it's more fun to let it than to pick at it looking for flaws.

Yet I let myself get sucked ito another analysis fest. I must remember, analysis starts with anal.

From all I've read (and from a TV-interview with Lelouche himself) I know it's not a Ferrari. It was in fact a Mercedes 450 SEL 6.9. Engine: 6834 cc V8, power: 286 hp, torque: 569 Nm. Weight: ~ 2000 kg (!). 0-100 km/h: 8.2 s, 0-200 km/h: 36 s. VMax: 235 km/h. So it was about as fast as today's Golf 5 GTI. Plus it had a limited slip-diff and a hydropneumatic suspension ... .. not bad for a huge mid-70s luxury sedan. :)

Oops.. forgot to post the interview, (in french only I'm afraid):

youtube.com/watch?v=AHn5Q15kaIA

I'm sure the ferrari could have got up on that curb real easy being a lowslung sports suspension supercar, not. it was a merc. the gyro stabilisation and the hydropneumatic suspension on the car smoothed out the cobblestone streets. the ferrari, even with gyro stabilisation would have been shaking alot more. Plus, ever notice in your car when the front of your car goes up or down when you accelerate or brake suddenly. even for a ferrari at these claimed speeds versus the hp of the ferrari, i think the film would see "bobbing" up and down as the gear changes happen. this is not evident. Sure, computers werent around in those days to match the sound to the picture, but reel to reel dubbing was, sure it could have taken him months to get the sound as good as he could get, but it could have been done.

And it was. he was the driver, the car was a merc, and he dubbed the sounds of the ferrari over the top.

Nuf said, move on. :)

Cheers. :)

In response to all those who would try to prove everyone with a romantic belief about this film wrong, may I just ask, why does it matter so much? This movie is fantastic, whoever drove, whatever they drove, how fast, does not matter. It is a timeless, simple, exciting ride through 70's Paris at 5:30 in the morning. That's perfectly good enough for me, so don't worry about trying to make sure everyone knows how smart you are, just enjoy the movie for what it is, and be glad that you can enjoy it; at one point, this film cost $150.00 USD to purchase, and it was a bootlegged, 2nd generation, VHS copy. Be glad for it, watch it, love it, and stop picking it apart.

I agree 100% with the last comment posted on the 2009-03-08. But I have to thank all those who worked on identifying the streets and posted the info on the Net. It is great to find so quickly that so many people in the world shared my enjoyment.

in response .. he is not talking of it as not a great movie. the sound track was dubbed. still exciting and very controversal even by today's standards.

Just enjoy the film for what it is. When I have some friends around for a party, around midnight someone usually spots the DVD and shouts: "Wow, you've got this, put it on!" I channel the sound through my vintage amp and Cerwin Vega speakers and for a while, we're all in Paris, driving recklessly through the streets in a big car.

I just posted a blog on business development that uses your map of C'etais Un Rendezvous. I put a link to your site for attribution. If there are any issues please let me know. You can see how I tied business development this great short film at http://boilingice.com/2011/07/part-i-know-where-you-are-going/