Before Paris, Je T’Aime was ever conceived, Claude Lelouch declared his love for all three at once – a city, the cinema, and a woman. As the note at the start of his short film says, the footage wasn’t sped up. It was Lelouch himself who drove through a morning city on a neck-breaking speed, to embrace his beloved – and to meet some of Paris’s best-known and loved landmarks and corners. 8mins 39sec of an urban road-movie still feel contemporary and not a bit outdated. Is love?
This brilliant short road-movie inspired many hommages. And in 2006 Mr Lelouch was interviewed about making the film and drove the distance again, which you can enjoy in a new version below. English and French subtitles are available.
This was a hired race car driver, driving the director Lelouch's new Ferrari 275 GTB. He was testing out a new gyroscopic mounted camera system. The tape length on this camera was 10 min. One end of Paris to the other in that time! Lelouch was arrested apon premiering of this film.