France at 140mph
Surfing through my feeds today, the folks to .
“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 him 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 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.
Now, thanks to the miracle of the Internets, you can .”
This film is absoutely amazing.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 9th, 2005 at 9:41 pm and is filed under just cool. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
(posts)
November 10th, 2005 at 1:59 am
I can’t count how many times I’ve watched it since Gabe gave me a copy a couple years ago. Great stuff.
November 10th, 2005 at 8:33 am
Yeah, after a little more research this has been around for a while (on the net that is)… I’ve become completely enthralled by the footage, though.
November 10th, 2005 at 1:24 pm
It’s funny how this stuff slowly gets out. For years the only person I knew who had a (VHS) copy was my uncle. It was a rare treat for my cousins and I at family gatherings when he’d play it for us.
Until a few years back it was only available in the US on VHS for something near $80. It was since remastered and sold on DVD in the UK and Europe and it eventually made it’s way over here – first through the grey market which is where I got my copy. I ended up buying my uncle an official copy of the DVD last year for Christmas after hearing his VHS copy had degraded to almost unwatchable.
I always thought this would be a perfect film for internet distribution :)
November 19th, 2005 at 5:09 pm
Wow. A quick note: This should not be watched before heading out anywhere in a car. I left to grab a bite to eat after watching this, and found it extremely difficult not to try and drive like that guy. Maybe I need to invest in an XBox360, and take my frustrations out on Project Gotham Racing 3…:)