From slapstick to spying, the 2CV was a versatile film star

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The motion picture has a tremendous power to educate and inform. Films have been made which transport the viewer to the Roman Empire and Tudor courts, and from the wilds of Africa to the gritty docks of New Jersey, all from the comfort of an armchair. Well-researched and intelligently crafted films have made a laudable contribution to the spread of knowledge and ideas. Then again, there are some films which just have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Too much cinema could, for example, lead you to the conclusion that the Citroën 2CV was driven exclusively by attractive if slightly unhinged French women whose driving style was a blend of outright speed and general ineptitude.

This short film shows what must be the 2CV's most famous cinematic appearance, the car chase in 1981's For Your Eyes Only, in which it is driven onto its side by Melina Havelock, an Anglo-Greek character played by Carole Bouquet with her native French accent, who has sworn to avenge the murder of her father. James Bond, chivalrous as ever, helpfully takes the wheel after her little mishap and the film progresses as all Bond films do.

Doubtless the producers of For Your Eyes Only envisaged some considerable comic value in placing Bond behind the wheel of an 'upturned pram', but not as much as the French makers of the 1960s Gendarme series of slapstick comedy films, starring Louis de Funès as a hapless gendarme and France Rumilly as Sœur Clotilde, an insane nun with a penchant for fast driving.

We can confirm that many 2CVs are, in fact, driven by perfectly normal, sensible people, but all the ones we know do have one thing in common with Sœur Clotilde - a sense of humour without which ownership of a 'tin snail' wouldn't be half as much fun. If you haven't been in a 2CV before, sit back and let Clotilde take you for a ride...

Words: Zack Stiling
 

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