For designers, there are few things more daunting than sketching in silence.  Most need some music, casual conversation or something else to fill the void around them.  A few take this one step further, filling the void with something specific that sets the tone for their work.  Enter the phenomenon of the background film — one that you watch out of the corner of your eye.  Le Mans is one of these films.

Some movies have a narrative that requires your full attention.  If you make a trip to the kitchen or the bathroom during these films, you’ll be completely lost when you come back.  Other films have virtually no narrative, let alone a discernable plot.  Le Mans is the story of a ficticious 24 Hours of Le Mans.  Period.  Sure, there are backstories for each of the main characters.  But these details are so thinly sketched that they have no real impact on the outcome of the movie.  They mainly serve to divide one racing scene from another.  Normally, such a vapid screenplay would be a bad thing, but in a background film situation, who cares?  You’re not watching this film to see Elga Andersen and Steve McQueen in awkward moments of silence.  You’re watching it to see and hear the cars!  You’ve heard the old saying, “It’s the economy, stupid!”  Well, “It’s the cars, stupid!”  It’s just that simple.

Well, I suppose there is one other story in Le Mans:  Porsche vs. Ferrari.  Or, if you prefer, Ferrari vs. Porsche.  Either way, it gives some much-needed identity to the main characters (the kind you can gather out of the corner of your eye, at any rate).  Michael Delaney (played by McQueen) is co-driving one of the three Gulf Porsche 917s in the race.  The iconic blue and orange machines, 20, 21 and 22, are distinguishable by number, but also by paint scheme:  Delaney’s number 20 has an orange stripe down the middle that wraps around the front.  21 has the same orange stripe, but it stops just short of the front end.  22 has an orange greenhouse with a powder blue body.  Racing teams employ small details like this that they can see at speed, so they don’t necessarily have to read the numbers.  Remember the yellow tabs F1 Ferraris used to have on their wings?  Same idea, different execution.

Since McQueen is driving a Porsche, it’s no big surprise that his team is cast in the protagonist’s role – which makes the Ferrari team the defacto antagonist, or villain.  This doesn’t mean the race is an allegory for the struggle between good and evil.  But the protagonist/antagonist dynamic, intentional or not, is definitely there.  The same feeling is present in Grand Prix, with a Ferrari team managed by Largo from Thunderball, minus the eye patch and dinner jacket.  For a brief time in Le Mans, the Gulf Porsches and Ferraris are outclassed by a privately-entered white Porsche.  The car has an air of mystery, since we never actually see the drivers on camera.  The rest of the entrants are random and meaningless, serving only as mobile roadblocks for the principle characters during the race.  They move at a snail’s pace compared to the 917s and Ferraris.  Frankly, they’re almost sleep-inducing.

But not to worry — there are several violent crashes along the way to keep us awake (one of them a complete surprise).  The collisions, while well-executed and well-edited, aren’t quite as dramatic as those in Grand Prix. Maybe this has something to do with open wheeled cars looking inherently more precarious.  At any rate, Le Mans does a good job portraying the energies and the danger involved in racing.  As a designer, I occasionally prefer sketching in a manner that communicates motion and energy.  Having an energetic film running in the background helps get me in the right mood.  This may be too abstract an association for some, but for me, and others, it’s vital.  The alternative is sketching in a veritable vacuum, which I don’t recommend.  Creativity needs stimuli like a plant needs water.

So hit up Netflix for Le Mans the next time you’re sketching race cars or sports cars.  Forget about the vapid plot and the flat acting; see if just having it on in the same room has some positive effect on your work.  Or try another film like Grand Prix.  You may be pleasantly surprised with the results.