The poetry is the basic trait of this moving animation. The second - the pure geometry . And the delicacy of story. Portrait of a tragedy, it is not the story of a terrible car race but a film about people defined by theirs desires, regrets, difficult decisions, acceptance, sacrifice and the thoughts about the other. Short, superb work.
8 Reviews
The Impact of it All
ericbryanwilliamson11 December 2019
First off, the art style is unique; I have never seen anything like it and I love it. Second, I already new about the 1955 Le 24 Heures du Mans Tragedy, but this put it into a perspective that forced me to understand how and why it was such a tragedy. I have watch it, over and over, a total of 7 times, Noticing even finer details. The imagery of Levegh's crashed 300SLR as a mangled mess of blood and fire, much like his own cadaver, is astounding; even more so when you realize it's blood red for the fire and heat. Finally the conclusion is very poetic and is the nail in the coffin of this artistic depiction of a tragedy that killed 80-84 people, and injured 180 others.
Fitting tribute to a tragic event
mohan5926 November 2019
Warning: Spoilers
June 11 1955 will go down as one of the darkest days in motorsport history. It is also a day that changed car racing forever. Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and defending champions Ferrari were all vying for the prestigious 24 hours of Le Mans trophy; between them, they had won the last four editions. With a line-up that included Formula 1 legends Juan-Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss, Mercedes-Benz believed they had the package to challenge Ferrari and win again.
The stage was set for an exciting battle.
Three hours into the race, a collision occurred between Mercedes-Benz's support driver Pierre Levegh and Austin-Healey's Lance Macklin. The high speed crash sent the Benz out of control, with Levegh being thrown out of his car and landing on his skull, killing him instantly. The Benz continued disintegrating, sending hot debris into the tightly-packed crowd. The severed engine hood acted as a guillotine, decapitating many spectators who had no time to react. Mercedes-Benz's use of magnesium alloy in their body also played a part, with many fans suffering grave injuries due to the intense heat from the scorched powerplant.
All this is not depicted in the film. What we see, however, are the delicate, tense moments between the team principal Alfred Neubauer and Levegh's driving partner John Fitch. The visibly-distraught Fitch appeals to Neubauer to withdraw from the race, to which Neubauer initially refuses outright. The visuals after the crash are stark: the atmosphere is a deep indigo while the soaring flames are scarlet red-and-gray. The cars themselves appear to lose a bit of their sheen: the sleek silver of Mercedes dulls, the bright red of Ferrari overshadowed by the flames. Eventually, sense prevails over Neubauer and he withdraws his team from the race. As morning dawns and the horrific tragedy (eighty-odd dead and hundreds more hurt) sinks in, Fitch and Neubauer exchange a quiet glance, as the remaining Silver Arrow Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR is hoisted onto a truck and Fitch departs in a car.
The animation in this short is elegant, poetic and understated. The drama is palpable, some scenes are so contrasting they are almost painful to watch - case in point, the camera pans the section of crowd that received the brunt of the Benz's impact while there is a carousel in the background, still running with bright lights. The choice of colors deserves mention as well and the score adds a sense of gravitas to it. The epilogue mentions the legacy, with Mercedes-Benz quitting racing altogether while Fitch embarks on a journey to improve safety in motorsport and every-day driving.
Do watch it if you can, one of the best fifteen minutes of your life!
The stage was set for an exciting battle.
Three hours into the race, a collision occurred between Mercedes-Benz's support driver Pierre Levegh and Austin-Healey's Lance Macklin. The high speed crash sent the Benz out of control, with Levegh being thrown out of his car and landing on his skull, killing him instantly. The Benz continued disintegrating, sending hot debris into the tightly-packed crowd. The severed engine hood acted as a guillotine, decapitating many spectators who had no time to react. Mercedes-Benz's use of magnesium alloy in their body also played a part, with many fans suffering grave injuries due to the intense heat from the scorched powerplant.
All this is not depicted in the film. What we see, however, are the delicate, tense moments between the team principal Alfred Neubauer and Levegh's driving partner John Fitch. The visibly-distraught Fitch appeals to Neubauer to withdraw from the race, to which Neubauer initially refuses outright. The visuals after the crash are stark: the atmosphere is a deep indigo while the soaring flames are scarlet red-and-gray. The cars themselves appear to lose a bit of their sheen: the sleek silver of Mercedes dulls, the bright red of Ferrari overshadowed by the flames. Eventually, sense prevails over Neubauer and he withdraws his team from the race. As morning dawns and the horrific tragedy (eighty-odd dead and hundreds more hurt) sinks in, Fitch and Neubauer exchange a quiet glance, as the remaining Silver Arrow Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR is hoisted onto a truck and Fitch departs in a car.
