Cetait Un Rendezvous On Blu-Ray – A Reason To Upgrade From Betamax

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

Believe it or not, C’etait un Rendezvous is actually Claude Lelouch’s second most famous film involving motorsports – but as far as we know, Un homme et une femme hasn’t come out on Blu-Ray yet.

Long the stuff of underground legend, Rendezvous gained popularity over the last decade as a cult car-guy film, eventually getting a proper DVD release. In the era of easily accessible GoPro cameras and Youtube, the idea of an illegal street racing video is banal at best. But in 1976, this was automotive pornography crossed with high art.


Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • APaGttH APaGttH on Jan 04, 2013

    The video for Snow Patrol's Open Your Eyes uses Cʼétait un Rendezvous.

  • MattMan MattMan on Jan 04, 2013

    A friend and I drove the Rendezvous route during a trip to Paris. Parts of it we could not do, like the street right in front of The Louvre. There was a big street market/festival at the end by that cathedral; driving through there was strange. Pro tip: driving around the Arc de Triomphe is genuinely the stuff of nightmares.

    • See 2 previous
    • EspressoBMW EspressoBMW on Jan 05, 2013

      @APaGttH I would think that Friday night would not be too bad since traffic is at a standstill and so should have plenty of time to plot your course around the Arc.

  • Ron B. Ron B. on Jan 04, 2013

    It wasn't the first movie showing the madness of French traffic ( a precursor to post Soviet driving tactics) . There was another filmed in daytime on a motorbike as suggested in the first post. But made in the late 1950's when many French were just getting mobile again after WW2. I dont remember the title as i haven't seen it for over 30 years. no doubt someone will remind me.

  • Power6 Power6 on Jan 06, 2013

    How much does BluRay really add to this, only so much you can do with the same old source. This smacks of "remastered" old Beatles tunes where some dbag in LA cranks up the gain. I like this one but the fake Ferrari sounds get old fast.

    • Battles Battles on Jan 07, 2013

      I think BluRay would add a lot to this, I recently watched Bullitt on BluRay and couldn't believe the detail I'd been missing all these years with crappy VHS and then DVD copies.

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