MovieChat Forums > Un indien dans la ville (1994) Discussion > Ludwig Briand climbing on Tour Eiffel

Ludwig Briand climbing on Tour Eiffel

posted 8 years ago by sprendlinger
2 replies | jump to latest

Hi folks,
can anyone explain how the scenes were made where Ludwig Briand is supposed to climb on the Tour Eiffel (the Eiffel Tower)?
I can imagine one possible method to get these scenes done (let's exclude for the moment that it might just be some computer work) - maybe for the close-ups showing Ludwig on the tower, a section of the structure was rebuilt (just enough of it that Ludwig could use it to do some climbing moves upwards), and a safety net was in place (remaining outside the camera's scope, of course).
As for the other shots where the tower is seen from a distance with Ludwig on it, well, that could only be done with the aid of computer tricks...
Would have been VERY cool had they indeed done the climbing scenes on the real tower :-)
Kind regards
sprendlinger

[–] virgiltx 8 years ago

There is this item from IMDb Trivia: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111543/trivia?item=tr0580615
It doesn't tell us very much or verify itself very much. I've always been skeptical of the item.

But then,
I found this article in French. Try putting this link in you browser navigation box, then click the blue Translate box.
https://translate.google.com/#fr/en/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telestar.fr%2F2015%2Fphotos%2Fun-indien-dans-la-ville-france-3-ont-ils-vraiment-escalade-la-tour-eiffel-photos-176233

Otherwise, here's the page address, you can set it up for translate yourself:
http://www.telestar.fr/2015/photos/un-indien-dans-la-ville-france-3-ont-ils-vraiment-escalade-la-tour-eiffel-photos-176233

Today, with green/blue screen and digital, it would be easy to fake most of the views of that scene in a studio. But in 1993-4, I don't think French filmmaking wasn't there yet. The big breakthroughs regarding that sort of thing were Terminator 2 (1991) and Jurassic Park (1993). It would be years before digital chromakeying would become common place.
There may have been some tricks, as you say, but they would not have been computer tricks, at that time in France.
____________________
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[–] sprendlinger 8 years ago

Hello virgiltx,
thank you very much for your interesting message. When I'm less busy than at the moment, I'll check the link you sent me. (So I wasn't the only one who was wondering how they made these scenes - the subject line of the link is EXACTLY the same question in French which I had asked in English :-))
Some time ago I posted a similar question about "possible tricks or not?" - related to a Hong Kong movie from (approx.) 1980; until now there hasn't been any reply; the title is "The Thundering Mantis" (german videocassette title was "Donnerfaust und Tigerkralle", i.e. "A fist as strong like thunder and the claw of a tiger") - should you find the time to do so, please read my post in the message board there, and, in case you know the scenes which I mentioned (it's possible the movie is on youtube, I haven't yet checked that), then I would be glad to know your opinion (vide Message Board to "Thundering Mantis" / Dian Tan Lang).
Kind regards
sprendlinger