We failed to note the passing of famed French stunt driver Rémy Julienne. He became Hollywood's go-to vehicle stunt coordinator, best known for his stunts on six James Bond films, five of which were directed by John Glen. Julienne died on 21 January 2021.
In his early twenties, Rémy Julienne became French motocross champion in 1957, which brought him to the attention of eminent stunt coordinator Gil Delamare. Through Delamare, Julienne's first screen appearance in 1964 was replacing actor Jean Marais in riding sequences in FANTOMAS. This was the first of three Fantomas movies, and was an attempt to bring the French character into the world of James Bond. In this story, a journalist named “Fandor” (Jean Marais) and “Commissioner Paul Juve” (Louis de Funès) try to bring in the noted supervillain “Fantomas” (also Marais), who is always one step ahead of them.
Louis de Funès and Jean Marais in a closeup for a motorcycle-riding scene in FANTOMAS
For longshots in the motorcycle-riding scenes, Rémy Julienne was Jean Marais's double, and a dummy was used for Louis de Funès. André Hunebelle directed the film. United Artists released a dubbed version in the U.S. in 1966, to little business. Michel Magne’s score was released by Universal France in 2001.
Rémy Julienne became internationally famous for his work on THE ITALIAN JOB, a 1969 comic caper movie about a plan to steal a gold shipment from the streets of Turin, Italy. Julienne was behind the unforgettable sequence featuring red, white and blue Mini Coopers speeding away from the daring heist in Turin. BMC (British Motor Corp.), the owners of the Mini, refused to donate any cars for the movie. The chief of Italy’s Fiat Motors immediately saw the potential for product promotion in the film, and offered an unlimited supply of Fiat 500s, plus top-of-the-line Lamborghinis and Ferraris, plus $50,000 if the producers would use the Italian cars instead of the Minis. Director Peter Collinson, however, decided that, as it was a very British movie, it should be British Minis. Fiat's boss still donated scores of cars for filming, as well as the factory grounds. Even though the authorities refused to close the roads, the Italian Mafia stepped in and shut down whole sections of Turin for filming, so the traffic jams in the movie are real, as are people's actions during them.
The British-flag-flying crime caper’s most memorable scenes began with the getaway cars driving through shopping arcades, then down the steps of the Gran Madre di Dio church while avoiding a wedding party. Later, as the Mini drivers – with stunt doubles – continued to outwit police in cars and on motorcycles, Julienne went beyond his brief and Troy Kennedy Martin’s script during the location shooting.
A large jump between two rooftops was his suggestion, initially rejected by director Peter Collinson and producer Michael Deeley, because it sounded so dangerous. But Julienne persisted and used test runs on flat ground to show that the cars could make the distance required. The jump was filmed on the roof of the Fiat factory. Some crew members walked off, for fear it would end in a fatality, and the Italian Fiat workers made the sign of the cross to the stuntman.
“It was decided I had to do three separate jumps, one in each Mini,” recalled Julienne. “I explained that, as the roof was very wide, we could make the three Minis jump all together. It looked much better as a shot. It was more complicated, but really amazing.”
The 20-minute sequence was completed with the cars crossing a dam on the Po river, navigating a sewer, and, in a maneuver that Julienne considered his biggest feat, dispatching the Minis, in red, white and blue order – as throughout all the scenes – up a ramp and into the back of a stripped-out coach at speed.
The "in the sewer" scene was filmed near Coventry in Stoke Aldermoor, where several miles of the Birmingham-Coventry sewer were being constructed. The camera car was a Mini Moke that preceded the Coopers, and was driven by one of Rémy Julienne's team. Remy was excited about the scene, as he wanted to complete a 360º barrel roll, essentially getting the Cooper upside down on the ceiling of the sewer. He tried three times, but the slippery algae caused problems and the Mini ended up on its roof three times. The car was so badly damaged that a fourth attempt was ruled out. Sound mixer John Aldred claims that Remy did complete a barrel roll on one rehearsal, but the cameras weren't rolling. It was the only stunt in the finished movie to defeat Remy.
They also filmed a scene on an ice rink, with the cars gliding past each other to the accompaniment of Johann Strauss' "The Blue Danube". The scene was cut for timing reasons, but was included in the Channel 4 documentary "The Mini Job" which appeared on the Special Edition video. All DVD releases include the scene as an extra feature.
