Michel Vaillant is the title of a Belgian comics series created in 1957 by French cartoonist Jean Graton. This movie shows the same characters as in the comic but tells an episode around Le Mans and its preparation.
Luc Besson wrote the screenplay,
Louis-Pascal Couvelaire was the director. All scenes are beautifully shot, all in saturated colours... for my taste sometimes even too saturated.
It was also very interesting to see the Making Of where you see the whole team filming at the real race at Le Mans 2002! Even the two cars of the two teams (Vaillant + Leader) have been officially listed on the starter grid! The red "Leader Team" car was actually a Panoz LMP1 Roadster-S whereas the blue "Vaillant Team" racer was a Lola B98/10.
My Rating
4
Michel Vaillant himself right before the start
Julie Wood (played by Diane Kruger)
The LEADER TEAM, the bad guys
Ruth Wong, “le chef” of the bad guys
Fiction vs Real Race: The fictional cars among the real cars and grid girls!
Amazing details…
LEADER TEAM and the VAILLANT, both prototypes, overtaking a real Porsche
Another take over of some LMGT2 cars…
Beautiful composition of colours and contrasts… a butterfly on the warm engine hood right before the start
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Bob Berridge Racing (Vaillant Team)
