Le Mans 1955 (film): Difference between revisions

*Le Mans 1955*
Le Mans 1955
Written by	Julien Lilti
Story by	l M
Directed by	Quentin Baillieux
Music by	Ali Elvis Helnwein
Country of origin	France
Original languages	English, French
Production
Producer	Nicolas de Rosanbo & Carole Lambert
Editor	Benjamin Massoubre & Vincent Tricon
Running time	15 minutes
Original release
Network	Canal+
Release	June 30, 2018

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Le Mans 1955 is a 2018 French adult animated short film directed by Quentin Baillieux and produced by Nicolas de Rosanbo & Carole Lambert^[2] inspired by the 1955 Le Mans disaster. The short has been presented in a number of festivals including in the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 2019,^[3]^[4]^[5] and won awards such as the St. Louis International Film Festival for Best Animated Short Film^[6] award, qualifying it for the Oscars.

Plot

24 Hours of Le Mans, 1955. 300,000 spectators are in attendance. Mercedes-Benz's Silver Arrows, fielding an international all-star team of drivers, are the favorites to win. For their team manager, Alfred Neubauer, it is his final race before retirement. As such, he hopes to win big, and is pinning his hopes on his first team of Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss. The team's second car, driven by Pierre Levegh and John Fitch, is to support them and make sure they keep the lead. Fitch is disappointed that they aren't being trusted to take the lead spot, but Levegh assures him that they could still be the winning car, as "anything can happen in 24 hours."

The Le Mans start sees early trouble for the Mercedes team when Fangio's car stalls at the start, leaving Levegh as the primary car. As Fitch watches, Levegh tries to catch the leading Jaguar of Mike Hawthorn, while Fangio struggles to make up for lost time. At 6:26 p.m., as the Mercedes drivers are preparing to switch for the next leg, a huge fireball erupts in the stands across from the pits. Fangio, coming in to switch with Moss, reports that the source is Levegh's car, which has left the track and exploded over the crowd, killing many people.

After observing the carnage, Neubauer notices that Moss is moving up, and mentions to Fitch that they can still win. Fitch berates Neubauer for his apparent cold-heartedness to the situation and urges him to withdraw Moss's car, which Neubauer is reluctant to do. In the early light of dawn, just as Moss takes the lead, Neubauer makes the decision to pull Mercedes-Benz out of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, declaring, "We are racing drivers, we're not monsters."

The film ends with intertitles explaining how Mercedes-Benz were the only team to withdraw from the race and did not compete in motorsports for 43 years, that Fitch dedicated himself to road safety, and that with a death count of 80 people, the crash remains the deadliest accident in motorsports history.

Cast

Nathan Willcocks - John Fitch
Joe Sheridan - Alfred Neubauer
Nicholas Mead - Pierre Levegh
Alonso Venegas Flores - Juan Manuel Fangio^[7]

Awards

Since its launch, the film has received numerous awards, and selected in more than 75 festivals around the world.^[8]

Year	Presenter/Festival	Award/Category	Status
2018	Off Courts - Trouville (France)	"Best animated short film"	Nominated
	Warsaw International Film Festival (Poland)	"Best animated short film"	Nominated
	St. Louis International Film Festival (USA)	"Best Animated Short Film"	Won
2019	French Animation Film Festival, Rennes (France)	"Grand Prix for a Professional Short Film"	Won
	Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma (France)	César Award for Best Short Film	Shortlisted^[9]
	Annecy International Animated Film Festival (France)	"Best Animated Short Film 2019"	Nominated
	Animamundi Film Festival (Brazil)	"Best Animated Short Film"	Nominated
	Animayo, Las Palmas, Canary Islands (Spain)	"Best Art Direction"	Won
	Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, Tokyo (China, Japan)	"Best CG"	Nominated
	HollyShorts Film Festival - Los Angeles (USA)	"Best Animated Short Film"	Nominated

Historical inaccuracies

Despite starting the race late due to a technical difficulty,^[10] Fangio was actually in second position at the moment of the crash, behind Hawthorn in first.^[11] Shortly before the crash, Hawthorn had lapped Levegh (who was in 6th position) and Lance Macklin, who was also involved in the crash. In the film, Levegh is portrayed as challenging Hawthorn for the lead while Fangio is struggling to make his way up the field.
Neubauer did not have the authority to retire from the race. Such a decision had to be taken by the Mercedes board of directors in Germany.^[10] It took several hours for the directors to be called together, after which they issued the order to retire from the race. In the film, Fitch is shown arguing to Neubauer that the cars should be retired, and Neubauer refusing, at least initially. There does not seem to be supporting evidence for the fact that Neubauer was reluctant to retire the cars.
There was a third Mercedes-Benz car, number 21 driven by Karl Kling and André Simon. The car itself appears briefly early in the film, but does not show up afterwards, and neither Kling nor Simon are seen or mentioned.
The fatal crash occurred at 6:26pm on June 11,^[12] whereas the film portrays the crash as occurring at night.

