Traffic scene from the film Weekend

[cineasta71]

This one is the longest travelling scene ever, 300 metres. Cut in 2 parts and shot by master Raoul Coutard.

[mattaki]

how is this maoist?



[055697]

@mattaki

it is supposed to show bourgeoise society as a mad parade, so i guess it is at least marxist.

[rashomon66]

@055697 Actually this scene is more Brechtian than either Marxist or Maoist. However, the entire film is a Marxist political film of sorts as it criticizes consumer culture and the white bourgeoisie.

[hebneh]

If everyone blows their car horns ceaselessly, endlessly, constantly, that will make traffic suddenly start to move. Won't it?

[lukelewisDOTnet]

I remember seeing this in a film studies screening years ago. About two-hundred of us in the lecture theatre - it was a very odd experience to watch the film but particularly this scene. People occasionally laughed, bemused, not sure what to make of it all - and then silence. And then more laughter. And then silence again. Not a film I enjoyed, really; but I'm not sure I was meant to.

[Pinky39559]

This is the first time I have ever seen Weekend , though only a clip . I kind of knew an accident happened ( or was it really an accident ? I have to see the movie to find out )

[TheDina215]

This jam actually seems fun... Well, if I wasnt in a rush. lol then i'd be pissed.

[rakellondon]

is this the opening sequence of this film ? 

[funkyVibes]

french cars aren't good LOL

[darojobe]

everyone's pissed when its not them lying stiff by the roadside

[mambro21st]

Jean-Luc you are a genius!

Welcome to the 20th Century

How many people have died in car accidents?

More than in wars - who can tell!

One thing is for sure - you are the Guru of Post-Modernism.....

[elementsfusion]

what is this from?

[staphinfection]

worst audio ever.

[iguanamarie]

i only like/dislike their repetitive actions

[YoungBelaLugosi]

i like this scene.

my favorite car;Citroen 2CV !

my favorite director;Jean-Luc Godard !

[jbmacdowell]

I wonder if he had to pay Shell to use their symbol. That would be kind of ironic...

[Thatwasthesummerofsv]

It's funny. I 'counted; more vehicles in that short sequence than I saw in a whole week in the sleepy Dordogne region I stayed in during May!!

Great bit of cinema. Thanks for sharing it with the world!

[deluz]

And I always thought that the new wave's continuous, long take master sequence was from the lack of money,,, initially, i guess... dig the music swell when the shell gas truck appears.

[paulmx]

You should read "The Highway of the South" by Julio Cortázar, you'll understand this scene much better after reading it.

[cosanostranapoli1]

Magnifica, come fa i piano-sequenza Godard, non li fa nessuno.

[tubi333]

This is a great scene, but I regret that it wasn't Jacques Tati who has made it. He would have made it quite similar, with the difference that the accident which causes this traffic jam would have been something quite ridiculous, so that there would be something to laugh also at the end.

[KahnBB6]

I agree that a Tati version would have been magnificently funny-- although it really comes down to two different commentaries on our obsession with cars: Godard is mainly saying life continues while we are stuck in them (in quite a banal way) within the context of a film about society and cinema imploding on itself... while Tati definitely would have wanted to emphasize that even in the worst and most absurd of situations there is something quite funny to come away with. Both are valid messages.

[donmilliken]

I would have to disagree. It's the very juxtaposition of the comic elements in the long tracking shot through the traffic and the brutal revelation of the gory car crash at the end that makes the scene great. Making the scene funnier would not make it better, it would just make it funny. You want funny for its own sake, there's no shortage of that in the movies, even in French cinema. Sometimes we need to be reminded that even amongst laughs, there's tragedy.

[ziegfeldgrl]

is the honking really necessary? it's not going to accomplish anything

[Punk7680]

I believe that is simply the way you drive in France.

[harfarhs]

@ziegfeldgrl - it's deliberately there on the soundtrack, to get the audience really riled up..

