March 23, 2007

Lelouch's Rendezvous With Google Maps


Ok, this kinda dumb but kinda kewl if you like movie editing and fast cars. I happened upon this site a while back and found a neat little thing to watch when you have absolutely nothing else to do. From the panopticist.com:

Early on a summer morning in 1978, the French filmmaker Claude Lelouch attached a gyro-stabilized camera to the front of a Ferrari 275GTB. He turned on the camera and handed the car keys to a professional racecar driver, who fired up the engine and then sped through the center of Paris at about 140 miles per hour. The resulting eight-minute film, C'etait un rendezvous, is a classic. Thanks to Google Video and YouTube, it's gotten a lot of web attention in recent months. But here's something new: A blogger named Brian Hendrix has created a Google Maps mashup that displays the car's location on a map as the driver rockets himself through Paris.

Lelouch has apparently claimed that it was he who was behind the wheel; he supposedly also said that the car was a Mercedes, not a Ferrari, and that the sounds of a Ferrari were overdubbed later. But I don't have the energy to investigate whether (a) he actually claimed these things or (b) the claims are actually true.


So check out the google map thingummajig and follow the instructions to view the film snippet and the google map at the same time. One interesting side note: The filmmaker was unable to get a permit to get the streets closed. Crazy!

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