Quincy Jones' score was issued on a Paramount LP. It was re-issued on CD by MCA France in 2000. An expanded edition was released by Quartet in 2019. THE ITALIAN JOB cost an estimated $3 million to produce and made it into the top 40 films of the year at the U.S. box office, with a $6.6 million gross. It did even better overseas.
In COLD SWEAT, American “Joe Martin” (Charles Bronson) lives a quiet life in the South of France renting boats to tourists. He is happily married to “Fabienne” (Liv Ullmann) and has a twelve-year-old daughter named “Michèle” (Yannick Delulle). But the quiet man has a past: ten years before, Joe (then “Moran”) had escaped with four other convicts, among them the sadistic ex-mercenary “Katanga” (Jean Topart). Seeing the latter brutally kill an M.P., Joe had abandoned his accomplices and left with the car. One night, “Captain Ross” (James Mason), Katanga, “Whitey” (Michel Constantin) and “Fausto” (Luigi Pistilli) re-appear.
Rémy Julienne was the car-stunt coordinator for this 1970 film, which was shot in France. Despite the well-known cast (that also included Jill Ireland), and Bond director Terence Young, the film was not released in the U.S. until 1974, when minor distributor Emerson Film Enterprises picked it up for distribution. Nineteen minutes of Michel Magne’s score was released on a Magne compilation CD from Universal France in 2004. The film grossed $2.7 million at the U.S. box office.
Henri Verneuil (THE SICILIAN CLAN) directed 1971's THE BURGLERS, a thriller in which Omar Sharif played a corrupt Greek police inspector on the trail of a group of professional burglars planning an emerald heist from the home of a gem collector.
Jean-Paul Belmondo did most of his own stunts in the film. He wanted to do the car chase scenes as well, but was unable to do so because he was working in the U.S. on another project when those scenes were shot by the second unit.
The car chases were shot in real traffic conditions. The Greek administration gave the crew the ability to manage the traffic lights as they wished. According to Rémy Julienne, the Greek police allowed them to drive as fast as needed, but they "shouldn't overdo it." Julienne’s auto stunts were featured in the film’s U.S. television spots:
THE BURGLARS was shot in two languages (French and English) with the same cast. In overseas markets, Jean-Paul Belmondo was top-billed on the film. But as the better-known name in America, Omar Sharif was top-billed when the film was released in the U.S. in 1972. Even so, the film only grossed $800,000 in the States. Ennio Morricone provided the score, which had its most recent release on CD on Music Box Records in 2015.
KILL was an international thriller released in the U.S. by Cinerama Releasing in 1973. (The number of “kills” on the film’s posters ranged from one to four, depending upon what country the film was released in and what source you are consulting. Three seems to be the number for the American theatrical release posters. This had led some sources to report that the film has multiple “kills” in its title.)
KILL was an English-language, French-Spanish-German-Italian co-production. In this crime thriller/melodrama, an Interpol agent (James Mason) is "on the take" from international drug rings he is supposed to investigate. Before he can get to Asia on his next assignment, his wife (Jean Seberg) takes a vacation trip to Asia, tailed by an American narcotics agent (Stephen Boyd). Curt Jurgens was also in the film.
KILL was produced in 1971 by Ilya and Alexander Salkind, before they had their successes with THE THREE MUSKETEERS and SUPERMAN. The film was written and directed by Jean Seberg's husband, Romain Gary. Reportedly, Gary made two versions of the film; one with nude scenes, a second with dressed actors. He said that the former version was for Catholic countries, the latter for Protestant ones. Gary was primarily a writer, and KILL was the second and last film that he ever directed. The first film, 1968’s BIRDS IN PERU, also starred Jean Seberg and was X-rated in the U.S. As a writer, Gary co-wrote the screenplay for 1958’s THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN (based upon his own novel), and he also wrote the novels “Lady L,” “Promise At Dawn,” and “Madame Rosa,” which were made into films starring Sophia Loren, Melina Mercouri, and Simone Signoret, respectively.
KILL was filmed on locations in Spain, Tunisia, and Afghanistan. Rémy Julienne performed the auto stunts in the film. The picture was scored by Berto Pisano and Jacques Chaumont. A 29-minute soundtrack was issued on both an Italian and a Japanese LP and has been expanded to 41 minutes on two Japanese CD releases.
