Éclair Journal

A preview of the show at the Champs-Élysées where the new Élysée Matignon is christened by Charles Boyer. The first outing of the '57 models. Luce Ferrer, smiling in the rain. Her godfather for the evening, Françoise Arnoul, to whom Charles Vanel will give his reply; Pierre-Louis have come to admire the charms of the newest of tomorrow's cars, whose features Françoise Arnoul eagerly explores. The reclining seat with instant adjustment is undoubtedly an excellent means of relaxation to cope with the traffic jams that Paris faces, at least for the duration of the show. The police prefect launches an appeal to Parisian drivers on this subject: Each year, the motor-show period brings ever-increasing difficulties for the Prefect of Police. I hope that motorists will facilitate our task by accepting a discipline of which they will be the first beneficiaries. At the end of its first season of existence and official work, the Saint-Yan patrol takes to the air again to continue daily training, prelude to next year's big meeting. Four instructors from the Saint-Yan National School thus perform each day, aboard the center's Stampe aircraft, group aerobatic figures which are for them both a presentation study and relaxation for experienced pilots. An imperceptible wing beat from the patrol leader and the figure is triggered. The earth turns beneath the aircraft that are now flying upside down. A curious sensation that would easily make one lose one's sense of verticals without serious training. An aerobatic patrol perfectly accustomed to seeing the earth and sky turn constantly around it. A privilege that the public is most often deprived of. For 10 years, the SNCF has profoundly modernized its network. The little branch line trains give way to diesel on the small lines. The great electric traction expresses exceed 120 km per hour. Two French machines reached 330 km per hour, winning the world record. Remote control has opened new possibilities for safety problems. More stable and comfortable cars entered service simultaneously. In the northeast, new electrifications allow hauling heavy trains of 1800 tons. It's not only the rolling stock that is being perfected, but also the track service. To enable this progress in speed, safety, and comfort, considerable technical means must be brought into play. And the public participates in these efforts through the 1955 loan that the SNCF launched for its equipment. Spectacular results will confirm the French network as one of the world's leading networks. With the film festival's opening, Venice has the great week of which the historic regattas contested on the Grand Canal are the major event. All the boats of the great city participate in the competition that will bring glory and honor to its winners. Not far from there, at the Lido, presentation galas take place continuously where Elsa Maxwell, the most feared of columnists, watches the present stars with a critical eye. Sophia Loren hardly seems to fear publicity while the Duchess of Windsor and the Duke attempt by all means to preserve a precarious incognito. The Palme d'Or goes to a Danish film, but Éclair Journal awards that of interpretation to an anonymous diver. Six haute couture models compete before a swarm of photographers in a foot race of a new kind over the 2.5 km separating the Arc de Triomphe from the Étoile to the Bois de Boulogne. The purpose of the competition not appearing clearly, the press was reduced to suppositions until the end when light is finally shed. To avoid Parisian traffic jams, imitate the ambassadors of fashion. Go on foot! Win the hearts of the officers, that's the police prefect's advice. With its bus depots closed and deserted, while surface transport personnel develop their demands, Paris once again experiences the paralyzing strike of part of its means of communication. Suburbanites are most affected, the rare replacement buses not being sufficient to handle all the traffic. Faced with a sudden influx of private cars, monster traffic jams are reborn where everyone gets annoyed to the point of forgetting the rule of silence. And while waiting for the end of the strike, ingenuity reigns supreme. Ingenuity also in Marseille where Mr. Poujade takes advantage of the inauguration of the annual fair to jam the streets and explain to his supporters his personal method of increasing the national budget deficit. More popular than that of the bus, the tax strike risks costing even more. A new submarine of the national navy, the Dauphin, is launched from the Cherbourg arsenal shipyards. The Undersecretary of State for the Navy attends the ceremony consecrating the renaissance of the Cherbourg workshops which launch with the Dauphin their 63rd submarine in 50 years. Third in a series of four to be completed within a year, the Dauphin, a 1300-ton unit armed with 8 torpedo tubes, will be able to cruise at 18 knots on the surface and 16 submerged. The extension of an American air base in the Tokyo suburbs is at the origin of the most serious xenophobic demonstration recorded since the end of the war in Japan. A crowd of peasants fearing expropriation of their land clashes at the edge of the airfield with important police forces and many wounded are soon counted in both camps. The demonstrators attempt to prohibit access to the field to work crews and the fight continues for several hours. The Parisian autumn season is open. Yves Montand, Roger Pigaut and a ram, straight from Les Halles, attend a great cinematographic premiere where butcher boys and schoolteachers, occasional classmates of the film's heroes, are invited alongside numerous female stars and Eddy Constantine, always animated by the famous symbolic fork thrust. What a mess!