[totallytempo]

reminds me of that one time I was driving to from vancouer to whistler, (which is like 109 kms) and there was this 10 hour traffic jam.

[louisvortex]

I love this scene. Has anyone posted the grocery store scene from "Tout Va Bien"? Very similar, very provocative. Godard is one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.

[movieboyandco]

The inspiration from this scene was a short story by Julio Cortazar called "La autopista del sur" if you can find a translation, I highly recommend it.

Great scene. I've yet to see the movie, but thanks to this clip now I'm definitely up for it.

[EwiiL]

Oldscool cars... That's great. Nice scenery and narrate.

[hipelephant]

i love this film.

[JensAddictions]

You don't need to be Marxist to appreciate this movie, I'm definitely not a commie but I love this movie. I also love shopping and I love my car! Godard sure did everything he can to make us hate cars.

It's 1967 and Godard is pissed and he decides to take his camera and show us how pissed he is. He filmed his anger so brilliantly that I'm willing to overlook the moment where he suggested that sleeping with Mao is better than sleeping with LB Johnson :)

[rodhatte]

I love this scene... it's just one little ridiculous tableau after the other... The car turned the wrong way, the man on the boat, the old couple dining in the middle of the road...

I've seen Week End three or four times, and I still don't know what to think of it... maybe I love it, maybe I hate it... But this scene is the best car scene, I've ever watched though.

[aveFger]

Even if you don't understand Week End, its a masterpiece of film regarding the technical aspect. I don't know what to think of it either, maybe that's because there is no definite interpretation.

But one thing there is for sure, the long takes Godard used in this movie are epic enough to make it immortal! Not only the car scene, the whole film is full of incredibly long takes (i.e. the piano player at the court).

[dakaranandayo]

Both right; scenes like this are wonderful piled-up half-meaningful absurdities that resist analysis and normal film criticism but pack plenty anger, and they go on and on in the film... this film, and this scene of this film, are the distilled spirit of 68

[louisvortex]

Especially in the beginning of the film with the description of the menage a trois. The subject matter is dealt with so matter of fact-ly, so journalistically, that it defies any offense that might be taken with it. The way its treated so asexually makes anyone who might take offense the perverted. She may as well be describing a medical procedure (albeit, a very hot medical procedure). Another great Godard film.

[FaecalMaster]

Wow, that was really fucking annoying. What kind of morons just sit there and impotently lean on their horns? I'm glad real people don't drive like that.

[MattGeiger]

Apparently you haven't driven in Boston;)

[molloyx]

One too many Renaults.

[Leibo07]

"Each movie has a begining, a middle part and an ending. But not necessarly in that order"

(J.L. Godard)

[InspectorRemorse]

er, this isn't the opening...

[rfid4dna]

true. thanks. fix made.

[unclealand]

All the stuff in "Weekend" is just daily life now.  Nothing to get excited about.

[rfid4dna]

modified title, description, category, & thumb

[piyangpo]

I waited through all that annoying honking to watch 10 secs of hard to make out GORE! lol what a waste

[jjjconrad]

do yourself a favor and see the actual movie, rather than watch this bad file. you don't have to be a marxist at all to enjoy it, but not being stupid helps.

[aDoreMi07]

hehe, well said

[at90percent]

This is obviosly from a movie.

The camera is riding on rail tracks beside the road. This is obvious by the smooth motion of the camera moving sideways.

The people in the scenes and the cars look like they are from the 1960s. No one had portable video cameras then. If they had a color movie camera they usually didn't have sound.

Two seperate groups of people throwing a ball between cars.

This is most definately a staged scene of a movie.

[Pharasyst]

If you had read the previous comments, you'd have realised that this is a scene from a movie called Week-End.

[at90percent]

What, you want me to read other people's opinions?

Seriously though, I didn't read the comments about the director's tracking shots unitl after I posted. Unfortunately, Youtube doesn't allow retractions.

