The New Year offers us a chance to pause and consider resolutions and the passing of time- and nothing says "passing of time" like Ferrari! In the driver's seat today is film director Claude Lelouch. Lelouch had been working on documentaries and was just about ready to pack it all in when he created his Academy Award-winning (and career saving) film A Man and a Woman in 1966. Lelouch had a true knack for capturing the poetry of everyday lives and relationships, and it didn't hurt the film that it starred Jean-Louis Trintignant as a race car driver and Anouk Aimee as a script girl. Poetry-in-motion, indeed. Lelouch was a car enthusiast, and years later he made a rather infamous short film called Rendezvous. The concept? During the length of one reel of film mounted to the bumper of his Ferrari 275GTB, a man rushes through the streets of Paris (without stopping for traffic or lights!) to meet with his love on the other side. The camera was set, the film started, gears slammed into place- and the Ferrari blasted off on its uncertain journey. Absolutely exhilarating! Legend has it that Lelouch could not (or did not) get a permit to make the film, leaving the streets open to the public, and that he hired a professional driver to take the wheel. Made in 1976, the classic style and sound of the Ferrari roaring over cobblestones in retro Paris has Spy Vibe written all over it!
Claude Lelouch's Rendezvous... from Dat on Vimeo.
