Le Mans 1955 (film)

Le Mans 1955
Written by	Julien Lilti
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
Distributor	Studia Wasia
Release
Original release	June 30, 2018 (2018-06-30) (Canal +)[1]

Le Mans 1955 is a computer-animated short film from 2018 directed by Quentin Baillieux and produced by Nicolas de Rosanbo & Carole Lambert^[2] inspired by the 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,^[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 crashed into the crowd, killing eighty-four people, including himself.

When he observes the carnage, Fitch urges Neubauer to withdraw Moss's car, which is now running second, but Neubauer is reluctant to abandon his final race. Finally, 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."

Cast[]

•  [fr] - John Fitch
•  [fr] - 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]

References[]