2023-08-04 11:10:35
In 1985, the music video for “La ballade de Jim” by Alain Souchon was released. A clip that exists in particular thanks to the contribution of Claude-Alain Briod, mechanic in Pomy (VD) specialized in American vehicles. He remembers the incredible filming in Corsica for the RTS.
In the clip for “La ballade de Jim”, Alain Souchon plays several roles: paramedic, gas station attendant, mechanic, bartender and the character of Jimmy, a boat mechanic from the singer’s imagination. “Jimmy is a mechanic on a boat in the port of Calvi who repairs a speedboat to take his darling on it. She crashes it and he freaks out, drinks and leaves with his car. Then the Chrysler flies away ferns and water lilies'”, remembers for the RTS Claude-Alain Briod, Vaudois mechanic specializing in American cars and their repair.
Dream vehicles
The story begins in 1985. Claude-Alain Briod and his team work with director Philippe Bensoussan and the Shell brand, for which they build a dragster. Satisfied, the director contacts them again to shoot Alain Souchon’s clip. “He was looking for American cars and he knew that we had beautiful models”, recalls the Vaudois. However, Philippe Bensoussan also needs someone who can perform stunts. “We were pretty pumped up, we weren’t afraid of anything. We said yes!” he said laughing.
>> To watch: the clip of Alain Souchon’s “La ballade de Jim”
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The mechanics provide the director with an ambulance from the 1970s, “borrowed from a friend who had an ambulance business in Lausanne”, a Chrysler, “which we did not have. We cheated with my personal car, a Satellite Sebring from 1971” and finally, for the stunt, a Plymouth Barracuda, “a wreck from 1964 or 1965 which was lying behind the garage and which we prepared”, specifies Claude-Alain Briod.
A mechanic turned stuntman
For the stunt, the vehicle must do a glide. The total unknown for Claude-Alain Briod at the time. After reflection, the team decides to build a springboard for the car to launch into the air. In the vehicle, only a dummy is present. “There were two of us in the Sebring Satellite in the back, which had a sunroof. We drove the car in front with two cables that ran through the trunk, under the seat and down to the steering wheel. The principle of the old soapbox that we drive with two cords!” remembers the mechanic who became a stuntman for the occasion.
Thanks to the skill and luck of the two co-pilots, the Plymouth Barracuda took off and passed in front of the setting sun. After six seconds of gliding, the car landed at the bottom of a ravine “where it joined three of its fellow creatures who had been hanging out there for many years. It stayed there anyway! We tried to remove it, but the gendarmerie told us to leave it there.”
Interview by Théo Chavaillaz
Adaptation web: Myriam Semaani
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