Rendez-vous

Nina is a young novice actress who has travelled from her home in Toulouse to the French capital and has managed to secure a small part in a play produced by a local reparatory company.  After the ordeal of flat sharing she decides to find her own apartment. During this transitional period she meets a timid young real estate agent Paulot who immediately fall’s in love with this free-spirited young women and persuades her to share his flat while he is attempting to locate the right property for her. Already sharing Paulot's living space is Quentin an aggressive, emotionally disturbed actor who attempts to seduce Nina and encourage her to join him in his live sex show. Into this emotionally charged triangle steps the elderly theatrical director Scrutzier whose daughter died when she was involved with Quentin in a suicide pact from which he survived.

The film won an Award for Best Director at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival for Andre Techine, known by this blogger for his 2009 movie The Girl on a Train about an aimless girl who lies about being the victim of a hate crime. Rendez-vous (1985) is a dark and powerful story about relationships, love and sexual desire. It stars Juliette Binoche in her first leading role as Nina, French TV star Wadeck Stanczak as Paulot, Lambert Wilson, best known for Princess of Montpensier (2010) and Of Gods and Men (2010) is the ultra intense Quentin, with Amour (2012) co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant as Scrutzier. Techine co wrote the screenplay with another great French auteur Oliver Assayas.

 

The beginning of a intense and dangerous relationships.

An intense relationship drama between three emotionally scarred young people involving love and sexual desire and frustration with classic performances from all actors involved especially the young Binoche who really stands out. A high point in Andre Techine exceptional body of work: recommended.