The Official "Rendezvous" (C'était un rendez-vous) Thread

A more recent similar subject is Alex Roy's cross country runs. He talks about the Rendezvous video being an inspiration for him. There is some video footage on youtube, google video, etc. But i really recommend his book, "The Driver" I could not put it down and I am by no means an avid reader.
-Matt

 

If you have never driven this road you should. Gives you a whole new outlook on the talents and nadds these guys have.

 

A lot of rubbish has been spread about this short entertainment documentary. It was made by Claude Lelouch, the director of the famous and technically brilliant french film "Un Homme et Une Femme" This film was released in 1966. Rendezvous was filmed at the same time. The car used was Lelouch's own Ferrari 275GTB. It was filmed in June 1966 very early in the morning, as can be revealled by garbage trucks working, and the general lack of traffic.
The camera was mounted under the RH front bumper, hence the low angle. The car was registered in France, again hence the yellow headlamp beams.
A journalist (???) in Australia, John Connolly, who fields a column in "The Weekend Australian", claimed that a Mercedes was used some years ago, but this is totally untrue. I first viewed this film in 1967 when a copy was released for selected Australian distribution. Then it was on 16mm.
I contacted the French distributors in 1968, as I was also looking for a copy of "un Homme et Une Femme" and whilst I was able to eventually get a video thgrough Warner Brothers who had taken over world wide distribution from Les Films 13, the original production company.
At no time in my association with this film documentary has anyone ever suggested that the sound track was dubbed after and that it was filmed from any other car than Lelough's own 275GTB. The film was not originally produced for public distribution. It was made as a result of a discussion between Lelough, Henri Chemin (the sporting director of Ford France) and Jean-Louis Trintignant, who had been involved in the filming of "Un Homme et Une Femme". The discussion resulted from an incident during the 1966 Monte-Carlo Rally, when Trintignant and Chemin drove an Ecurie Ford France Mustang, as part of the film story. During the rally when they booked out of the rally control in Paris the local Gendarme escorted rally competitors across Paris at extremely high speed on their BMW motorcycles, and the three men decided that it would make an interesting film to do something similar. It was only released on video in 2003
Grahame Ward

 

This must be the most reposted topic in Fchat: at least 20 times over the years, perhaps there should a subforum for it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169173/trivia

-Mercedes 6.9

-real speeds

-Sound over of 275GTB

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHn5Q15kaIA&feature=channel_page

 

Hello Art:

No but being half French I can confirm that it was that exact Mercedes 6.9, that it was Lelouch himself driving, that he decided to add the sound over of a Ferrari because enthusiasts would enjoy that.

He explained that the whole thing was decided on the spur of the moment the evening before, hence there was no time to pick a professional driver and he wanted to do it himself for the fun of it anyway. He just told a small crew to show up at dawn the next morning. Also he had made the decision ahead of time that there would be just one take: it would either work or not. Finally he said he had safety firmly in mind and was not about to take any chances with pedestrians etc. He had one lookout with a talkie walkie at the pot where you come out from under le Louvre to cross the rue de Rivoli: since the lookout said nothing he stormed right through. The lookout later told him the walkie talkie did not work....

In the modern making of video The owner of the car (or the passenger in any case) is really really reining his speed in at the beginning; it seems Lelouch was under the impression that he had to go as fast as in the original film! You can tell lelouch loves to drive and does so quite well (even though in the orginal film he brakes far too late arriving place de la Concorde.

best regards,

Marc

PS: The one who should get credit for finding this video is "Krasnavian" aka Stephen Mitchell who has posted some wonderful old videos and this was in his favorites list on youtube.

 

Quite amazing!!...text with which I received it reads something like what follows.

Read before you click the link at the bottom...

- It is supposed to be completely true, it is 9 minutes long and that’s what it took to get from Port Dauphine up to Montmatre.

In some morning of august 1978 the moviemaker Claude Lelouch placed a camera on the hood of his 275 GTB and asked a close friend F1 driver (it’s said he was Jean Pierre Jabouille) to drive through Paris at dawn. The path goes from Port Dauphine passes by the Louvre up to Sacre Coeur. Roads were open to traffic whilst Lelouch didn’t get permission to clear the streets. The driver accomplishes the ride in about 9 minutes, reaching at times speeds over 200 mph. You could see how he runs through red lights, passing aside pedestrians, even going the wrong way and avoiding hitting garbage trucks. After realising the film to the public Lelouch was arrested. He never revealed the driver’s identity and the film was banned. -

* (Please forgive my grammar, English is not my first language I tried and did my best translation (feel free to make corrections).

http://www.wat.tv/video/ferrari-275-claude-lelouch-b6o9_a83s_.html

 

Not a Ferrari but rather a Mercedes has explained many times Claude Lelouch...

 

Of course, the sound was added after...

 

Gosh I 1st saw that in the 70s at school.Even then it was known to be a benz.

 

I could swear I've seen something about this here before......Oh, wait, that was a guy driving a wooden Ferrari through Paris.

 

On the Seine.

 

Rendez-vous?
Deja vú!

 

That's why they call them film "makers." The tire squeal sounds remind of Pink Panther cartoons, though I think they came from another cartoon.

The camera location gives a greater perception of speed because of whizz of the pavement being so close. It's actually very well executed and does give the perception of speed. Back in the 70's this was considered innovative.

 

First time I've seen it - nice vid!

 

OK, OK, I get it... guilty I confess! stop the massacre!

No bad blood on my post, the video was new to me though and I just wanted to share. However you helped a lot with your comments.

rp

 

Translation of the interview is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=C%27était_un_rendez-vous&oldid=49337254, original interview in French here.

 

There was--maybe still is though I think it was taken down--a video on YouTube where Lelouch relives the event, confirming the use of his personal M-B, the post-production addition of the Ferari soundtrack and provides some other insights, like turning up a street that was blocked by a truck and improvising the last several minutes of the route as a consequence hoping to arrive in front of the church before the ten-minute film reel rolled out.

 

That was in one of the links above, http://www.themotoringenthusiast.com/rendezvous

 

http://www.reakt.org/rendezvous/

 

Can someone find the real one and post it again