11 Mar. 2011
The quirky supermini that was the Citroën 2CV not only inspired drivers to embrace smaller cars, but also captured the imagination of film-makers from a wide variety of genres. Here are five examples of the Citroën 2CV on the silver (or small!) screen.
1. Never Say Pink Furry Die, 1992
This 11-minute animated film from British director Louise Spraggon features kooky animations to go with the kooky title. The plot centres around a hungover woman who realises it is her wedding day, but a pink furry die stuck to her clothes indicates she may have had a night of misspent passion in a car. The car in question for her misadventures? The Citroën 2CV in squiggly animated form.
2. For Your Eyes Only, 1981
While James Bond is more accustomed to driving around in an Aston Martin, his adventures in For Your Eyes Only see him behind the wheel of a Lotus, but even that is upstaged by a cheeky yellow Citroën 2CV. In a classic car chase scene the 2CV is initially driven by Melina Havelock, played by Carol Bouquet, but Roger Moore’s Bond insists on taking over the driving after she rolls the car over. Bond also flips the car a few times but they still manage to outrun a pair of Peugeot 504s. Six 2CVs were used in the making of the film but it is believed that only one remains.
3. The Fantasist, 1989
This Irish thriller centres on a woman called Moira who starts receiving creepy phone-calls from a stranger when she moves from the countryside to Dublin. She is inexplicably drawn to the stranger even though she knows there have been a series of murders linked to a phone stalker. So while Moira’s taste in men is questionable, her tastes in transportation are evidently not as she gets around Dublin in a cute yellow and black 2CV.
4. Gumball 3000: 6 Days in May, 2005
Reflecting Citroën’s long history of motorsport, especially in endurance racing, Gumball 3000 is a documentary that follows the adventures of a group of drivers, including actor Adrien Brody, as they traverse Europe in a race that starts in London, ends in Cannes and is run on public roads. A bright red Citroën 2CV driven by John Docherty and Gary Lutke, two British artists, competes with such cars as Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches.
5. Revenge Of The Pink Panther, 1978
The Citroën 2CV featured in this comedy classic is painted silver with flames, features plastic wings and is nicknamed “The Silver Hornet” in a nod to the Green Hornet cartoon. It is driven by Peter Sellers who plays the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. However it was not the first 2CV to appear in a Pink Panther film, in 1975 a car chase in Return Of The Pink Panther featured a red 2CV van.
by Citroën UK