References

^ @canalplussport (29 June 2018). "24H du Mans, 1955 📚 La course est grandiose 300 000 spectateurs 🏟️ Jamais les bolides n'ont été aussi rapides, aussi beaux. Les "Flèches d'argent" de Mercedes sont les favorites 👀 "Le Mans 1955", court-métrage d'animation à 0H30 dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche @canalplus" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
^ Kroustallis, Vassilis (13 September 2018). "Sneak Preview - Le Mans 1955". Zippy Frames.
^ "Clermont-Ferrand : La tragédie du Mans en 1955 en court-métrage d'animation". France Info. 7 February 2019.
^ "Le Mans 1955 - Festival d'Annecy". Annecy Festival.
^ Dreyfus, Stéphane (13 April 2019). "Annecy Festival 2019 : 9 promising short film in selection". La Croix (in French).
^ "27th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival Awards Presented Nov. 11, 2018". 11 November 2018. Archived from the original on 5 September 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
^ "Voix off / Doublage". 18 July 2019.
^ "Le Mans 1955 Career - Studio Wasia". Studio Wasia.
^ "FOCUS SUR LES COURTS MÉTRAGES SÉLECTIONNÉS POUR LES CÉSAR 2019". Archived from the original on 2019-08-10. Retrieved 2019-08-12.
^ ^a ^b "1955 24 Hours of Le Mans - History, Profile, Information and Photos". Sports Car Digest. 2011-06-15. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
^ Spurgeon, Brad (11 June 2015). "On Auto Racing's Deadliest Day". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
^ Bukola Blessing, Amujo (2 August 2021). "Here's What Happened At The Tragic 1955 Le Mans Disaster". Hotcars.

External links

The Short Film Le Mans 1955 on Vimeo (Marked private)
Le Mans 1955 official website (Dead link)
Le Mans 1955 page on Facebook
Le Mans 1955 at IMDb

[1] @canalplussport (29 June 2018). "24H du Mans, 1955 📚 La course est grandiose 300 000 spectateurs 🏟️ Jamais les bolides n'ont été aussi rapides, aussi beaux. Les "Flèches d'argent" de Mercedes sont les favorites 👀 "Le Mans 1955", court-métrage d'animation à 0H30 dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche @canalplus" (Tweet) – via Twitter.

[2] Kroustallis, Vassilis (13 September 2018). "Sneak Preview - Le Mans 1955". Zippy Frames.

[3] "Clermont-Ferrand : La tragédie du Mans en 1955 en court-métrage d'animation". France Info. 7 February 2019.

[4] "Le Mans 1955 - Festival d'Annecy". Annecy Festival.

[5] Dreyfus, Stéphane (13 April 2019). "Annecy Festival 2019 : 9 promising short film in selection". La Croix (in French).

[6] "27th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival Awards Presented Nov. 11, 2018". 11 November 2018. Archived from the original on 5 September 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2019.

[7] "Voix off / Doublage". 18 July 2019.

[8] "Le Mans 1955 Career - Studio Wasia". Studio Wasia.

[9] "FOCUS SUR LES COURTS MÉTRAGES SÉLECTIONNÉS POUR LES CÉSAR 2019". Archived from the original on 2019-08-10. Retrieved 2019-08-12.

[SportsCarDigest-10] "1955 24 Hours of Le Mans - History, Profile, Information and Photos". Sports Car Digest. 2011-06-15. Retrieved 2020-09-13.

[11] Spurgeon, Brad (11 June 2015). "On Auto Racing's Deadliest Day". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 September 2015.

