1976’s C’était un Rendezvous (“It was a date”) is a short, eight-minute feature which really has to be seen to be believed. Suppressed for a number of years (presumably due to French authorities being afraid of copycat displays, which would have undoubtedly resulted in utter carnage and devastation), the short is a continuous, unbroken take of some nutter (rumoured through the years to be an either an unnamed F1 racer, a taxi driver or the film’s director, Claude Lelouch) roaring through the streets of Paris on an early morning, with the camera mounted on front of the car.
This is pure heart-in-mouth, adrenaline-pumping stuff, shot with a flagrant disregard for the life of the driver (or anyone else, for that matter!) and done with a daredevil recklessness which makes for an incredible viewing experience. Large, plodding rubbish trucks are narrowly avoided, and a number of car appear to be within inches away from collision, yet the driver manages to maintain an impossibly high speed.
This is perhaps the closest thing that audiences had to a viral back then (the hilarious ending, sign-posted in the title, reinforces this point) but one nagging question remains – just how many takes did they do before they got it just right?!?
[Rating:5/5]
C’etait un rendezvous has been released on DVD with Spirit Level films since 2003 – I guess this blu-ray is the latest version of the 1976 classic – it was shot in one take! and the car involved was a Mercedes 450, but the film is dubbed with the soundtrack from what is believed to be Claude LeLouche’s Ferrari 275GTB