Le Mans - the opening sequence
Driving a Porsche 911S in France, 40 years ago...STARTING AROUND THE VILLAGE OF BRULON...
View this video before scrolling down "the opening sequence" page...
"A slate-grey Porsche 911S with a Stuttgart registration plate zips casually through the picturesque French countryside. It arrives in the city - it's a morning like any other in Le Mans. A young woman buys flowers. The car continues over the section of the circuit normally used by everyday traffic. The street is suddenly lined with two-beam guardrails. The driver stops, climbs out, the camera angle shows his back. The camera pans around and you recognise him as Michael Delaney (Steve McQueen), the top driver of the Gulf Team. With a fixed stare, he focuses on a certain spot beyond the steel rails." {Our Le Mans, page 116}
From the angles - the clump of trees straight ahead in the distance are at the junction of the D4 (Route de Sable) and the D35, and appear to have been thinned out as per much else of the vegetation...
(New bridge dated 2013...)
Michel wrote:
"Laval - D357 - Coulans sur Gee - Longnes / Chassille - Joue en Charnie
Plus loin le carre four de "la lune" il faut tourner a gauche en direction de Brulon - D4
vous traversez la ville de Brulon
vous quittez un peu la ville de Brulon... puis sur la gauche il faut prendre direction Cheville
Vous roulez sur la D35 - et plus loin vous allez tombez sur ce fameux petit pont. La riviere qui coule en dessous
du pont s'appelle: La Vegre
C'est le tout debut du film "Le Mans"
Footnote: B On the 15th & 16th October 2017, John's informative emails unexpectively arrived...
"Dear Sir...I was looking at your website relating to "Le Mans" and was gratified to see that the scenes in Fille had been identified ( I have been longing to know where these scenes were filmed for 47 years!!!).However, you had not identified the very opening scene (the Bridge Road).I believe I have found it.It is on the D35 between Boulon and Cheville, where it crosses the "La Vigre" river.The vegetation and other minor details have changed (what doesn't after 47 years?) but the road layout seems the same and the building cluster seems in the same place, as does the bridge which crosses the river over an island (discernible in the original movie.)On google maps the nearest landmark is the "flour Mill Blin Bernard" which is out-of-shot in the movie but the road to it is just visible in the bottom right-hand frames as the Porsche crosses the bridge, etc.I hope this gives you something to investigate further.Please reply if any queries.RegardsJohn" (15.10.17)
"I too am in England (SE
London) and was just browsing through websites under the "film
locations".....
Your website was very useful in my search for the first scene; you
mentioned where the film crew were staying during the shoot, so I reasoned
that they would not want to be too far away from their hotel for what is
obviously an early-morning shoot.So I got Google maps and started looking
for a road over a small river....the road having distinctive figures before
and after the bridge.
An hour looking at maps and ..Voila!
Regards
John" (16.10.17)
In a blog from people living in the area of Fille, discussion about images of Le Mans filmed in Fille and they showed this road with trees as filmed near the canal...
This scene is filmed Rue du Canal, the car goes in direction of the village ...
Steve McQueen in Le Mans city location, Cathedral of Le Mans in the background
Credit: Marie Fotini...
Map of the circuit for the year of the filming (68-71) to show the location of Maison Blanche...
Location 10 - stop of the car...
(To the left of the rear of the car is a banner advertising "Polaroil" OIL...)
The Porsche garage in Teloche is where Steve McQueen went during the filming of Le Mans to service the cars...
Further Research
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http://www.rjsmith.com/le-mans-then-and-now.html