[12] Bukola Blessing, Amujo (2 August 2021). "Here's What Happened At The Tragic 1955 Le Mans Disaster". Hotcars.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Short description|2018 French animated short film}}
-{{Infobox film
+{{Infobox television
-| name           = Le Mans 1955
 | image          = Le_Mans_1955_(film).jpg
+| image_upright  = 1.0
-| director       = Quentin Baillieux
+| image_alt      =
-| producer       = Nicolas de Rosanbo & Carole Lambert
+| caption        =
+| genre          =
+| creator        =
+| based_on       =
 | writer         = Julien Lilti
+| screenplay     =
+| story          = l
+M
+| director       = Quentin Baillieux
+| starring       =
+| narrated       =
 | music          = Ali Elvis Helnwein
-| editing        = Benjamin Massoubre & Vincent Tricon
-| distributor    = Studia Wasia
-| released       = {{Film date|2018|06|30|Canal +}}
-| runtime        = 15mn
 | country        = France
+| language       = English, French
+| num_episodes   =
+| producer       = Nicolas de Rosanbo & Carole Lambert
+| editor         = Benjamin Massoubre & Vincent Tricon
+| cinematography =
+| runtime        = 15 minutes
+| company        =
+| budget         =
+| network        = [[Canal+ (French TV channel)|Canal+]]
+| released       = {{Start date|2018|06|30}}<ref>{{cite tweet |user=canalplussport |number=1012711504754270209 |date=29 June 2018 |title=24H du Mans, 1955 📚 La course est grandiose 300 000 spectateurs 🏟️ Jamais les bolides n'ont été aussi rapides, aussi beaux. Les "Flèches d'argent" de Mercedes sont les favorites 👀 "Le Mans 1955", court-métrage d’animation à 0H30 dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche @canalplus.}}</ref>
 }}
-'''Le Mans 1955''' is a CG [[animated]] [[short film]] directed by Quentin Baillieux and produced by Nicolas de Rosanbo & Carole Lambert<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.zippyframes.com/index.php/shorts/sneak-preview-le-mans-1955|title=Sneak Preview - Le Mans 1955|last=Kroustallis|first=Vassilis|date=13 September 2018|work=Zippy Frames|access-date=}}</ref> inspired by the [[1955 Le Mans disaster|1955 Le Mans car crash disaster]]. The short has been presented in a number of festivals including in the [[Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival]] and the [[Annecy International Animated Film Festival]] in 2019,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture/cinema/clermont-ferrand-la-tragedie-du-mans-en-1955-en-court-metrage-d-039-animation_3383907.html|title=Clermont-Ferrand : La tragédie du Mans en 1955 en court-métrage d'animation|last=|first=|date=7 February 2019|work=France Info|access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.annecy.org/programme:en/index:film-20191986|title=Le Mans 1955 - Festival d'Annecy|last=|first=|date=|website=Annecy Festival|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://film-animation.blogs.la-croix.com/festival-dannecy-2019-9-courts-metrages-prometteurs-de-la-selection/2019/04/13/|title=Annecy Festival 2019 : 9 promising short film in selection|last=Dreyfus|first=Stéphane|date=13 April 2019|work=La Croix|access-date=|language=fr-FR}}</ref> and won awards such as the St. Louis International Film Festival for Best Animated Short Film<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.cinemastlouis.org/awards|title=27th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival Awards Presented Nov. 11, 2018|last=|first=|date=11 November 2018|work=|access-date=}}</ref> award, qualifying it for the [[Oscars]].
+'''''Le Mans 1955''''' is a 2018 French [[adult animated]] short film directed by Quentin Baillieux and produced by Nicolas de Rosanbo & Carole Lambert<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.zippyframes.com/index.php/shorts/sneak-preview-le-mans-1955|title=Sneak Preview - Le Mans 1955|last=Kroustallis|first=Vassilis|date=13 September 2018|work=Zippy Frames}}</ref> inspired by the [[1955 Le Mans disaster]]. The short has been presented in a number of festivals including in the [[Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival]] and the [[Annecy International Animated Film Festival]] in 2019,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture/cinema/clermont-ferrand-la-tragedie-du-mans-en-1955-en-court-metrage-d-039-animation_3383907.html|title=Clermont-Ferrand : La tragédie du Mans en 1955 en court-métrage d'animation|date=7 February 2019|work=France Info}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.annecy.org/programme:en/index:film-20191986|title=Le Mans 1955 - Festival d'Annecy|website=Annecy Festival}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://film-animation.blogs.la-croix.com/festival-dannecy-2019-9-courts-metrages-prometteurs-de-la-selection/2019/04/13/|title=Annecy Festival 2019 : 9 promising short film in selection|last=Dreyfus|first=Stéphane|date=13 April 2019|work=La Croix|language=fr-FR}}</ref> and won awards such as the St. Louis International Film Festival for Best Animated Short Film<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.cinemastlouis.org/awards|title=27th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival Awards Presented Nov. 11, 2018|date=11 November 2018|access-date=12 August 2019|archive-date=5 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905100337/http://www.cinemastlouis.org/awards|url-status=dead}}</ref> award, qualifying it for the [[Oscars]].
