I remember seeing this movie years and years ago, at a friend’s house, during the era when the internet was accessed through loud, screechy modems that logged into AOL or some text-only university computer. I mention this just to note that I had no way to prepare myself for what I was about to witness. The movie, a VHS copy of Jean Luc Godard’s 1967 black –really, this is unrepentantly dark – comedy titled, innocently, Week-End, happened to have one of the greatest collections of cars I had ever seen on screen.
They just all happened to be in a nearly eight-minute-long traffic jam/automotive carnage scene that was all shot in one incredible take, took over 3/4 of a mile when shot, and may be one of the best-worst traffic jam scenes in cinema history.
I was suckered in because that traffic jam was like a line-up of every car I’ve ever been fascinated by, and the “hero” car pushing its way through it was also incredible, and not one I’d ever seen in a movie before – a 1960 Facel-Vega Facellia. But before I get too deep into the cars, take a look at the movie’s official trailer:
As you see, the trailer includes some shots of the legendary traffic jam scene, populated as it is with Minis and Fiats and Citroëns and Simcas; there’s also some suggestions of the other parts of the movie, which involve a lot of bleak, murderous motives and even some cannibalism, all in the context of a nice weekend getaway. Sort of. It’s, you, know, weird. Like late ’60s French weird.
But this traffic jam scene, holy clams, you need to just take that all in. Here’s all seven minutes and 40 seconds of it:
It starts with that Facel-Vega passing a Fiat 850 and Renault Dauphine, then a Simca, and a Mini, and it just keeps getting better and better. A Peugeot and a 2CV are playing catch. That’s fun! But things get more grim. We see an overturned Dauphine, and soon a Volvo P1800. There’s what seem to be lions in a truck, and then monkeys and a llama, just before a Volvo 140.
And look! An incredibly rare Panhard convertible!
There’s DSs and Panhards and Renault 4s and a sailboat and people playing chess or something between cars:
..and at least one NSU Sport Prinz:
Here’s a nice Citroën DS and Mini, palling around, along with a nice look at midcentury roof rack packing techniques:
And a Mini crushed into a fastback, across from what may be a bisected man?
It’s horrific and incredible all at once. There’s not a car in this jam that I wouldn’t love to own, too; some of them I have owned, like the 2CV and Volvo P1800. It’s just strange seeing so many of my favorite cars in such straits. Of course, the chaos and violence and hostility are magnified for effect here, and with the constant din of honking horns and bickering people, the overall effect is definitely unsettling.
Just to give a sense of the sort of bleak commentary this movie sought to make, when the lead characters’ Facel-Vega finally meets its doom, one of the characters screams in agony, but only because her Hermès bag was left behind:
I wonder if Godard’s traffic jam sequences are part of what Jaques Tati may have been referencing and parodying in his 1971 film Trafic, which includes a similar chaos-fueled traffic jam, but this one has much more absurd levity and a more silly/fun sort of exaggeration:
Great cars in here, too like, that nose-riding Citroën DS. I know the suspensions on those cars were capable of all sorts of fun tricks, but I don’t think they normally could do that. Oh, and if you like Capris, watch to the end!
Tati has more good automotive scenes in his movies, also crammed full of great cars. We’ll cover more of those in future Cold Starts, I promise!
There is an early film, possibly WC Fields about driving.
Guy hates bad drivers. Comes into money.
Gets a lot of cars, hires drivers.
When he finds one, he yells “Road hog”! and crashes into them!
Then jumps in another car!
When we went to France in 1999 we drove up from Nice to St Malo (to get the ferry to Jersey) and there where lots of main roads that looked like this if you weren’t on the Peage. Sort of narrow with sloping edges.Quite often with a Clio or 206 on its roof down the bottom. We started calling them Magnetic French Ditches
You should do some Internet sleuthing with “Nationale 7” and “traffic jam” as search items.
This should give you an idea where those scene came from
Edit : and yes there’s towns that actually re-enact the traffic jams on a regular basis.
So I’m not the only one who gets Traffic and Weekend confused? That’s a relief. Well mostly the titles..
“holy clams” um yeah, that bit with the fish at the end was a topic at the 24 hour breakfast place with my date afterwards.
I love Capris! I had a 74 that I swapped a 73 2.6 with headers and an Ansa exhaust! Won a drag race out of the HS parking lot with a 66 Fairlane!
“ one of the characters screams in agony, but only because her Hermès bag was left behind”
I’m glad you cleared that up for me. I had assumed the character screaming in agony was the one that was on fire from head to toe.
(Hey, subtle misogyny dig, Godard! The immolated dude bears his pain stoically while the woman gets hysterical about an ‘air-may’ handbag; ugh, I’ll stick with Jaques Tati, thanks.)
The dig was more at the consumerism of the bourgeois roadhogs (this was the year before the Paris protests of May 1968, after all), but Godard was kind of like a lot of contemporary men on the left who might pay lip service to gender equality but whose practices and viewpoints were profoundly misogynistic. (The right was as bad or worse, but they didn’t claim to be any good.)
