Archives : Benoit

In 1988, Francis Ford Coppola brought renewed fame to Preston Tucker and his “Tucker Torpedo.” Ted Benoit was very interested in cars at that time and Champaka had the inspired idea of suggesting that he create a drawing on the subject. “I had quite a lot of documentation from my work with “Nitro” magazine” recalls the creator of “Ray Banana.” “In physical terms, Tucker was less appealing (though he might in fact have been just as appealing) than was Jeff Bridges in the film. What interested me most was this desire to achieve a goal, to show the crucial moment where you can say “that’s it, that’s the car” even if it hasn’t yet been constructed. By that I mean the drawing, the one by Alex Tremulis, the designer (with a moustache and wearing glasses)... It’s like that for me when I succeed with a good sketch. The image might only be there for me, but I can see that it’s there. It’s a moment of pure magic, and it’s a moment that I wanted to share. Given that the film was in colour, it seemed obvious to me that the image should be in black and white, which in a sense is truer than colour. The car is yellow, the surface areas of white are rendered as ivory, but that’s soon forgotten. It’s a step back into the more vivid black-and-white of 1940s cinema. It changed afterwards, it became colder and a bit more sad.”