-== Plot ==
+==Plot==
-Hours of Le Mans, 1955. 300,000 spectators are in attendance. [[Mercedes-Benz]]'s [[Silver Arrows]] are the favorites to win, with one of their cars being driven by [[Pierre Levegh]] and [[John Fitch (racing driver)|John Fitch]]. For their engineer, it is his final race before retirement.
+Hours of Le Mans, 1955. 300,000 spectators are in attendance. [[Mercedes-Benz]]'s [[Silver Arrows]], fielding an international all-star team of drivers, are the favorites to win. For their team manager, [[Alfred Neubauer]], it is his final race before retirement.  As such, he hopes to win big, and is pinning his hopes on his first team of [[Juan Manuel Fangio]] and [[Stirling Moss]]. The team's second car, driven by [[Pierre Levegh]] and [[John Fitch (racing driver)|John Fitch]], is to support them and make sure they keep the lead. Fitch is disappointed that they aren't being trusted to take the lead spot, but Levegh assures him that they could still be the winning car, as "anything can happen in 24 hours."
-The [[Le Mans start]] sees early trouble for the Mercedes team when their other car, driven by [[Juan Manuel Fangio]] and [[Stirling Moss]], stalls at the start. As Fitch watches on, Levegh tries to catch the leading [[Jaguar Cars|Jaguar]] of [[Mike Hawthorn]] as the race continues. It is 6:00 p.m. when Levegh's car crashes into a safety barrier and explodes, sending flaming debris, including the engine block, into the crowd, causing the death of eighty-four people and himself.
+The [[Le Mans start]] sees early trouble for the Mercedes team when Fangio's car stalls at the start, leaving Levegh as the primary car. As Fitch watches, Levegh tries to catch the leading [[Jaguar Cars|Jaguar]] of [[Mike Hawthorn]], while Fangio struggles to make up for lost time. At 6:26&nbsp;p.m., as the Mercedes drivers are preparing to switch for the next leg, a huge fireball erupts in the stands across from the pits. Fangio, coming in to switch with Moss, reports that the source is Levegh's car, which has left the track and exploded over the crowd, killing many people.
-When he observes the carnage, Fitch urges his engineer to withdraw Moss's car from the race, but is rebuked. As the race resumes to daytime, the engineer finally makes the decision to pull Mercedes-Benz out of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
+After observing the carnage, Neubauer notices that Moss is moving up, and mentions to Fitch that they can still win. Fitch berates Neubauer for his apparent cold-heartedness to the situation and urges him to withdraw Moss's car, which Neubauer is reluctant to do. In the early light of dawn, just as Moss takes the lead, Neubauer makes the decision to pull Mercedes-Benz out of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, declaring, "We are racing drivers, we're not monsters."
+The film ends with [[Intertitle|intertitles]] explaining how Mercedes-Benz were the only team to withdraw from the race and did not compete in motorsports for 43 years, that Fitch dedicated himself to road safety, and that with a death count of 80 people, the crash remains the deadliest accident in motorsports history.
-== Awards ==
-Since its launch, the film has received numerous awards, and selected in more than 75 festivals around the world.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.studio-wasia.com/promofilms/Mans/FrMans/mans-car.html|title=Le Mans 1955 Career - Studio Wasia|last=|first=|date=|website=Studio Wasia|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref>
+==Cast==
+* Nathan Willcocks - [[John Fitch (racing driver)|John Fitch]]
+* Joe Sheridan - [[Alfred Neubauer]]
+* Nicholas Mead - [[Pierre Levegh]]
+* Alonso Venegas Flores - [[Juan Manuel Fangio]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://alonsovenegasflorescomedien.wordpress.com/2019/07/18/voix-off-pdf/|title = Voix off / Doublage|date = 18 July 2019}}</ref>
+==Awards==