In America, KILL usually played as the bottom half of a double bill. Leonard Maltin gives the film one and a half stars, and notes that the film’s “hardened violence clashes with director Gary’s purple prose.” Various sources give different running times for the film, generally ranging from 102 to 113 minutes. But Maltin claims that the version that was released in the U.S. was a cut-down 90-minute version. (Perhaps the U.S. received the “Protestant” cut.) The film was not a success in the U.S. or elsewhere. In a 1983 interview, the Salkinds termed it “a disaster.” Still, the film grossed $2 million in the U.S.
In SUMMERTIME KILLER, as a little boy, “Raymond Castor” (Chris Mitchum) saw his father beaten to death by four mobsters. Now, twenty years later, he sets out for revenge. After three of the men are killed, the Mafia see that there is a killer out for revenge, and they send corrupt New York cop Captain “John Kiley” (Karl Malden) to find this assassin and bring him back to face mob justice. In Portugal, Kiley arrives in time to inadvertently foil Raymond's assassination attempt on the fourth man: former mob boss turned wine magnate “Lazaro Alfredi” (Raf Vallone). In desperation, Raymond hatches another plan. He kidnaps Alfredi's estranged illegitimate daughter in the hope of luring him into a trap, but instead the angelic “Tania” (Olivia Hussey) melts his heart. Claudine Auger plays Alfredi's lovely secretary “Michèle”. Raymond charms her with some showy biker stunts that go awry in hilarious slow-motion.
Rémy Julienne and José Luis Chinchilla did the riding stunts for the film.
Spanish-born Antonio Isasi (who directed the all-star caper film THEY CAME TO ROB LAS VEGAS (1968) and jokey Eurospy romp THAT MAN IN ISTANBUL (1965) with Horst Bucholz) helmed 1972’s SUMMERTIME KILLER. Luis Enríquez Bacalov’s score was released in Japan on a Seven Seas LP, and re-issued on CD by Point Records in 1995. Quartet released an expanded version of the score in 2010. The film had its U.S. release in the Fall of 1973 and grossed $1.1 million.
Louis de Funès (FANTOMAS) starred in the 1973 slapstick comedy THE MAD ADVENTURES OF “RABBI” JACOB. In the film, a bigoted Frenchman (de Funès) finds himself forced to impersonate a popular rabbi while on the run from a group of assassins - and the police. This trailer shows some of the car and motobike action coordinated by Rémy Julienne for the film:
Gérard Oury directed and co-wrote the film. Vladimir Cosma’s score was released on a London Records LP in the U.S. and on Decca and Polydor elsewhere. Pomme Music (France) had the first CD re-issue in 2001. The most recent CD has come from Écoutez le Cinéma in 2020.
In MEAN FRANK AND CRAZY TONY, small-time thug “Tony Breda” (Tony Lo Bianco) meets high-profile gangster “Frankie Diomede” (Lee Van Cleef) while in prison. The pair team up to attempt a prison breakout. Rémy Julienne was stunt coordinator for the film. This trailer shows some of the vehicular mayhem in the film:
Michele Lupo directed the 1973 film, which had its U.S. release in 1975. Riz Ortolani’s score has not had a release.
The film was re-issued in 1981 in the U.S. as ESCAPE FROM DEATH ROW, using advertising which suggested Lee Van Cleef’s two most recent films—THE OCTAGON and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.
In SHOOT FIRST, DIE LATER, a police lieutenant with an impeccable record of arrests, “Malacarne” (Luc Merenda), is a shining example to his fellow officers, also making his father, “Sergeant Marshal” (Salvo Randone), beam with pride. Unfortunately, underneath the supercop façade is a corrupt man, with Malacarne paid off by gangsters “Pascal” (Raymond Pellegrin) and “Mazzoni” (Richard Conte) to allow harmless black-market shipments of coffee and cigarettes to pass through the city without notice.
Fernando Di Leo wrote and directed this French-Italian crime drama. Rémy Julienne coordinated two iconic car chase scenes in the picture that reportedly took up half the film's budget.
The film’s score, by Luis Enríquez Bacalov, has not had a release. The film did not get a U.S. theatrical release.