The animation in this short is elegant, poetic and understated. The drama is palpable, some scenes are so contrasting they are almost painful to watch - case in point, the camera pans the section of crowd that received the brunt of the Benz's impact while there is a carousel in the background, still running with bright lights. The choice of colors deserves mention as well and the score adds a sense of gravitas to it. The epilogue mentions the legacy, with Mercedes-Benz quitting racing altogether while Fitch embarks on a journey to improve safety in motorsport and every-day driving.
Do watch it if you can, one of the best fifteen minutes of your life!
Not at all what I expected
nossrepsalcin13 December 2019
Being familiar with the event I heard about this movie a while ago, and how it skillfully and delicately captured the drama and mood as it unfolded, it took a while before I had an opportunity to actually watch it, alas with high anticipation.
Well, it did not match the expectations and I have a hard time understanding all the fuzz. It has a distinct graphical style for sure, but not to the extent that it is different from many others. It is slick, but that's really it and it did not, at least to me, convey any particular sense of drama per se.
What effectively kills this movie though is that it takes serious liberties with the actual event it portrays, which begs the question of what really is the point of the movie? As a movie it barely makes sense, and I can understand that the representation as shown is both moving and shocking for a viewer/film festival reviewer, whom either hasn't heard of the accident before, or isn't familiar with the details, but to me it was a serious flaw that so much was just made up for dramatic effect. Especially since the reality was even more dramatic, and beyond making it more sinister by having it play out in the dark, I can't see any viable reasons for straying like this. The events are for example well documented in numerous articles, not to mention Wikipedia.
Mild spoilers ahead I guess, and I'm not an expert but for example, John Fitch did not have an argument with Neubauer at the time of the accident, he was standing next to Levegh's wife and saw the whole event unfold. John Fitch neither had to persuade Neubauer, as he too quickly came to the conclusion that it would be a PR disaster regardless if they won or not.
In all the movie oozes of lost opportunities. It was undoubtedly a horrific tragedy, but more interesting would have been to see the reasoning behind keeping the race running. Another aspect is that, as this was obviously before cell phones, apparently few people on the other side of the track realized the extent of what had happened until hours later, which is something that is so much more remarkable given that it happened during daylight, and not as shown in the movie when it was dark and the crowds had started to recede.
Well, it did not match the expectations and I have a hard time understanding all the fuzz. It has a distinct graphical style for sure, but not to the extent that it is different from many others. It is slick, but that's really it and it did not, at least to me, convey any particular sense of drama per se.
What effectively kills this movie though is that it takes serious liberties with the actual event it portrays, which begs the question of what really is the point of the movie? As a movie it barely makes sense, and I can understand that the representation as shown is both moving and shocking for a viewer/film festival reviewer, whom either hasn't heard of the accident before, or isn't familiar with the details, but to me it was a serious flaw that so much was just made up for dramatic effect. Especially since the reality was even more dramatic, and beyond making it more sinister by having it play out in the dark, I can't see any viable reasons for straying like this. The events are for example well documented in numerous articles, not to mention Wikipedia.
Mild spoilers ahead I guess, and I'm not an expert but for example, John Fitch did not have an argument with Neubauer at the time of the accident, he was standing next to Levegh's wife and saw the whole event unfold. John Fitch neither had to persuade Neubauer, as he too quickly came to the conclusion that it would be a PR disaster regardless if they won or not.
In all the movie oozes of lost opportunities. It was undoubtedly a horrific tragedy, but more interesting would have been to see the reasoning behind keeping the race running. Another aspect is that, as this was obviously before cell phones, apparently few people on the other side of the track realized the extent of what had happened until hours later, which is something that is so much more remarkable given that it happened during daylight, and not as shown in the movie when it was dark and the crowds had started to recede.
Stylish but distorted view
RealLeo2 December 2019
This short animated film is a stylish, yet distorted presentation of what happened at the infamous "24 Hours of Le Mans" race of 1955.
The film starts well enough, but what threw my suspension of disbelief off was that in the film it had been dark for quite a while before The Thing That Makes This Race Infamous happens. Which in real life happened on 11th June 1955 at 6:26pm, three and a half hours before sunset, in full daylight. After this intentional distortion it was unfortunately impossible for me to concentrate on the actual story anymore. If they intentionally distort this simple fact, why would I care of the rest of it?
Could be worse, of course. At least they didn't add sad rain.
As it is, I'm still giving the film an average grade, a 5 that is. Without the distortion, it could easily have earned a 7 or 8 from me. Difficult to tell exactly after the magic was broken.
