Rendezvous (1985)

Directed by: André Techiné | 79 minutes | drama, eroticism, romance | Actors: Lambert Wilson, Juliette Binoche, Wadeck Stanczak, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Dominique Lavanant, Anne Wiazemsky, Jean-Louis Vitrac, Philippe Landoulsi, Olimpia Carlisi

On the internet movie database (imdb.com), ‘Rendezvous’ is characterized as a provocative erotic drama, but it also seems as if the makers took this description as a starting point and then paid too little attention to issues such as credibility and coherence. The individual scenes usually come across as genuine, but as a whole there seems to be something missing. A soul, or at least a satisfying deepening of one or more characters. The film contains just a bit too much drama and just a bit too much eroticism – which here equates to naked bodies (especially Binoche’s); it doesn’t really get exciting anywhere. The four main characters are actually all (potentially) interesting, but unfortunately get very little time to “tell” their story. This is also an almost impossible task in a film that lasts less than eighty minutes.

Director André Téchiné won the prize for best director at the Cannes Film Festival for ‘Rendez-vous’. There is indeed little wrong with the way in which the images are presented or with what the viewer sees. It couldn’t have been filmed much better or more stylishly. The actors also play their roles well, and seem to have mastered the characters they have to play well. The problem lies mainly in what the viewer does not get to see and in the accumulation of the different stories. The story of Paulot (Wadeck Stanczak) and Nina (Juliette Binoche) is enough for a two-hour film. The initially mild-mannered young man falls in love with Nina and wants to make her completely his own and then, probably fascinated by her promiscuous reputation, takes his sexual advances a little too far as she loves, or wants to love him, in a more platonic way and just needs a real friend who isn’t out for sex. When this sex finally comes, it’s too late, and it seems to happen because it’s all that stands between them and it’s a precondition for saving this friendship. Which then kills. Why exactly and whether there were really sufficient reasons for this is doubtful. We would like to get some more information to really care about these characters. Nina herself, for example, also seems lost and in search of real, unconditional love, but somehow the sex, or her chaotic nature, always gets in the way. Or something else? We don’t know exactly but would like to know when her tears sometimes run down her cheeks.

Her explosive yet tender relationship with the manic-depressive or at least fatalistic and elusive Quentin is no less interesting but even more sketchy than that with Paulot. In addition, his (former) job as an actor is a bit too coincidental and his current work in a kind of erotic theater thematically too easy. It all fits in perfectly seamlessly with the issues and interests in Nina’s life. Finally, theater director Scrutzler’s entry into Nina’s story and life, although his relationship with her is sensitive and reveals deeper, interesting layers (a father-daughter relationship, for example), is just a bit too much. Too much artistry and merging pasts. But again, here too the story in itself would be interesting enough for an entire movie. It’s a shame that nowhere is a complete story told and we have to make do with what we are given.

With the right choices or a longer running time, ‘Rendez-Vous’ could have turned into a gripping drama. Now, unfortunately, only the beginnings of fascinating relationships pass by, which, because of their accumulation, seem a bit more artificial than gripping. This usually keeps the drama too flat (and the nude too gratuitous). The film is still worth watching – if only to see how beautiful it could have been – but unfortunately leaves a little too much.