In WHO?, “Lucas Martino” (Joseph Bova), a top US scientist, literally crashes and burns near the Russian border, at a time when the two superpowers were enemies. His life is saved by soldiers who cross the border and rush him to the hospital. Months later, he's returned to the West, but the rushed and experimental surgery that saved his life now obscures his identity. His head and chest are now encased and partly replaced with steel and prosthetic parts.
It's up to U.S. security chief “Sean Rogers” (Elliott Gould) to verify whether it's still the same man behind the mask, before returning the scientist to a top-secret project. He soon finds out that Martino has been in the hands of senior KGB agent “Colonel Azarin” (Trevor Howard), who may have sent back an agent in place of the scientist.
Jack Gold directed this 1974 sci-fi thriller. Rémy Julienne was the stunt coordinator on the film. John Cameron’s score has not had a release. The film grossed $1 million in the U.S.
AND NOW MY LOVE was a period piece in which a Parisian experimenter with Lumiere's Kinematograph (Charles Denner) dies in World War I, and his son (also Charles Denner) grows to be a man who barely survives World War II in a concentration camp. He marries another refugee (Marthe Keller) who dies in childbirth, leaving him a daughter, “Sarah,” who at age 16 (also Marthe Keller) is a spoiled debutante hopelessly in love with pop singer Gilbert Bécaud (Gilbert Bécaud). She goes through the 1960s trying every fad while her father wishes she'd settle down. Meanwhile, sneak thief “Simon Duroc” (André Dussollier) winds up in prison, where he slowly turns his devious energies to their least-antisocial use: filmmaking.
Rémy Julienne handled the few stunts required for this Claude Lelouch film. The 1974 film had its U.S. release the next year. Francis Lai’s score was released on a Dart Records LP in the UK, and was padded out to a 2-LP set in France by Pathé Marconi/EMI with music from Gilbert Bécaud and some dialogue. Neither release has been re-issued on CD.
When the police cannot prosecute heinous crimes effectively, some very brave men will do their jobs for them, and deliver STREET LAW. “Carlo Antonelli” (Franco Nero) gets in the way of a group of crooks who are trying to rob a bank, and they mutilate him horribly for his trouble. When the police cannot quite manage to find these thugs, Carlo goes after them himself.
Enzo G. Castellari directed this 1974 crime film, on which Rémy Julienne was a stunt driver. The film’s score, by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis, was released by GDM in 2002.
The romantic comedy LE SAUVAGE stars Catherine Deneuve as “Nelly,” a natural disaster of a woman who destroys everything in her path. Living in Venezuela, she becomes engaged to a boorish Italian (Luigi Vannucchi) and leaves him on the eve of her wedding. Unable to collect the money owed her by a former boss (Tony Roberts) so she can fly back to Paris, she steals an expensive painting and then tricks the kind-hearted “Martin” (Yves Montand) into helping her out. Chased by the two lunatics she's wronged, Martin does some solid defensive driving before putting Nelly on a plane out of the country. Or so he thinks! When Martin sails out to the remote island he calls home, he finds Nelly waiting for him.
Jean-Paul Rappeneau directed and co-wrote the 1975 film. Rémy Julienne was the car stunt coordinator for the film. Michel Legrand’s score was released on a Barclay Records LP. It was re-issued on CD by Playtime (France) in 1995.
When the film hit U.S. screens in 1977, it was under the title LOVERS LIKE US.
In STRANGE SHADOWS IN AN EMPTY ROOM, hard-nosed Ottawa police captain "Tony Saitta" (Stuart Whitman) is enraged to learn his sister "Louise" (Carole Laure), a student at the University of Montreal, has been fatally poisoned. Actually, Louise just pulled a prank on "Dr. George Tracer" (Martin Landau), the boyfriend who just broke up with her. Then she dies in front of him, and Tracer becomes the prime suspect. John Saxon is Capt. Saitta’s second in command on the case, “Sgt. Ned Matthews.”
This 1976 Italian-Canadian-Panamanian co-production was directed by Martin Herbert (aka Alberto De Martino). Rémy Julienne was the car stunt coordinator for the film. Clips of the car chase ended up in the Geico Insurance commercial "Do dogs chase cats?"
The score by Armando Trovaioli was released on a Beat LP, which was re-issued on CD in 2008.