[Pharasyst]

Meh, it's no big deal. It is still quite clearly not real, as you had deduced.

[at90percent]

Yes, I know, I think it was mostly because of the fake title. Nasty accident causes ridiculous traffic jam. Then the only response I read was Maxmulham, "I would just drive around like any normal person would do."

[at90percent]

Then there is the video description, which is also fake. Caught on film, a disturbing multi-car pileup devastates a weekend outing. The carnage is Godawful.

The expression caught on film usually means something real that happens that gets caught.

[Pharasyst]

This certainly can't qualify as one of the most accurately-titled YouTube videos. If the poster can fix this, he most certainly shouls.

[Pharasyst]

Should, damnit!!

[mrporkchop110]

ok stfu no body cares

[elgado]

I found this, and other scenes in Week End to be excruciatingly boring. My experience would have been otherwise had I found sympathy with the heavy-handed Marxist overtures of the film. Also, I don't find such a petty issue like consumerism to be all that troubling to me.

Had the film focused more on personal problems (Bresson's Pickpocket) rather than those affecting society, I would have enjoyed it more. To each his own.

[johnsher2]

A great visual metaphor of so many things, as only Jean-Luc Godard can do.

And also very literal as traffic jams to the coast in August in France can look something like this, minus all the wrecks and dead bodies!

[bobbyjoe]

one of the greatest takes in film history

[UpMyOwn]

I was in the car on the field driving past with the bloke taking the video in

[Maxmulham]

I'd just drive on the field like any normal person would do.

[markmizzles]

Godard loved his tracking shots. Anyone got the scene from "Tout Va Bien" in the grocery store? That shit is brilliant.

[Gchoob]

I think I have seen this film. Is there a scene where you see a pig having its neck cut?

[jazzvandoren]

it would have been funnier if the car that passed everyone had an accident of their own as soon as they made that right turn.

[paperwarrior]

Exactly what I was thinking.

[AKOUM452]

you made my day

[carnut76]

Fuck you idiot Thanks for waisting my time with this fucking nonsense

[paeppi]

Lamest vid on the entire internet. Congratulations!

[flipbird868686]

go fuck yourself for posting this

[Revuesta]

WHAT A STUPID FUCKING VIDEO

[n14e5o15]

This is an unbearable scene. Very well done.

[c0wbrAin]

Lolz xP

[BillBuchananFtw]

hahahaha. Andre Bazin lives on

[EGRJ]

A wee bit pretentious.

[fahrmboy]

I love all the negative comments about how long, annoying, and boring this scene is. Have you ever been in a traffic jam?

It's certainly not an entertaining experience, and Godard is presenting it for what it is. It's a scene I love to hate.

[TVS86]

you're right, being stuck in a traffic jam isn't, as you say, an 'entertaining experience'. But I think this traffic jam is incredibly entertaining. It's just a lot of fun watching the protagonist cutting past the traffic, and the not knowing what to expect to see next as the camera pans right...i can't really describe it properly, but it's pretty cool. :) the cars are pretty sweet too.

[yoshibikeaddict]

why wouldn't they go off road :S that's stupid and boring and the worst of all is that i saw it completely ...

[128128team]

lol

[baronessvondemian]

can you imagine any contemporary director taking the time to create a scene like this? or a film like 'weekend' for that matter? one of the best films i've ever seen, & a brilliant director.

[jordancullen]

There is at least one contemporary director who does take the time for huge tracking shots like this - Peter Greenaway - check the opening credit sequence to 'Prospero's Books' (1991).

Just saw 'Weekend' for the first time yesterday, a great but disturbing film

[qmto]

honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk honk

[Rikkie49]

Every car (occupants) an Island of stupidity

[scenecoolkid]

boring

[crazydudeqqqw]

i hate this

[IamHARDasFUCK2987982]

impressive.

[jasonrb007]

Weekend is a great film.

[schlappe99999]

godard!!