The film starts well enough, but what threw my suspension of disbelief off was that in the film it had been dark for quite a while before The Thing That Makes This Race Infamous happens. Which in real life happened on 11th June 1955 at 6:26pm, three and a half hours before sunset, in full daylight. After this intentional distortion it was unfortunately impossible for me to concentrate on the actual story anymore. If they intentionally distort this simple fact, why would I care of the rest of it?
Could be worse, of course. At least they didn't add sad rain.
As it is, I'm still giving the film an average grade, a 5 that is. Without the distortion, it could easily have earned a 7 or 8 from me. Difficult to tell exactly after the magic was broken.
Very cinematic
bob the moo29 August 2020
I came to this thinking that it was somehow connected to the film Le Mans 66 (in the US as Ford v Ferrari) but it is not. Instead it is the story of a tragic accident that occurred during the 1955 Le mans 24 hour race.
In telling the story the film is impressively cinematic. It is an animation but it has great shot selection and 'cinematography', which combines with a strong colour palette and sense of the drama and tragedy. This produces the foundation on which the fire plays out. The delivery of the moral drama is perhaps a bit rushed, but this sort of comes with the territory in a short film, and it compensates for it by some dramatic moments, and solid voice work. The scale of the animation is impressive; technically it shows some limits in its movement, but mostly it is impressively designed and delivered - while the story means you are not focused on the elements of the film so much as you are on the whole.
In telling the story the film is impressively cinematic. It is an animation but it has great shot selection and 'cinematography', which combines with a strong colour palette and sense of the drama and tragedy. This produces the foundation on which the fire plays out. The delivery of the moral drama is perhaps a bit rushed, but this sort of comes with the territory in a short film, and it compensates for it by some dramatic moments, and solid voice work. The scale of the animation is impressive; technically it shows some limits in its movement, but mostly it is impressively designed and delivered - while the story means you are not focused on the elements of the film so much as you are on the whole.
Trying hard to manipulate emotions
dim_zax6 December 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This short tries very hard to appeal to your emotions. So hard, that it changes key points of the main event, which is the tragedy that took place at the race at Le Mans in 1955. By moving the time set of the crash at night, just to suit the atmosphere the director wanted to achieve, felt like cheating. And i really wanted to like the film, but what stayed with me after watching it was a strong sense of manipulation, instead of emotions or details of the story.
Let's not forget that in 1955 the world was a different place than the one we live today and for sure that reflected on motorsport as well. And people around motorsport had been hardened enough to get through fatalities because, sadly, it was part of their everyday life.
The director really tries to mix in one these two different views of 1955 motorsport and the 2018 motorsport. He presents his characters like they're living in today's world and witnessing that horrific accident, which provides a false sense of justification. Especially the line close to the end: "We are racing drivers.. but we're not monsters." is way over the top for a community of people that knew very well the risks involved, accepted them going forward, and some of them even raced for the excitement that the risk provided. To even suggest they were monsters is a great impropriety.
Just a reminder for those with knowledge around the sport, although Jean Behra did not start the race, he took part in all other sessions. And Behra did drive for the danger and the excitement of it.
The animation was very good though and that is enough for an average rating of 5/10.
Let's not forget that in 1955 the world was a different place than the one we live today and for sure that reflected on motorsport as well. And people around motorsport had been hardened enough to get through fatalities because, sadly, it was part of their everyday life.
The director really tries to mix in one these two different views of 1955 motorsport and the 2018 motorsport. He presents his characters like they're living in today's world and witnessing that horrific accident, which provides a false sense of justification. Especially the line close to the end: "We are racing drivers.. but we're not monsters." is way over the top for a community of people that knew very well the risks involved, accepted them going forward, and some of them even raced for the excitement that the risk provided. To even suggest they were monsters is a great impropriety.
Just a reminder for those with knowledge around the sport, although Jean Behra did not start the race, he took part in all other sessions. And Behra did drive for the danger and the excitement of it.
The animation was very good though and that is enough for an average rating of 5/10.
I don't actually know the story
lee_eisenberg19 March 2021
"Le Mans 1955" tells the story of a terrible accident that took place at a car race that year. According to a previous commenter, the movie took a lot of liberties with the story. Since I don't know the story, I'll have to rely on the short and the previous commenter.
As a production, the short is impressive, with smooth images that belie the intensity soon to take place. It's not a masterpiece, but I recommend it.
As a production, the short is impressive, with smooth images that belie the intensity soon to take place. It's not a masterpiece, but I recommend it.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