THE SELLOUT stars Oliver Reed as American spy “Gabriel Lee,” who defected from the U.S. to Russia but has now landed in Israel. After operatives from the CIA and the KGB try to kill Gabriel, alerting him that he’s no longer traveling incognito, Gabriel phones his old CIA mentor, “Sam Lucas” (Richard Widmark), who has retired from the spy game and now lives in Israel. Things get emotionally complicated because Sam’s live-in girlfriend, “Deborah” (Gayle Hunnicut), used to be with Gabriel, and there’s still a weirdly sadomasochistic spark between Deborah and Gabriel. This makes Sam understandably insecure—he’s old enough to be Deborah’s father—while Gabriel is roughly Deborah’s age.
Working again with director Peter Collinson (THE ITALIAN JOB), Rémy Julienne was a stunt driver during the auto chase sequences in the film.
Behind-the-scenes photos from the auto chase sequences in THE SELLOUT
Is there any Rémy Julienne stunt sequence that doesn’t feature a car driving down a set of steps?
THE SELLOUT had an unreleased score by Colin Frechter and Mike Green. The film grossed $2.1 million during its 1977 U.S. release.
HIGHWAY RACER sees Eurocrime legend Maurizio Merli playing “Marco Palma,” a car-obsessed cop who is desperate for a souped-up police vehicle so he can prove to his superior, “Maresciallo Tagliaferri” (Giancarlo Sbragia), that he’s every bit the wheelman that he was in his heyday. Palma doesn’t quite have the skills though, and his reckless driving gets him grounded for a while, particularly after he gets his partner (Orazio Orlando) killed.
However, when Tagliaferri realizes the man behind a spate of cleverly orchestrated bank job getaways is his old rival and fellow hot-shot driver “Jean-Paul Dossena,” a.k.a. “il Nizzardo” (Angelo Infanti), he decides to give Palma another shot.
Rémy Julienne was the stunt coordinator on the film.
Is there any Rémy Julienne stunt sequence that doesn’t feature a car driving down a set of steps?
Stelvio Massi directed the 1977 film, which did not get a U.S. theatrical release. Stelvio Cipriani’s score was released by Digitmovies in 2017.
BOBBY DEERFIELD (Al Pacino), a famous American race car driver on the European circuit, falls in love with the enigmatic “Lillian Morelli” (Marthe Keller), who is terminally ill.
Rémy Julienne was the stunt coordinator on the film. The racing footage features real-life drivers from the 1976 Grand Prix season, including Tom Pryce, James Hunt, José Carlos Pace, Mario Andretti, and Patrick Depailler. José Carlos Pace, billed as Carlos Pace, doubled for Al Pacino in the car racing scenes. In the opening credits, holy crosses appear beside the names of Formula 1 car drivers Tom Pryce and Carlos Pace; Pryce was killed in an automobile crash during the 5 March 1977 Grand Prix in Kyalami, South Africa, and Pace died in an airplane crash on 18 March 1977.
Sydney Pollack directed this 1977 film. Dave Grusin’s score was released on a Casablanca LP, which has not been re-issued on CD. The $6.4 million production grossed $11.9 million at the U.S. box office.
In the Charles Bronson crime drama LOVE AND BULLETS, "Charlie Congers" (Bronson) is supposed to nab gangster's moll "Jackie Pruitt" (Jill Ireland) for the FBI, but falls in love with her instead. Bradford Dillman plays FBI agent "Brickman." Rémy Julienne was the stunt driver on the film.
John Huston was originally signed to direct the 1979 film, but when he took ill, director Stuart Rosenberg was hired as the replacement. The film has an unreleased score by Lalo Schifrin. LOVE AND BULLETS had below average grosses in the U.S. of $2.5 million.
Billed as novelist Alistair MacLean’s first original television thriller, THE HOSTAGE TOWER found flamboyant master criminal Keir Dullea and several specialists staging an audacious scheme to capture the Eiffel Tower and hold for ransom one of its visitors, the U.S. President’s mother (Celia Johnson). The head of a U.N. security force (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) tries to foil the plot.
Rémy Julienne was one of a dozen stunt people on the film. Claudio Guzmán directed the film, which aired on CBS on 13 May 1980. John Scott provided the unreleased score.