+Since its launch, the film has received numerous awards, and selected in more than 75 festivals around the world.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.studio-wasia.com/promofilms/Mans/FrMans/mans-car.html|title=Le Mans 1955 Career - Studio Wasia|website=Studio Wasia}}</ref>
 {| class="wikitable"
@@ Line 46: / Line 70: @@
 | rowspan="8" |2019
 |French Animation Film Festival, Rennes (France)
-|''"Grand Prix for a Professional Short Film]"''
+|''"Grand Prix for a Professional Short Film"''
 | {{won}}
 |-
 |[[Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma]] (France)
 |[[César Award for Best Short Film]]
-|{{shortlisted}}<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.academie-cinema.org/vote/presentation-films/focus-courts-metrages11.html|title=FOCUS SUR LES COURTS MÉTRAGES SÉLECTIONNÉS POUR LES CÉSAR 2019|language=en-FR}}</ref>
+|{{shortlisted}}<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.academie-cinema.org/vote/presentation-films/focus-courts-metrages11.html|title=FOCUS SUR LES COURTS MÉTRAGES SÉLECTIONNÉS POUR LES CÉSAR 2019|language=en-FR|access-date=2019-08-12|archive-date=2019-08-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190810092743/http://www.academie-cinema.org/vote/presentation-films/focus-courts-metrages11.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
 |-
 |[[Annecy International Animated Film Festival]] (France)
@@ Line 74: / Line 98: @@
 |}
+==Historical inaccuracies==
-== References ==
+{{See also|1955 Le Mans disaster}}
+* Despite starting the race late due to a technical difficulty,<ref name="SportsCarDigest">{{cite web|date=2011-06-15|title=1955 24 Hours of Le Mans - History, Profile, Information and Photos|url=https://sportscardigest.com/1955-24-hours-of-le-mans-race-profile/|access-date=2020-09-13|website=Sports Car Digest|language=en}}</ref> Fangio was actually in second position at the moment of the crash, behind Hawthorn in first.<ref>{{cite news|last=Spurgeon|first=Brad|title=On Auto Racing's Deadliest Day|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/sports/autoracing/on-auto-racings-deadliest-day.html?_r=0|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=1 September 2015|date=11 June 2015}}</ref> Shortly before the crash, Hawthorn had lapped Levegh (who was in 6th position) and [[Lance Macklin]], who was also involved in the crash. In the film, Levegh is portrayed as challenging Hawthorn for the lead while Fangio is struggling to make his way up the field.
+* Neubauer did not have the authority to retire from the race. Such a decision had to be taken by the Mercedes board of directors in Germany.<ref name="SportsCarDigest" /> It took several hours for the directors to be called together, after which they issued the order to retire from the race. In the film, Fitch is shown arguing to Neubauer that the cars should be retired, and Neubauer refusing, at least initially. There does not seem to be supporting evidence for the fact that Neubauer was reluctant to retire the cars.
+* There was a third Mercedes-Benz car, number 21 driven by [[Karl Kling]] and [[André Simon (racing driver)|André Simon]]. The car itself appears briefly early in the film, but does not show up afterwards, and neither Kling nor Simon are seen or mentioned.
+* The fatal crash occurred at 6:26pm on June 11,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hotcars.com/1955-le-mans-disaster-what-happened/|title=Here's What Happened At The Tragic 1955 Le Mans Disaster|last=Bukola Blessing|first=Amujo|date=2 August 2021|work=Hotcars}}</ref> whereas the film portrays the crash as occurring at night.
+==References==
 {{reflist}}
-== External links ==
+==External links==
-* {{Vimeo |374359820 |The Short Film ''Le Mans 1955''|name=''Le Mans 1955'' The Short Film on Vimeo}}
+* {{Vimeo |374359820 |The Short Film ''Le Mans 1955''|name=''Le Mans 1955'' The Short Film on Vimeo}} (Marked private)
-* {{Official website|http://lemans1955.com/|name=''Le Mans 1955'' official website}}
+* {{Official website|http://lemans1955.com/|name=''Le Mans 1955'' official website}} (Dead link)
 * {{Facebook|LeMans1955Short|''Le Mans 1955'' page}}
 * {{IMDb title|8627214|Le Mans 1955}}
+{{DEFAULTSORT:Mans 1955 Film}}
 [[Category:2010s French animated films]]
-[[Category:2010s animated short films]]
+[[Category:2018 animated short films]]
-[[Category:French films]]
 [[Category:French animated short films]]
-[[Category:2018 animated films]]
+[[Category:French auto racing films]]
-[[Category:2018 short films]]
+[[Category:2018 computer-animated films]]
 [[Category:2018 films]]
+[[Category:2018 television films]]
+[[Category:Animated films set in the 1950s]]
-{{short-animation-film-stub}}
+[[Category:Animated films set in France]]
+[[Category:Animated films based on actual events]]