Traffic scene from the film Weekend

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

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!

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.