Saturday, December 16, 2006

Oh La La!

The urban legend had it that...

"1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a Formula 1 racer drive it at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris, reaching speeds of nearly 140 MPH (225 Km/h)."

The following clip is a mini movie (that even received an award) made actually in 1976 by a well known French movie director, Claude Lelouch:

C'était un rendez-vous (1976)

* The film was shot in a single take, without any special effects or stuntmen, with the director driving the car.

* The idea for this film came to Claude Lelouch after hiring a gyro stabilized camera mount for a film he was working on at the time.

* The film is nine minutes long because the film cartridge in the camera could only hold 10 minutes of film and it was taken in a single shot.

Over the years, various sources claimed an F1 formula driver was at the wheel of a Le Mans Matra 675, Ferrari 275 GTB, or an Alpine A110. However, Claude Lelouch confirmed on his official website in March 2006 that it was he who was driving, and it was a 6.9 litre Mercedes. Later the sound of a Ferrari 275GTB was dubbed over to give the impression of much higher speeds, that of a Ferrari.

The route taken in the film is 10.42 km long (6.48 mi). It takes the driver 7:57 to cover that distance, giving him an average speed of 78.64 km/h (48.86 mph). Calculations made by several independent groups using the film show that the car never exceeds 140 km/h (85 mph.)

Lelouch was arrested shortly after the film was screened but was later released without charge. It helps to be a well known celebrity anywhere.

The above information came from a well known internet movie database, and the entire movie clip came from here

The movie is available on DVD and can only be obtained here

Here it is. If you know Paris, you can easily recognize its famous landmarks.

Abracadabra-75.

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