VIDEO > "Rendezvous" by Claude Lelouch

Faithful readers of this blog will know that I love driving, especially really fast in the streets of Paris.

Apparently I am not the only one. My fellow francophiles, Stine and Esben, just mailed me this amazing, and very controversial video by filmmaker Claude Lelouch, filming a friend driving through Paris like a complete and utter maniac.

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 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 nearly 140 MPH 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.

The video is a fantastic racing voyage through the streets of central Paris. Remember to watch the entire video, you will love the ending. I did, anyway.

Watch the video here.