Oh that’s nothing. The bit where they are captured by a band of cannibals and she is what could possibly be described as turducken but with a fish is , well it’s something.
I found both films on criterion.
I love the movie, Trafic (thank you Turner Classic Movies). Eager to check out Weekend.
I saw some earlier Godard films as part of a class in college but have only heard about Week-end and had only seen a snippet or two of the traffic jam. Maybe I’ll sign up for the Criterion Collection’s streaming service.
And others have said this about other posts. but this is why I keep coming back here.
The 2 mph corner to corner bumper tap at 3:35 would have been devastating to any modern car. That kind of bump gives me nightmares thinking of the paint work I’d have to get done….As well as all the broken tabs in the bumper shell which would happen at that angle.
Gorilla tape has been holding the bumper covers on my Prius since it was my mom’s. The fender liners and undertray were held on to, until they weren’t. Need to do something about the fender liners before I drive in the snow.
Why does my iPhone insist that I do it “before I drown in the snot” eww.
There is a Prius on my street with silver duct tape holding the right side bumper cover from popping out.
I have a section of undercover (whatever it is called under bumper leading to the fender) that the plastic zip ties couldn’t hold on, so I replaced them with stainless steel zips.
The thing that trippy French trailer needed to be even better was an actual Simca Week-End convertible to be featured. Yes, a car with the perfect name for that movie. https://www.simcafacel.levillage.org/spip.php?article167
I am especially fond of the guy towing a sailboat (maybe a 5.5m Corsaire?) with his Peugeot 204 (and it’s mind-blowing 53hp motor).
I was about to bring up Tati! Trafic, the beginning and end of Playtime, even Mon Oncle all have great shots of mid-century France traffic!
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYmIzY2M1OTUtZTRlYy00MDg2LWIyM2UtNWI5ZDdjZWMxYWRiXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg
I’m very familiar with Trafic but somehow never ran across this Godard film. Tati did such great clowning with cars and even bicycles. The cigarette lighter gag in the Tri-5 Chev, and I think it’s Jour de Fete where the bicycle takes a half mile stroll all by itself?
You can really see how big American cars are compared to the European ones — there is a 1955 Buick at ~6:50.
Yeah, that stuck out for me, I have a buddy with a 56 sedan
I have been meaning to write this for yonks.
It is possible to roll a 2CV.
Not by competing in 2CV Cross ( a whole different level of insanity) but by attempting the perfectly normal day to day manoeuvre known as the J turn. Whilst accelerating toward the baddies, apply the handbrake as you depress the clutch, select reverse and apply full lock on the steering. The car will pivot around the locked rear wheels, the change into a gear that is roughly approximate to your your now forward speed and rush of in the direction 180 degrees to that in which you had previously been proceeding.
2CV handbrakes act on the very effective inboard front disc brakes.
^^ Very salient COTD ^^
Yikes!
Can it do some maneuvers normal cars can’t?
Can a J turn be reversed with front brakes?
I am too old to try, can one pull this off where the starting point is reversing with sufficient ommph in a 2CV? my guess is that might be two ways to roll one.
I expected the 2CVs to just cut thru the fields, it’s what they were made for.
THe people playing ball car-to-car was fun, instead of the expected bad behavior. If it were nowadays in the US, instead of the hero who is cutting ahead being yelled at for doing it, he would just be followed by a string of cheaters as they took up his prompt.
Hey, what do you think the camera car was? A 2CV cutting through the verge.
The Bisected Man is a great name for a bar!
New Wave cinema leaves me Breathless with Contempt.
I saw what you did there.
On the Road was written in French!
Actually, On The Road was typed in English on a single, 120-foot scroll over three weeks in April 1951, though not published for several years.
However, a more obscure novella by Kerouac, also titled On The Road, (Sur le chemin) written in 1952 while he lived in Mexico City, was written in French and had some similar themes, but also substantial differences.
I am hoping to see these things soon in Lowell MA. There is a museum being built/curated. Zach Bryan.
https://jackkerouaccenter.com/
What I read ages ago was that the scroll was translated into English from numerous notes in French, some predating his road trip by years.
Makes sense to me, but considering the source, any version might be true, or none of them.
I wonder how many people have read Farina’s book these days?
Once it seemed that everyone I knew had read it.
You’re not wrong about the notes. He did have extensive notes in French that he used to write his manuscript. Why he chose to do so in English, I don’t know. He wrote several works in French previously and after. Perhaps he thought English would be more welcome to editors and publishers.
Easier to print seems likely
The BBC apologizes for the tasteless “Salad Days” item, citing the performers’ broken homes and unhappy lives.
(more Facel-Vega content please)
I don’t know if I have enough drugs n hand to enjoy, or even make it through this movie. Cool cars though !
I’m still using sobriety as a crutch.
The surreal is standard issue.