Another of my favourite pieces of non-fiction film: an eight and a half minute sequence filmed by Claude Lelouch on the streets of Paris in 1976. The film was shot all in one take from a camera mounted to the front of a Mercedes 450SEL, filmed without the permission of the city authorities, and takes the viewer on a hair-raising, non-stop ride from the Porte Dauphine to the heights of Montmartre.
Some of you might recognize the original footage as the one used by Snow Patrol for their music video Open Your Eyes, which provides a much more pleasant soundtrack than the over-dubbed sounds of Lelouch’s Ferrari. According to Lelouch, the film was only made with his Mercedes in order to provide a smooth sequence; the sounds of the Ferrari were from the same route, travelled at the same speed, after the first run.
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