From the director's own website. It is originally written in French, translated it to English using an online translator.
http://www.lesfilms13.com/actualite/actualite.htm
'It was an appointment' always worship!
March 20, 2006
'It was an Appointment', short film carried out in 1976 in sequence shot by Claude Lelouch, appears to cause very many interrogations following the diffusion growing of film on the Net, that some among you discover and that others rediscover … with pleasure;
Who was at the wheel? of which mark was the car? were the streets blocked? … All things considered, how was prepared and under which conditions the film could be carried out... Here answers to your questions...
In which circumstances you did undertake 'It was an appointment'?
I had just completed the turning of 'If were to be remade'. When a film finishes, one carries out 'returned'. I thus asked my manager which measuring of film it remained us. After inventory, we did not have falls badly, between 3000 and 4000 meters on the whole. Many small rollers of 30 or 50 meters, but also a store of 300 meters, which it was envisaged to return. Me, I wanted to make a short film which we would have placed in first part of film. For a long time I wanted to tell the history of a late type with one return which makes full d’infractions to arrive at l’heure. For me, being per hour is an obsession. I am able to take risks not to be late. I suggested with my operator Jacques Lefrançois, the idea of a sequence shot, the camera accompanying a type which has go to Montmartre with a girl. As it is with flock, it crosses Paris to any pace, by roasting the stops and the red lights.
In does film, the driver take the most direct way? If Parisian wants to go from the Foch avenue in Montmartre, it is not obliged to pass by the counters of the Louvre...
It will take the avenue of Wagram, of course. But, Mous doubt to you it, I wanted to propose a kind of report at the same time. My problem was to work out a plan which does not exceed ten minutes and which finds its interest at the any end with the girl who arrives on the steps.
I thought of the project. I asked Elie Chouraqui, my assistant at the time, to see which authorizations it would be necessary for us to obtain. We quickly realized that a plan as this one required to block any Paris. It was not the sorrow to even require we were not ready to put in œuvre the means of a full-length film to carry out a court. I questioned a stuntman: 'If I film very early, what I do risk by roasting the red lights? 'It explained me that it was of two things one. While arriving at a red light, if there is nobody in the field of vision, the risk is not quite great to pass in force: it would be necessary that for the same moment, the same nut déboule at the same speed. And if there is quelqu’un in the field of vision, it is always possible to slow down. I thus left the postulate that if I roll quickly and that I do not see anything, it is that there is nothing... The only disadvantage major they was the counters of the Louvre. They frightened me because of their absence of visibility. For turning, I asked Chouraqui to settle with a walkie-talkie and to prevent me there at the time when I arrived. If he did not say anything to me, it is that all was well. It is the only true precaution which I took. For the beauty of film, it was necessary really that I do not stop. That I stop with a red light, and the film disappeared. There were nine chances besides out of ten so that we do not arrive at the end.
The camera is fixed at the grill of Mercedes. How the car was equipped?
We hung the camera on the bumper of the car, one 6,9 Mercedes liters. At the interior we were three, attached like mules: myself at the wheel, my machino boss, and my operator boss for if required changing the diaphragm. For the last moment, it was necessary to regulate a slide means. The image was to be with the short-nap cloth of the ground to be even more spectacular. We are in full August. Of course, we had decided to sacrifice film and all to stop with the first danger. We rolled really quickly.
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When you say 'We rolled quickly' you speak which speed?
Rise of the Foch avenue, between 150 and 180 km/h. Fields-Élysées with 130 to 150 with a point with 160 km/h on the level of Franklin Roosevelt. Then until the Harmony, as it was well released, I had to go up to 200 km/h. I took the place of the Harmony with 150. On the quays, I crossed the 200 km/h. I took the counters almost normally, i.e. to 80 or 90 km/h. As Chouraqui did not call me, I passed under the counters à.fond, 100 km/h, because the passage is rather narrow all the same. I did not know that the talkie of Chouraqui was broken down! I knew it only finished turning. Then I went up the avenue of the Opera. The crossroads was blocked by a bus. To avoid slowing down, I had to pass on other side of the roadway, of the cars coming in opposite direction. Place of I' Opéra, not problem! I then took the street of the Roadway-d’Antin towards Clichy. I fell on truck-dustbins which I could exceed only while going up on the pavement. I believed more not to have problems. But while arriving street Lepic, I was blocked by a type which delivered. I took other side towards paumant Palace, in destruction at the time. I went up the Rocquencourt avenue, which lengthened me enormously. I did not know if it were going sufficiently to remain me of film. I thus took streets in single direction to arrive at Montmartre in times...
You had carried out locations?
I had made the course once, slowly, for determining the passages well. I had the equivalent of 9-10 minutes of film! There remained to me 15 seconds to cut the engine to go down from car and to take the girl in my arms. We had agreed that when I would hoot it would assemble two steps, thus penetrating in the field. The sequence shot could be successful only over these last seconds. I had said myself that if I did not make a success of the first catch, I would not start again. By superstition. If the miracle were to take place, it would take place... And it took place. By forcing nevertheless the destiny, since we roasted eighteen red lights.
How you explain the notoriety of this short film, which became a film worship, which is more than rare fear a short film...
I showed film a little everywhere. It very well was not always accomodated taking into account its lack of obvious civic direction, which I could not dispute. But it also has its faded. When I showed film for the first time in Los Angeles, where the non-observance of the codes of conduct is always strongly sanctioned, the triumph was involved in incredible whistles 'It was an appointment' always caused the polemic, but it shows also all that one likes in the cinema. As I like the cinema more than the law... I knew that I held a purple passage. I thought, in all modesty, that there was the possibility of doing one of the most beautiful plans of the history of the cinema. The ten minute old sequence shots are rare, because of the narrowness of the store of the camera. Even Hitchcock in 'the Cord' anticipated its changes of film.
You took again this principle of races in various forms.
In 'a man and a woman: twenty years already', but it was on a circuit, just like in'Leaving To return'. For 'the Cat and the Mouse', carried out some time earlier, we had tried out the thing. But turning was concreted with cops in front of and behind. For 'It was an appointment', we made a trick of hooligan.
What did you risk?
Initially, an accident! Then, consequences of a turning without authorization. Finally a withdrawal of driving licence. The film is beautiful by its taking risk. If it had as many success and that it lends so much to discussion, it is that it is risky.
You like the short films?
In a certain way, it is more difficult to make a court than a length. Economically it is a nightmare. Artistically, it is necessary to be in essence. When a short film is looked at, it is known immediately if its signatory has future in the cinema. When I saw the short film of Xavier Giannoli for example, I knew that it acted of a true director.
Maintenance carried out by
Yves Alion and Jean Ollé-Laprune
for the book 'Claude Lelouch, instructions'
French filmmaker Claude Lelouch's (in)famous 9-minute short, 'C'etait un Rendez-Vous,' consisting entirely of bumper-mounted camera footage of a high speed dawn run through the streets of Paris in 1976, languished in obscurity for years until liberated on the internet and DVD. (See our previous post 
