Recently my colleague and friend, Nicolas Zart, showed me this short French film from the 70's called “C'était un Rendez-Vous” by Claude Lelouch. In English this means “It was a date.” After watching the film, which is only about 8 minutes and 30 seconds, I concluded that this is The Greatest Movie Ever Made!
C'était un Rendez-Vous features fast driving through the streets of Paris and the lovely sounds of a beautiful roaring engine. What more could you ask for? There are no stupid story lines that don't make sense with stupid characters and bad actors. (Anyone remember the original 1976 “Gone in 60 Seconds?”) C'était un Rendez-Vous starts off with pure driving and ends with a classic French twist.
What's most interesting about C'était un Rendez-Vous is I clearly see where director John Frankenheimer got his inspiration for the chase scenes and some of the camera techniques used in “Ronin.” Ronin is considered to have some of the best car chase sequences in the history of movies. Robert de Niro, Jean Reno, and Natascha McElhone were actually in the cars during for those sequences. Rendezvous, as it is known, has also influenced other car movies and sequences as well.
Watch C'était un Rendez-Vous below and let me know what you think?
For more info about C'était un Rendez-Vous visit the Wikipedia page.